Sideways Skyscraper

Suburban Developer Adds a New Urban Residential Tower

by Adrian MacDonald

A national suburban homebuilder is wrapping up 700 Grove Street, a 230-unit condominium building in Jersey City, N.J., that will offer unobstructed views of the Manhattan skyline.

Work started in early 2005, and the building topped out in May with full enclosure expected by summer's end. Toll Brothers City Living, the urban development unit of Toll Brothers, a homebuilder based in Horsham, Pa., plans for occupancy in late November. The views of Manhattan are thanks in part to a New Jersey Transit rail line that runs adjacent to the site. While the rail line creates noise and borders an entire side of the building, it also runs for a mile to the waterfront, leaving an open space unlikely to be obscured by development.

"In urban development, we continually find that the challenge of a site can also be an advantage," said Chris Chang, assistant project manager for Toll Brothers.

The company started its urban unit in 2003, when it bought Manhattan Building Co. of Hoboken, N.J., and its Park Avenue Design Group subsidiary. It picked up several existing projects, including 700 Grove and Sky Club, a condominium building in Hoboken that was already under construction and completed in 2005.

"More and more people want to live in a city environment," said Dennis Devino, director of design and construction for the Toll Brothers division. "It used to be that people lived in the city because they couldn't afford to live in the suburbs. Now, it's the other way around."

Another advantage to the location is its designation by Jersey City as an urban enterprise zone, which means the development benefits from a "payment in lieu of taxes," or PILOT, program. For the first 20 years, residents pay no property tax but instead pay the city directly at a lower rate.

The development rush in Jersey City of the last several years owes in large part to the enterprise zone designation, said Roberta Farber, director of the program for the city. The program sets a discounted 3 percent sales tax rate in the zone but lifts the tax altogether on business purchases, including construction materials.

Devino had worked for Park Avenue when plans for 700 Grove began in 2000. He said part of the challenge of the location was getting two owners to sell their adjacent properties, which eventually created the 1.6-acre site.

The 700 Grove building footprint takes up nearly the entire site, which is bounded by the rail line and an adjacent existing apartment building. Crews have to use a small access road to move materials and equipment on and off the site.

The building, with a construction budget of $62 million, is not a typical urban high-rise, with about 400,000 gross sq. ft. in 12 stories.

"It's basically a 20-story building on its side," said Ralph Caprio, project manager for HRH Construction of New York, the construction manager.

The first floor and one story below grade form a 263-space parking garage that serves as the L-shaped tower's base. In the nook of the L is a private courtyard for residents.

The poured-in-place concrete frame has a brick veneer with concrete "eyebrows" that wrap around the edges of the floor slab on each level. The structure sits on about 600 piles.

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For Toll Brothers, 700 Grove's location and design represent a comfortable hybrid between city and suburb.

"Everything is convenient - you don't have to spend a lot of money to get around and do things," Devino said.

He added that about half of the units have 1,200 to 1,300 sq. ft. and two bathrooms, matching a trend toward larger condominium sizes across the Hudson River in Manhattan. The units are selling for about $400,000 to $800,000.

"We look for prime locations: lots of amenities, convenient to transportation, good views," Chang said.

The lobby will have natural materials such as granite, cherry wood, and bamboo wall treatments. In addition, all of the units have granite countertops, hardwood floors, and stainless steel appliances, while most have balconies.

The side of the building facing the rail line is reinforced with soundproofing, two layers of drywall, and laminated glass windows, a set-up developed with the help of Shen Milson & Wilke, a New York-based acoustical consultant.

The building is also within walking distance of Hoboken Terminal's trains and buses, the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail that runs up the Hudson shoreline, and ferries to Manhattan.

Toll Brothers is also accommodating its neighbors to smooth the development path by building a second courtyard for the adjacent apartment building. Caprio said this was partially to compensate for a perennial urban issue: blocking some of the other building's view.

Part of 700 Grove is also on the site of the neighboring building's former parking lot, and Toll Brothers will lease parking spaces to the other building.

The Toll Brothers division is working on other projects in New Jersey, such as the four-block, 1-million-sq.-ft., Maxwell House complex in Hoboken, which will have 800 residential units and 200,000 sq. ft. of commercial and retail space. The first portion is set to open next year.

It also has purchased sites in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. It already released a design by Greenberg Farrow of New York for a condominium building at 110 Third Ave.

Key Players

Owner: Toll Brothers City Living, Horsham, Pa.

Construction Manager: HRH Construction, New York

Architect: SLCE, New York; Park Avenue Design (Toll Brothers unit)

Electric: Power Electric, Belleville, N.J.

Excavation: Interstate Industrial, Clifton, N.J.

Plumbing: F & G Mechanical, Secaucus, N.J.

Concrete: Riverside Reinforced Concrete, Secaucus, N.J.

HVAC: Frank McBride Co., Edison, N.J.