SILVERMAN’s newest building, Swift & Co. at 220 9th St., has brought an additional 59 apartments and 80,000 square feet of commercial space to Jersey City’s Hamilton Park neighborhood. — Courtesy: SILVERMAN
There aren’t many who give a tour like Paul Silverman, who glides from building to building in Jersey City’s Hamilton Park section, greeting business owners by name, seamlessly introducing them and rattling off stories of how they arrived in the neighborhood. All of it with the kind of genuine pride and interest you’d expect from someone who, along with his brother Eric, has spent four decades helping to improve the area through thoughtful redevelopment projects.
As you’ll read in this month’s cover story, the firm known as SILVERMAN is marking its latest milestone in Hamilton Park with a new mixed-use project just off the five-acre green space. Known as Swift & Co., the nine-story building houses 59 apartments and 80,000 square feet of commercial space that’s now fully leased to a mix of office and retail users, plus an upscale, 20,000-square-foot coworking lounge that’s home to dozens of other entrepreneurs and much-needed event space for the community. It’s the Silverman brothers’ latest addition to a neighborhood where they’ve built some 500 residential units and 150,000 square feet of commercial space over 35 years, doing so with a highly visible, hands-on style and high level of engagement with their tenants that has fostered an ecosystem where many residents live and work.
Our April issue also includes our coverage of an event earlier this year hosted by Morris Arts, the nonprofit that enjoys broad support from commercial real estate leaders in the region, where panelists explored how art and design in spaces can make people healthier and happier. That’s essential in hospitals, where employees and visitors can feel vulnerable or overwhelmed. Speakers also pointed to the role of wellness and social spaces in office buildings, noting that design is increasingly important as companies look to attract talent and enforce return-to-office mandates.
Elsewhere in this edition, we highlight a long-simmering legal battle over a prime redevelopment site at Mahwah’s train station. An entity known as Mahwah Town Center Redevelopers LLC, an affiliate of JMF Properties and MJC Capital, has long hoped to replicate the type of mixed-use, transit-oriented projects that the firms have built across the state, yet they say they’ve been stymied by years of stall tactics and legal obstructions by municipal officials, often without explanation or justification. Those tensions came to a head recently when the town designated the 3.8-acre site as a blighted or so-called condemnation redevelopment area, allowing the governing body to acquire it through eminent domain. Litigation is now well underway after the developers sued to overturn the designation, which they say is unnecessary because of their intentions for the property and illegal under the state’s redevelopment law.
You can find those stories and more in the latest issue of Real Estate NJ, as we kick off the second quarter with a mixed economic picture. The turmoil at the macroeconomic level is undeniable, but it comes amid continued activity and even enthusiasm in some corners of our local market. We’ll see how it plays out in the months ahead as we continue to bring you the latest here at Real Estate NJ.
Until then, thanks for reading. Enjoy the issue!
Joshua Burd
Editor
