By Aaron Ginsburg, Fri, June 17, 2022 All renderings courtesy of Kushner unless otherwise noted
Construction is finally underway at Kushner’s huge One Journal Square project in Jersey City. The nearly $1 billion mixed-use development consists of two 710-foot-tall towers with more than 1,700 rentals and 45,000 square feet of amenities and public space, including a new Target location as its anchor tenant. The developer was joined by Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop during a groundbreaking ceremony at the Journal Square site on Thursday.
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By Devin Gannon, Thu, October 7, 2021 Rendering: KRE Group
The final tower of a massive three-building luxury complex in Journal Square broke ground this week, which will eventually add hundreds of apartments to Jersey City’s burgeoning residential neighborhood. Dubbed Journal Squared, the development at the intersection of Pavonia and Summit Avenues includes three high-rise rentals, two of which have already opened. This week local officials joined Kushner Real Estate (KRE) Group and National Real Estate Advisors to celebrate the completed leasing of the 704-unit second phase tower and break ground on the third and last tower, a 60-story structure with 600 residences.
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By Devin Gannon, Fri, July 30, 2021 Rendering of 26-28 Van Reipen Avenue (left) and 26 Cottage Street (right) courtesy of C3D Architecture
More dense housing developments are headed to transit-rich low-slung parts of Jersey City. In the city’s Journal Square neighborhood, developer Namdar Group plans to add several high-rise residential towers in an area near the PATH train that is currently made up mostly of two- and three-story homes. In total, the Long Island-based developer is bringing six new towers designed by C3D Architecture to a few blocks of Journal Square.
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By Dana Schulz, Mon, June 7, 2021 Rendering of The Centre Pompidou X Jersey City, courtesy OMA
When The Centre Pompidou (Pompidou Center in English) opened in Paris in 1977, it was the first collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe. Famous as much for its inside-out building designed by Renzo Piano as for its artwork, the museum has in recent years opened satellite locations in Málaga, Spain, Brussels, and Shanghai. And come 2024, they’ll open their first North American outpost in Jersey City. According to a press release, the location “will launch a strong partnership aiming to reinvent, develop and activate Jersey City Journal Square’s iconic Pathside Building.”
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By Devin Gannon, Tue, February 23, 2021 All renderings courtesy of OTJ Architects
Jersey City has reached a $72 million deal with the operator of the Prudential Center to transform the historic Loew’s Wonder Theatre into a modern 3,300-seat venue. Mayor Steven Fulop on Monday announced a partnership with Devils Arena Entertainment to renovate the nearly 100-year-old theater that once operated as an opulent entertainment destination when it opened in 1929 and was nearly demolished in the 1980s, but was saved by a grassroots preservation effort. The city sees the restoration of Loew’s as part of a broader revitalization of the transit-friendly Journal Square neighborhood, where multiple mixed-use towers are in the works.
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By Devin Gannon, Wed, January 27, 2021 Renderings courtesy of HAP Investments
Another residential high-rise tower has been proposed for Jersey City’s Journal Square neighborhood. New York-based developer HAP Investments unveiled this week updated plans for a 42-story mixed-use tower at 500 Summit Avenue that would contain over 900 apartments, a community center, and a public park.
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By Devin Gannon, Tue, March 19, 2019 Sketch by Richard La Rovere courtesy of the Journal Square Community Association
A Jersey City community association wants to turn an abandoned rail cut into a 17-acre High Line-style park. The Journal Square Community Association is proposing turning what used to be the Erie Railroad’s four-track cut through the Palisades into a public park. Better known as the Bergen Arches, the historic rail-cut borders Journal Square and opened in 1910, but has not been in use since the late 1950s. Since then, the Bergen Arches has become an overgrown wooded area in the expanding Journal Square neighborhood.
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By Michelle Cohen, Fri, June 29, 2018 Old rendering of One Journal Square via KABR Group
A partnership headed by Charles Kushner filed a lawsuit in federal court in Jersey City Wednesday, blaming the mayor’s “political animus” toward all things Trump–and, therefore, Kushner–for sending the company’s residential complex into default earlier this year. According to the New York Times, the suit claims that Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop issued a default against the $900 million development in order to “appease and curry favor with the overwhelmingly anti-Trump constituents of Jersey City.”
More political animus, this way
By Dana Schulz, Mon, January 8, 2018 “The wealthy rub elbows with the poor — and are better for this contact,” said architect George Rapp of his Loew’s Jersey and Kings Theatres–two of the five Loew’s Wonder Theatres built in 1929-30 around the NYC area. The over-the-top, opulent movie palaces were built by the Loew’s Corporation not only to establish their stature in the film world but to be an escape for people from all walks of life. This held true during the Great Depression and World War II, but by the time the mid-60s hit and middle-class families began relocating to the suburbs where megaplexes were all the rage, the Wonder Theatres fell out of fashion.
Amazingly, though, all five still stand today, each with their own unique preservation tale and evolution. The Loew’s Jersey, located in the bustling Jersey City hub of Journal Square, has perhaps the most grassroots story. After closing in 1987, the building was slated for demolition, but a group of local residents banded together to save the historic theater. They collected 10,000 petition signatures and attended countless City Council meetings, and finally, in 1993, the city agreed to buy the theater for $325,000 and allow the newly formed Friends of the Loew’s to operate there as a nonprofit arts and entertainment center and embark on a restoration effort. Twenty-five years later, the theater is almost entirely returned to its original state and offers a robust roster of films, concerts, children’s programs, and more.
6sqft recently had the chance to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Loew’s Jersey Theatre with executive director Colin Egan to learn about its amazing evolution and photograph its gilded beauty.
Take a tour of this one-of-a-kind historic gem
By Devin Gannon, Tue, September 26, 2017 Old rendering of One Journal Square via KABR Group
The contentious residential and office tower planned for One Journal Square in Jersey City is getting a second life today when Kushner Companies and KABR Group present revised plans for the project to the city’s Planning Board. Earlier this year, according to NJ.com, the developers failed to get a package of city subsidies, a major investor and future tenant left the deal and a state tax break never came. The updated plan seeking approval includes two 849 foot tall, 56-story towers with 1,512 residential units plus retail and office space. Older plans called for a 56- and 79-story tower with a total of 1,725 units.
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