Jones Lang LaSalle
Mixing it up Monday, February 6, 2006
By PRASHANT GOPALSTAFF WRITER
Forecast '06
Imagine playing 18 holes of golf, grabbing dinner at a restaurant and heading over to the train station for a trip to Manhattan -- all without a car.
Or riding the elevator from your condo to the lobby of the hotel in the same building, and then taking a short stroll to the movie theater.
Thousands of commuters and empty nesters will soon be able to buy into this pedestrian-friendly lifestyle as builders spend billions on massive mixed-use projects from the Hudson River Gold Coast to the Meadowlands and beyond.
"Most people don't want to drive to the store for milk or travel 20 minutes for a newspaper.
People want life around them," said Ralph Zucker, president of Somerset Development, which is behind one of the more ambitious projects in the area, a community for about 2,500 people in Wood-Ridge. "The basic concept of a walkable community, and having friends and neighbors and needs and services around you, is coming back because it's logical."
And from a developer's perspective, it can also be profitable. The more homes, restaurants, and storefronts on a plot of land, the more valuable it is. With land increasingly scarce, developers are remaking former industrial sites and expanses of environmentally contaminated landscapes into clean, densely packed developments.
Also, the political climate is favoring such projects these days, as New Jersey seeks to concentrate building in more urban areas and limit the sprawl into farmland and woods.
Plus the mixed-use developments tend to be accessible to one of the world's most famous pedestrian communities -- Manhattan -- by train, bus or ferry. Several of the projects will include new train stations.
All the projects plan to distinguish themselves by giving consumers (whether they be shoppers or home buyers) something extra so they stay a little longer or spend a little more.
In Englewood, for instance, where developers are putting up condos and apartments off Route 4, they're also building a health club and stores. The logic is that the home buyers will appreciate the access, and the retailers will have a built-in customer base.
At the EnCap golf village in the Meadowlands, residents of new apartments and condos will be able to walk to new golf courses, shops and a rail station. Much of the complex is being built on former landfills.
A few miles away, the Meadowlands Xanadu retail and entertainment complex is every bit as ambitious. One of the few major North Jersey projects that does not involve housing, Xanadu is conceived to have enough variety to keep every member of a family busy, and spending, for hours. It is scheduled to include a 160,000-square-foot movie complex, a 1940s-style bowling center, a Ferris wheel, a skydiving simulator and vertical wind tunnel and a 140-foot indoor skiing dome.
And New Jerseyans who are used to driving to sports events where they are surrounded only by parking lots are also in for a new experience.
The football stadium being built at the Meadowlands for the Jets and Giants is part of a larger project designed to get fans to arrive early and stay late on game day, and even visit during the rest of the year. The complex will likely feature half a million square feet of space dedicated to entertainment, retail, sports medicine, health and fitness.
The $160 million MetroStars soccer stadium project is part of a 275-acre redevelopment project in Harrison that is expected to feature 6,000 homes, 3.5 million-square-feet of offices and 1.2 million square feet of retail.
The Newark hockey arena planned for the New Jersey Devils will also be part of a larger project that includes a 300-room hotel and – in later phases – houses, offices and stores.
While most of these projects are years away from completion, mixed-use communities have already started to make an appearance in New Jersey, especially on waterfront property.
At the Jersey Shore, for example, developers are putting final touches on the 15-acre Pier Village in Long Branch. The project includes 420 apartments along the ocean, 100,000 square feet of commercial space and an upscale business area, which has boutiques, restaurants and a small outdoor skating rink.
On the Gold Coast, the waterfront is home to City Place in Edgewater, where condos overlooking the Hudson River are a short walk from trendy shops, restaurants, a gym and a hotel.
And the first stages have been completed at Port Imperial, a planned urban community extending from Weehawken to Guttenberg that could eventually encompass 6,000 homes, a million square feet of offices and 300,000 square feet of retail.
Scott Selleck, a broker with New Jersey Gold Coast Real Estate in North Bergen, said new retail will make the Gold Coast more attractive.
"The biggest weakness on the Gold Coast is that there was not a lot of ... restaurants for people to eat, and people went to Hoboken and Edgewater to shop," Selleck said. "The new retail will make it more attractive. It's going to create the ability for people to live and shop in the community where they live without driving."
Developers have the same idea for Fort Lee, where they envision a mix of 800-plus residences, a hotel, offices and shops on 16 acres near the George Washington Bridge.
Although North Jerseyans have heard of optimistic plans like these for years, they can now expect to see backhoes and payloaders at work. Here's a look at some of major projects that have already begun or will be under way this year:
EnCap Golf in Rutherford, Lyndhurst and North Arlington
EnCap is envisioned as a sort of "Greenwich Village" surrounded by two or three golf courses, said William H. Gauger, president of EnCap Golf. The homes will likely resemble two-story brownstones and, adding to the pedestrian-friendly concept, parking will be hidden below ground, he said.
