Hoboken's Luxury-Condo Builders Get Lifeline From New Residents
Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando helped make Hoboken, New Jersey, famous. Now designer Michael Graves and builder Robert Toll are making the waterfront town across the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan a haven for the rich and famous.
Hoboken, a city with working-class roots, long served as a refuge of junior Wall Street analysts. Its newer residents include Governor Jon Corzine and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, as builders convert apartments into luxury condominiums with fitness clubs, doormen and shuttles to New York City-bound trains and ferries.
Demand for condos in the square-mile city of 40,000 residents is a lifeline for builders such as Toll Brothers Inc. that are weathering a yearlong decline in the U.S. housing market. Horsham, Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers has three condo projects under way in Hoboken. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. already has sold 33 of the 37 condo units in the W Hoboken, a luxury hotel that it plans to open next year.
``We're killing 'em in Hoboken,'' Chief Executive Officer Robert Toll said at a March conference in Las Vegas.
Nancy Chin, who was born and raised in New York, said she recently purchased a one-bedroom waterfront condo with an oversized terrace at Toll Brothers' Hudson Tea development in Hoboken. Those units start at $600,000.
``We always loved the city, but we wanted to be on this side,'' said Chin, 57, a real-estate agent and empty nester. ``Over there, you would have a view of a wall.''
Corzine's Abode
Corzine, a former chief executive officer of Goldman, Sachs & Co., moved to a rental in Hudson Tea when he was divorcing in 2002. He may run state affairs from the condo or from the governor's mansion in Princeton when he is released from the hospital following his April 12 automobile crash, said Tom Shea, his chief of staff.
At Hudson Tea, where Manning also lives, a 1,300-square-foot (120-square-meter) two-bedroom condo with cherry hardwood floors, gourmet kitchen with six-burner stove, marble bath, and 13-foot (4-meter) ceilings goes for $1.5 million. That's about $1,154 a square foot. Manhattan condos sold for an average of $1,142 a square foot last year, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc.
Hudson Tea has a residents' club with a theater, fireplace and business center; a fitness center; and an indoor children's play area. Chin said the amenities and location won her and her husband over.
Hoboken, birthplace of Frank Sinatra, was a thriving industrial hub of shipping and commerce in the 19th and early 20th centuries, home to products including Lipton tea, Maxwell House coffee and Hostess cakes. The city was portrayed as a blue- collar shipping port in the Oscar-winning 1954 film ``On the Waterfront,'' starring Brando.
Magnet for Students
The maritime industry crumbled in the 1970s as companies moved to bigger ports with deeper waters. A decade later, students began flocking to Hoboken for its affordable, renovated brownstones and townhouses and its easy access to New York.
Junior Wall Streeters moved in as the number of housing units in Hoboken jumped 14 percent from 1990 to 2000. The 2000 U.S. Census showed that 98 percent of the city's housing units were occupied, 77 percent by renters.
In 2004, Toll Brothers began converting apartments to condos in what were once Lipton Tea buildings. The company is renovating an adjacent warehouse into residences called Harborside Lofts, and it has cleared away nearby Maxwell House structures to make way for the four-building Maxwell Place, which will have more than 800 units.
Architect Graves designed the lobbies, elevators and hallways for Maxwell Place, as well as the condo interiors. The development has a heated rooftop pool and garden.
Copying New York
``We've taken the best-in-show of what we find in Manhattan and we've brought it over here,'' said Henry Waller, project manager for City Living, the urban development division of Toll Brothers.
Toll Brothers is targeting Manhattan emigres seeking more space and features, empty nesters from the suburbs, and families who don't want to give up urban life, he said.
``Some people feel it's a bit nicer living outside of Manhattan and looking at it than it is living in it,'' said Brian D. Meunch, of BrianDavid Realtors, a Hoboken real-estate agency.
Not everyone agrees. Hoboken is a nice place to visit but not somewhere he would want to live, said Oliver Ryan of New York housing blog www.apartmenttherapy.com.
``Hoboken seems very 1990s,'' Ryan said. Even so, he said, it's a smart real estate investment.
Michael Barry, whose Hoboken-based Applied Development Company LLC is building the W Hotel, said residences there will range from $1.8 million to $2.7 million. Monthly fees of about $1,200 will pay for services including maids and valets, he said. Spa treatments, pet walkers and in-home botanical services are extra.
A similar, upper-floor apartment on the water would cost a minimum of $4 million on the New York side of the Hudson, Barry said.
``It's a lifestyle choice that wasn't available 10 years ago, when if you wanted a doorman building with a concierge and swimming pool you didn't have a lot of options there,'' Barry said. ``But you do now on this side of the river.''
By Terrence Dopp
April 25 (Bloomberg)
Hoboken, a city with working-class roots, long served as a refuge of junior Wall Street analysts. Its newer residents include Governor Jon Corzine and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, as builders convert apartments into luxury condominiums with fitness clubs, doormen and shuttles to New York City-bound trains and ferries.
Demand for condos in the square-mile city of 40,000 residents is a lifeline for builders such as Toll Brothers Inc. that are weathering a yearlong decline in the U.S. housing market. Horsham, Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers has three condo projects under way in Hoboken. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. already has sold 33 of the 37 condo units in the W Hoboken, a luxury hotel that it plans to open next year.
