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Plans for Hoboken Connect include a CetraRuddy-designed, 389-unit apartment building on Observer Highway — across from the Bloomfield and Washington Street intersections — with 20 percent of the homes designated for lower-income renters. — Rendering courtesy: LCOR
By Joshua Burd
The long-awaited Hoboken Connect project took a key step forward on Tuesday with the approval of a ground lease between NJ Transit and LCOR, the developer for what’s slated to include new apartment and office towers and upgrades to the city’s historic transit terminal.
The agreement, which was voted on by NJ Transit’s board, advances a plan for southeast Hoboken that state officials have envisioned in some form for nearly 20 years, with recent concepts calling for 386 apartments and some 635,000 square feet of office space. The start of construction is now in the offing, the agency said Tuesday, following the lease and a series of approvals from local, state and federal agencies that LCOR has secured in recent years.
“The ground lease agreement approved by our board today sets the stage for an official ‘Hoboken Connect’ groundbreaking in the coming months, launching a project that will transform our Hoboken Terminal and its surroundings into one of the crown jewels of our system,” NJ Transit CEO and President Kevin S. Corbett said. “This project is one of several examples of our broader (transit-oriented development) strategy to both generating additional non-farebox revenues as well as driving sustainable growth through enhanced public transportation access throughout New Jersey.”
According to the agency, the ground lease with LCOR Hoboken Rail Station Redevelopment LLC will facilitate construction of a 27-story, mixed-use building on Observer Highway with 308 market-rate and 78 affordable apartments, plus ground-floor retail space. LCOR is also planning a 20-story office building at the corner of Hudson Street and Hudson Place that the state has said would total some 635,000 square feet and come with a rooftop terrace, 5,000 square feet of retail space and public open space investments.
Meantime, Hoboken Connect will include public investments such as a new bus terminal on Hudson Place, significant rehabilitation of the first and second floors of the ferry terminal building for commercial and exhibition space, the redevelopment of Warrington Plaza and improvements to Hudson Place to support bicycle and pedestrian access to the transportation facilities, NJ Transit said. Gov. Phil Murphy has committed $176 million in the Fiscal Year 2023 state budget for the public improvement phase, which is advancing in parallel to the private components of the project.
Murphy and other officials joined LCOR in fall 2022 for a ceremonial groundbreaking for Hoboken Connect. Late last year, the state Economic Development Authority approved a 10-year, $90 million tax credit for the residential building, which represents an investment of nearly $235 million and will redevelop what is currently an NJ Transit parking lot across from the Bloomfield Street and Washington Street intersections.
LCOR is the project’s master developer under an agreement with NJ Transit. Its partner is the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, or CalSTRS.
Plan for ‘Hoboken Connect’ apartment tower advances with $90 million EDA tax credit
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