EnCap is expected to eventually have stores, restaurants, a hotel, a new train stop and more than 4,000 homes – half of which will be restricted to residents who are at least 55 years old.
The $3 billion project will cover 1,300 acres – much of it made up of landfills that the developer is capping and surrounding with underground walls to keep pollution from seeping out. Gauger said that when it's completed around 2012, it will be the largest brownfield redevelopment project in the United States.
The landfills – now strewn with decades-old trash – are to be capped with about 10 million tons of dirt. The golf courses built on garbage will have panoramic views of the New York City skyline.
The project's architect is Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, who was involved with the development of the 10-year-old Celebration, Fla., a new urban community with white picket fences, front stoops and a downtown meant to resemble a small Southeastern town with pre-1940s architecture.
New urban communities often try to replicate the architecture and feeling of old towns. Homes are close to the curb, parking is hidden, sidewalks are wide and stores are a walk away.
"It's going to be a completely different view for people coming into New Jersey," Gauger said. "Instead of seeing landfills, they are going to see golf courses, shopping centers and communities of the future."
Meadowlands Xanadu, East Rutherford
This will be a busy year at the Meadowlands sports complex -- with the construction of the outer portion of the Xanadu entertainment and retail project, the start of construction on the Pascack Valley rail link, and the finalization of the developmental details for a $1 billion football stadium that will be built by the Jets and Giants.
The 2.7-million-square-foot, $1.3 billion Xanadu complex is scheduled to open in late 2007 with five districts: sports, entertainment, food and home, children's education, and fashion. The office section of the project (about 1.8 million square feet) is on hold until the office market improves, but other work is well under way.
Not everyone, however, is convinced that the project will move forward as planned. Some analysts are questioning whether Virginia-based Mills Corp., Xanadu's lead developer, will be distracted by a recent spate of financial problems including a plummeting stock price and several canceled projects.
Still, there has been no sign of a slowdown at the site.
"Throughout the spring and summer, you'll see the structure of the building rise," said Dan Haggarty, senior vice president of development for The Mills Corp. "By the end of 2006, we would have hopefully completed the majority of the structure and have a good portion of the exterior skin put on."
Demolition work for the $150 million rail link on the stadium side of Route 120 began in late 2005, and New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority President George Zoffinger says he still hopes to have the first trains arriving in the Meadowlands in late 2007.Xanadu and the rail link are to be joined by the opening of a new stadium in 2010.
New York Jets President Jay Cross said the combination of the three new projects will produce a stunning change to the North Jersey landscape.
"Five years from now, people will see something that's never been done before," Cross said.
Wesmont Station project, Wood-Ridge
Construction is expected to start this spring on the Wesmont Station development at the former Curtiss-Wright airplane factory site in Wood-Ridge. The estimated $400 million project is expected to be anchored by a new train station along the Bergen Line and will feature 737 homes, including detached units, town houses, condominiums, active-adult homes and apartments. Plans also call for 70,000 square feet of retail, 40,000 square feet of offices, a town square and 8 acres of ballfields.
The project will likely start taking shape in the spring. It will be developed in phases over the next several years. People could start moving in by 2007, said John Knifton, vice president of development for Somerset Development.
Centuria, Fort Lee
Ground was broken in late 2005, and construction on Centuria is expected to start by the middle of this year. It will include more than 800 units, a condo-hotel and 100,000 square feet of retail. The developer, Town & Country, has agreed to build a movie theater for the borough that will likely be located within walking distance of the development.
On the eastern portion, the project will have 611 residential units, including town houses and high-rises, plus 16,000 square feet of retail space.
On the western side, the developer is planning 90,000 square feet of office space, about 94,000 square feet of retail space, a conference center, 151 residential units on top of the retail space and a 19-story hotel with 60 three-bedroom condos on the upper floors.
The first phase of the project, which is valued at $600 million to $700 million, could open as soon as 2007. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in 2011.
Englewood Commons and Flatrock Square, Englewood
On the north side of Route 4, developers envision 350 apartments and 13,000-square-feet of retail in Englewood Commons. A 30,000-square-foot health club was recently completed there. And the developers have approval for a 200,000-square-foot office building.
Another project, known as Flatrock Square, on the south side of Route 4 has also been approved. It is to include 399 condos, an office building, a hotel and 4,000 square feet of retail.
The projects, estimated at more than $200 million combined, are both being developed by S. Hekemian Group and MDK.
The first set of apartments will be completed over the next 18 months, said Michael Kasparian of MDK.
"When people drive down Route 4 now, they'll know Englewood is a state-of-the-art community rather than industrial wasteland," Kasparian said.
