Harborside Financial Center, Plaza 10

Cost: $125 million

Development Team

Owner: Mack-Cali Realty Corp., Cranford, N.J. and Columbia Development
Construction Manager: Jeffrey M. Brown Associates, Inc.
Architect: HLW International, NYC
Structural Engineer: Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers, NYC
MEP Engineer: Jaros Baum & Bolles, NYC
Geotechnical Engineer: Langan Engineering & Environmental Services Inc., Elmwood Park, N.J.

2002 was a big year for Mack-Cali Realty Corp.'s 5.5-acre Harborside Financial Center on the shores of the Hudson River in Jersey City.

Three new buildings were completed there last year - the $275 million, 980,000-sq.-ft. Plaza 5; the $52.5 million, 287,000-sq.-ft. Hyatt Regency Hotel; and Plaza 10, a second new office building that cost $125 million and adds 575,000 sq. ft. to Harborside Financial Center.

The 19-story tower designed by HLW International LLP began construction in mid-2000 and was completed last year. Plaza 10 increases the office space with Harborside Financial Center to 3.7 million sq. ft. It has 16 office floors along with ground, mezzanine and roof floors. Its sole tenant is Charles Schwab & Co.
The building's location on the shore of the river meant that a pile foundation was necessary. The Thornton-Tomasetti Group Inc., the project's structural engineer, conducted wind-tunnel testing and concluded that the winds along the river would result in strong torsional wind loads.

These high torsional winds required the use of rock anchors to anchor the building's core to the ground and prevent uplift on some of the building's main core trusses.
"Completion of Plaza 10 brings us closer to our vision of Harborside Financial Center as the Jersey City waterfront's premier 'City Within a City' - a comprehensive mixed-use campus serving some of the world's top businesses," said Mitchell Hirsch, Mack-Cali's CEO. "We purchased Harborside Financial Center in 1996 and have since added three office buildings and a hotel and have the capacity to develop an additional 5 million sq. ft. of space at the complex."