(The following article by Steve Chambers was circulated by Newhouse News Service on November 10.)
HOBOKEN, N.J. — Just a few years ago, the west side of Hoboken was a real-estate backwater.
Unlike the town’s booming waterfront, the neighborhoods beneath the Palisades were dominated by housing projects, abandoned factories and desolate streets. But NJ Transit’s decision to run a light rail line through the depressed area has had a dramatic effect: New luxury buildings are sprouting around two rail stops that opened last year, attracting artists and affluent new residents.
The same thing is happening up and down the 5-year-old Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line. Developers and speculators are scrambling for the chance to rejuvenate older industrial properties and aging apartments along the 19-mile line that runs from Union City to Bayonne.
Jan Wells, a researcher at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, said the rail line running down Essex Street in Jersey City has spawned 3,000 residential units in five years.
Farther south, two stops on the line anchor a massive overhaul of the former Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne, which eventually could bring stores, hotels, office space and thousands of residential units to the 430 acres rechristened the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor.
“Rail is what makes these projects go,” said Jersey City Planning Director Robert Cotter. “It gives investors the confidence that is needed, because it can’t be taken away like a bus line.”
One of the best places to see the transformation is an 86-acre tract bordering Liberty State Park. The cement foundations for a $2 billion mix of townhouses and high-rises – known as Liberty Harbor North – are rising near the light-rail stop. A decade from now, its builders say, the site will have 6,000 residential units and millions of square feet of office and retail space.
Just southwest of Liberty Harbor North is the next frontier, the tougher neighborhood of Lafayette, where speculators and large-scale developers like Pulte Homes are vying for properties on or near the rail line.
This is what happened about five years ago in Hoboken.
Jason Cohen, 33, bought a two-bedroom condominium in one of the new buildings three years ago, knowing that his commute to Manhattan would soon improve.
“The promise of light rail was definitely part of the decision,” said Cohen, the creative director in a graphic design firm. “You can’t get much more convenient.”
Joe North, NJ Transit’s general manager of light rail, said new residents bode well for the line, which cost $2.2 billion to build and is serving 25,000 daily riders.