Staff Writers John Brennan and Kevin G. DeMarrais contributed to this article. E-mail: gopal@northjersey.com
Mixing it up Monday, February 6, 2006
By PRASHANT GOPALSTAFF WRITER
Forecast '06
Imagine playing 18 holes of golf, grabbing dinner at a restaurant and heading over to the train station for a trip to Manhattan -- all without a car.
Or riding the elevator from your condo to the lobby of the hotel in the same building, and then taking a short stroll to the movie theater.
Thousands of commuters and empty nesters will soon be able to buy into this pedestrian-friendly lifestyle as builders spend billions on massive mixed-use projects from the Hudson River Gold Coast to the Meadowlands and beyond.
"Most people don't want to drive to the store for milk or travel 20 minutes for a newspaper.
People want life around them," said Ralph Zucker, president of Somerset Development, which is behind one of the more ambitious projects in the area, a community for about 2,500 people in Wood-Ridge. "The basic concept of a walkable community, and having friends and neighbors and needs and services around you, is coming back because it's logical."
And from a developer's perspective, it can also be profitable. The more homes, restaurants, and storefronts on a plot of land, the more valuable it is. With land increasingly scarce, developers are remaking former industrial sites and expanses of environmentally contaminated landscapes into clean, densely packed developments.
Also, the political climate is favoring such projects these days, as New Jersey seeks to concentrate building in more urban areas and limit the sprawl into farmland and woods.
Plus the mixed-use developments tend to be accessible to one of the world's most famous pedestrian communities -- Manhattan -- by train, bus or ferry. Several of the projects will include new train stations.
All the projects plan to distinguish themselves by giving consumers (whether they be shoppers or home buyers) something extra so they stay a little longer or spend a little more.
In Englewood, for instance, where developers are putting up condos and apartments off Route 4, they're also building a health club and stores. The logic is that the home buyers will appreciate the access, and the retailers will have a built-in customer base.
At the EnCap golf village in the Meadowlands, residents of new apartments and condos will be able to walk to new golf courses, shops and a rail station. Much of the complex is being built on former landfills.
A few miles away, the Meadowlands Xanadu retail and entertainment complex is every bit as ambitious. One of the few major North Jersey projects that does not involve housing, Xanadu is conceived to have enough variety to keep every member of a family busy, and spending, for hours. It is scheduled to include a 160,000-square-foot movie complex, a 1940s-style bowling center, a Ferris wheel, a skydiving simulator and vertical wind tunnel and a 140-foot indoor skiing dome.
And New Jerseyans who are used to driving to sports events where they are surrounded only by parking lots are also in for a new experience.
The football stadium being built at the Meadowlands for the Jets and Giants is part of a larger project designed to get fans to arrive early and stay late on game day, and even visit during the rest of the year. The complex will likely feature half a million square feet of space dedicated to entertainment, retail, sports medicine, health and fitness.
The $160 million MetroStars soccer stadium project is part of a 275-acre redevelopment project in Harrison that is expected to feature 6,000 homes, 3.5 million-square-feet of offices and 1.2 million square feet of retail.
The Newark hockey arena planned for the New Jersey Devils will also be part of a larger project that includes a 300-room hotel and – in later phases – houses, offices and stores.
While most of these projects are years away from completion, mixed-use communities have already started to make an appearance in New Jersey, especially on waterfront property.
At the Jersey Shore, for example, developers are putting final touches on the 15-acre Pier Village in Long Branch. The project includes 420 apartments along the ocean, 100,000 square feet of commercial space and an upscale business area, which has boutiques, restaurants and a small outdoor skating rink.
On the Gold Coast, the waterfront is home to City Place in Edgewater, where condos overlooking the Hudson River are a short walk from trendy shops, restaurants, a gym and a hotel.
And the first stages have been completed at Port Imperial, a planned urban community extending from Weehawken to Guttenberg that could eventually encompass 6,000 homes, a million square feet of offices and 300,000 square feet of retail.
Scott Selleck, a broker with New Jersey Gold Coast Real Estate in North Bergen, said new retail will make the Gold Coast more attractive.
"The biggest weakness on the Gold Coast is that there was not a lot of ... restaurants for people to eat, and people went to Hoboken and Edgewater to shop," Selleck said. "The new retail will make it more attractive. It's going to create the ability for people to live and shop in the community where they live without driving."
Developers have the same idea for Fort Lee, where they envision a mix of 800-plus residences, a hotel, offices and shops on 16 acres near the George Washington Bridge.
Although North Jerseyans have heard of optimistic plans like these for years, they can now expect to see backhoes and payloaders at work. Here's a look at some of major projects that have already begun or will be under way this year:
EnCap Golf in Rutherford, Lyndhurst and North Arlington
EnCap is envisioned as a sort of "Greenwich Village" surrounded by two or three golf courses, said William H. Gauger, president of EnCap Golf. The homes will likely resemble two-story brownstones and, adding to the pedestrian-friendly concept, parking will be hidden below ground, he said.
