Kushner, KABR to Revitalize Journal Square in Jersey City

Jared Kushner, Kushner Cos.

There’s a major multi-family addition in Jersey City, N.J.’s future. Kushner Cos. and The KABR Group have completed the acquisition of a two-acre parcel at One Journal Square, where the team plans to erect a mixed-use residential project. While the partners haven’t released any specific details on the endeavor, they certainly have the freedom to go big, as the land is entitled for a development encompassing as many as 1,500 multi-family units.

The seller of the land–located in the Journal Square neighborhood, the city’s cultural center and transit hub–was Multi-Employer Property Trust, which, upon its acquisition of the property in 2007, had planned to build a two-phase, two-tower mixed-use destination featuring 1,200 residential units. However, those plans evaporated, leaving the One Journal Square vacant for the last several years.

Now, Kushner and KABR are working with local and state officials to craft a plan for the site, which can also accommodate a large segment of retail space. The team’s goal, Kushner CEO Jared Kushner noted in a prepared statement, is “to create a property that will inspire a new life and lifestyle for Jersey City and, when it is built, be a catalyst for the revitalization of Journal Square.”

In addition to spurring the neighborhood’s renaissance, the project will also answer a deafening cry for more rental units in Northern New Jersey and, specifically, in Jersey City. According to a third quarter 2014 report by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, “The multi-family market is largely driven by rapid employment growth along the Hudson waterfront, particularly in Jersey City. Direct multimodal access to New York City and the addition of employers such as JPMorgan, Forbes Media and RBC Capital Markets are helping to maintain vacancy at tight levels in Jersey City.”

The average vacancy rate in Hudson County, of which Jersey City is the seat, was just 2.2 percent in the third quarter. And Hudson County was the only one of the region’s six submarkets to experience a year-over-year decline in vacancy.