``We're killing 'em in Hoboken,'' Chief Executive Officer Robert Toll said at a March conference in Las Vegas.
Nancy Chin, who was born and raised in New York, said she recently purchased a one-bedroom waterfront condo with an oversized terrace at Toll Brothers' Hudson Tea development in Hoboken. Those units start at $600,000.
``We always loved the city, but we wanted to be on this side,'' said Chin, 57, a real-estate agent and empty nester. ``Over there, you would have a view of a wall.''
Corzine's Abode
Corzine, a former chief executive officer of Goldman, Sachs & Co., moved to a rental in Hudson Tea when he was divorcing in 2002. He may run state affairs from the condo or from the governor's mansion in Princeton when he is released from the hospital following his April 12 automobile crash, said Tom Shea, his chief of staff.
At Hudson Tea, where Manning also lives, a 1,300-square-foot (120-square-meter) two-bedroom condo with cherry hardwood floors, gourmet kitchen with six-burner stove, marble bath, and 13-foot (4-meter) ceilings goes for $1.5 million. That's about $1,154 a square foot. Manhattan condos sold for an average of $1,142 a square foot last year, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc.
Hudson Tea has a residents' club with a theater, fireplace and business center; a fitness center; and an indoor children's play area. Chin said the amenities and location won her and her husband over.
Hoboken, birthplace of Frank Sinatra, was a thriving industrial hub of shipping and commerce in the 19th and early 20th centuries, home to products including Lipton tea, Maxwell House coffee and Hostess cakes. The city was portrayed as a blue- collar shipping port in the Oscar-winning 1954 film ``On the Waterfront,'' starring Brando.
Magnet for Students
The maritime industry crumbled in the 1970s as companies moved to bigger ports with deeper waters. A decade later, students began flocking to Hoboken for its affordable, renovated brownstones and townhouses and its easy access to New York.
Junior Wall Streeters moved in as the number of housing units in Hoboken jumped 14 percent from 1990 to 2000. The 2000 U.S. Census showed that 98 percent of the city's housing units were occupied, 77 percent by renters.
In 2004, Toll Brothers began converting apartments to condos in what were once Lipton Tea buildings. The company is renovating an adjacent warehouse into residences called Harborside Lofts, and it has cleared away nearby Maxwell House structures to make way for the four-building Maxwell Place, which will have more than 800 units.
Architect Graves designed the lobbies, elevators and hallways for Maxwell Place, as well as the condo interiors. The development has a heated rooftop pool and garden.
Copying New York
``We've taken the best-in-show of what we find in Manhattan and we've brought it over here,'' said Henry Waller, project manager for City Living, the urban development division of Toll Brothers.
Toll Brothers is targeting Manhattan emigres seeking more space and features, empty nesters from the suburbs, and families who don't want to give up urban life, he said.
``Some people feel it's a bit nicer living outside of Manhattan and looking at it than it is living in it,'' said Brian D. Meunch, of BrianDavid Realtors, a Hoboken real-estate agency.
Not everyone agrees. Hoboken is a nice place to visit but not somewhere he would want to live, said Oliver Ryan of New York housing blog www.apartmenttherapy.com.
``Hoboken seems very 1990s,'' Ryan said. Even so, he said, it's a smart real estate investment.
Michael Barry, whose Hoboken-based Applied Development Company LLC is building the W Hotel, said residences there will range from $1.8 million to $2.7 million. Monthly fees of about $1,200 will pay for services including maids and valets, he said. Spa treatments, pet walkers and in-home botanical services are extra.
A similar, upper-floor apartment on the water would cost a minimum of $4 million on the New York side of the Hudson, Barry said.
``It's a lifestyle choice that wasn't available 10 years ago, when if you wanted a doorman building with a concierge and swimming pool you didn't have a lot of options there,'' Barry said. ``But you do now on this side of the river.''
By Terrence Dopp
April 25 (Bloomberg)
Labels: Hoboken Real Estate, Hudson County condo, Hudson Tea, Maxwell Place, W Hotel
So many inaccuracies. Hudson Tea building units have no terraces and 1-bdrm units start well below $600K. The resident’s club has no fireplace. Where do you get all this?
Posted by Anonymous | June 5, 2007 2:26 PM
hudson tea will not have water views as soon as somone builds on the pier. This article is typical TOLL double talk
The pier that runs parallel to the side of Hudson tea (1500 Hudson building c) is owned by Applied the small tip facing the cove is city owned with no current plans by the city This part is under water. The city lot is about the size of a tennis court. The city would have a right away to the courts and the walkway would have to circle the property.
The pier is called16th street pier. The Pier is in the shape of the letter T. One part extends into the Hudson facing NYC, that?s the dilapidated part.
The second part you can drive onto and extends the full length of the C building; this is the part that can be built on and if this happens it will block all the NY & water views up to the 8th floor of building C. Tolls sales office has claimed that only the dilapidated part extending in to the Hudson was zoned for a building and would block very little views? A BIG FAT LIE.
Applied are developers not environmentalist they will build on this waterfront property. Anyone buying the C building facing NYC beware you will eventually lose your NYC & water views.
Also would be interested as to what other owners were told by Toll regarding views from the C building.
Posted by Anonymous | November 27, 2007 5:06 PM