EnCap is expected to eventually have stores, restaurants, a hotel, a new train stop and more than 4,000 homes – half of which will be restricted to residents who are at least 55 years old.
The $3 billion project will cover 1,300 acres – much of it made up of landfills that the developer is capping and surrounding with underground walls to keep pollution from seeping out. Gauger said that when it's completed around 2012, it will be the largest brownfield redevelopment project in the United States.
The landfills – now strewn with decades-old trash – are to be capped with about 10 million tons of dirt. The golf courses built on garbage will have panoramic views of the New York City skyline.
The project's architect is Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, who was involved with the development of the 10-year-old Celebration, Fla., a new urban community with white picket fences, front stoops and a downtown meant to resemble a small Southeastern town with pre-1940s architecture.
New urban communities often try to replicate the architecture and feeling of old towns. Homes are close to the curb, parking is hidden, sidewalks are wide and stores are a walk away.
"It's going to be a completely different view for people coming into New Jersey," Gauger said. "Instead of seeing landfills, they are going to see golf courses, shopping centers and communities of the future."
Meadowlands Xanadu, East Rutherford
This will be a busy year at the Meadowlands sports complex -- with the construction of the outer portion of the Xanadu entertainment and retail project, the start of construction on the Pascack Valley rail link, and the finalization of the developmental details for a $1 billion football stadium that will be built by the Jets and Giants.
The 2.7-million-square-foot, $1.3 billion Xanadu complex is scheduled to open in late 2007 with five districts: sports, entertainment, food and home, children's education, and fashion. The office section of the project (about 1.8 million square feet) is on hold until the office market improves, but other work is well under way.
Not everyone, however, is convinced that the project will move forward as planned. Some analysts are questioning whether Virginia-based Mills Corp., Xanadu's lead developer, will be distracted by a recent spate of financial problems including a plummeting stock price and several canceled projects.
Still, there has been no sign of a slowdown at the site.
"Throughout the spring and summer, you'll see the structure of the building rise," said Dan Haggarty, senior vice president of development for The Mills Corp. "By the end of 2006, we would have hopefully completed the majority of the structure and have a good portion of the exterior skin put on."
Demolition work for the $150 million rail link on the stadium side of Route 120 began in late 2005, and New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority President George Zoffinger says he still hopes to have the first trains arriving in the Meadowlands in late 2007.Xanadu and the rail link are to be joined by the opening of a new stadium in 2010.
New York Jets President Jay Cross said the combination of the three new projects will produce a stunning change to the North Jersey landscape.
"Five years from now, people will see something that's never been done before," Cross said.
Wesmont Station project, Wood-Ridge
Construction is expected to start this spring on the Wesmont Station development at the former Curtiss-Wright airplane factory site in Wood-Ridge. The estimated $400 million project is expected to be anchored by a new train station along the Bergen Line and will feature 737 homes, including detached units, town houses, condominiums, active-adult homes and apartments. Plans also call for 70,000 square feet of retail, 40,000 square feet of offices, a town square and 8 acres of ballfields.
The project will likely start taking shape in the spring. It will be developed in phases over the next several years. People could start moving in by 2007, said John Knifton, vice president of development for Somerset Development.
Centuria, Fort Lee
Ground was broken in late 2005, and construction on Centuria is expected to start by the middle of this year. It will include more than 800 units, a condo-hotel and 100,000 square feet of retail. The developer, Town & Country, has agreed to build a movie theater for the borough that will likely be located within walking distance of the development.
On the eastern portion, the project will have 611 residential units, including town houses and high-rises, plus 16,000 square feet of retail space.
On the western side, the developer is planning 90,000 square feet of office space, about 94,000 square feet of retail space, a conference center, 151 residential units on top of the retail space and a 19-story hotel with 60 three-bedroom condos on the upper floors.
The first phase of the project, which is valued at $600 million to $700 million, could open as soon as 2007. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in 2011.
Englewood Commons and Flatrock Square, Englewood
On the north side of Route 4, developers envision 350 apartments and 13,000-square-feet of retail in Englewood Commons. A 30,000-square-foot health club was recently completed there. And the developers have approval for a 200,000-square-foot office building.
Another project, known as Flatrock Square, on the south side of Route 4 has also been approved. It is to include 399 condos, an office building, a hotel and 4,000 square feet of retail.
The projects, estimated at more than $200 million combined, are both being developed by S. Hekemian Group and MDK.
The first set of apartments will be completed over the next 18 months, said Michael Kasparian of MDK.
"When people drive down Route 4 now, they'll know Englewood is a state-of-the-art community rather than industrial wasteland," Kasparian said.
Staff Writers John Brennan and Kevin G. DeMarrais contributed to this article. E-mail: gopal@northjersey.com
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 11:01 AM
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