Jones Lang LaSalle


20 years of Newport

Landmark 600-acre waterfront community celebrates anniversary
Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer

The Jersey City community of Newport includes 600 acres of waterfront land, 3,922 residential units, and a major shopping mall, all between 18th Street and Sixth Street.

Over the last 20 years, it has also seen a variety of office buildings, a private elementary school, and a child care center. There are high-end restaurants, a yacht club and marina, and several small parks and playgrounds.

And it all started when New York developer Samuel LeFrak put a shovel in the ground near the Jersey City waterfront on June 4, 1986.

He had completed numerous residential projects in New York City since the 1950s. Now he has built an area of New Jersey teeming with young professionals and shoppers who enjoy views of the Manhattan skyline.

Starting Monday, Newport will kick off its 20th Anniversary celebration with the introduction of a new logo, website (www.Newport20.com) and in-mall Satellite Information Center. Over the next two months, there will be various events culminating on June 3 with the 20th Anniversary Celebration at Newport Town Square.

The company will also be looking to the future, as there is a northeastern quadrant of their property near the Hoboken-Jersey City border that is still undeveloped.
Seeing it from the beginning

The city secured, during the administration of former mayor Gerald McCann, a $40 million federal grant to construct the sewers and roads before housing and retail space was built. Young Jamie LeFrak was only 12 when the groundbreaking took place. LeFrak is now 32 and an executive within the company who is organizing the 20th anniversary celebration. (The F is capitalized in the family's last name but not in the name of the company.)

LeFrak remembers what was there before Newport.

"I remember I was driven around the waterfront when it was just abandoned, and it was pretty dangerous," said LeFrak last week. "Kind of beat-up with junkyard dogs roaming around free. It really was a no-man's land."

Now, LeFrak said, "Newport has served as the catalyst for the rest of the waterfront development for Jersey City. And it has changed the public's perception from 1986 thinking it's a dangerous place to more recent time with people thinking of it as a premier destination."

Bill Wissemann, project engineer for Newport, goes back with the project to 1984, when he was working for an engineering firm retained by the Lefrak Organization.

"The first time I came, I saw a sea of mud, and most of the warehouse buildings in the area had been demolished," said Wissemann. "In fact, they were shooting an adult movie."

Cucci said he has come to appreciate Newport all these years later. He said it was an easy relationship between the city and the LeFraks, especially when he was mayor from 1985 to 1989.

"I remember that Sam LeFrak came into my office and started yelling at me because I wanted them to put references to Jersey City on their development, since they were emphasizing this Newport City concept," said Cucci. "I told him to take his shovel and go home. And wouldn't you know it, about 24 hours later, they put Jersey City on every sign."

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com

©The Hudson Reporter 2006