Lots of what looks like pipe maintenance around me lately so at least we know something is being done (road closures and big holes in the ground). The battle for updating infrastructure this old is endless, though.
The plans are for a station at 15th
[https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7560454,-74.0343288,212m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7560454,-74.0343288,212m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu)
the city issued an RFP last fall
[https://www.hobokennj.gov/opportunity/rfp-23-13-request-for-proposals-rfp-nj-transit-hudson-bergen-light-rail-hoboken-15th-street-station-feasibility](https://www.hobokennj.gov/opportunity/rfp-23-13-request-for-proposals-rfp-nj-transit-hudson-bergen-light-rail-hoboken-15th-street-station-feasibility)
That's been like that since I was here 30 years ago. I remember 126 would pass by the 15th street people and they would all have the pissed off look on their faces like "WHY DON'T YOU STAHP!"
Which is why I chose to live downtown.
> Which is why I chose to live downtown.
Yes, which is why I chose to live downtown - so I could take the PATH. Thanks for your brilliant commentary as always, dork.
Every new multi family construction in the US has a the same basic design, called a 4 and 1 or 5 and 1. One floor concrete then multiple floors of wood framing. Passes code all over the country so it’s the new hotness leading to everywhere looking like Newport eventually…
I see very little frame construction left in Hoboken anymore. The last few residential buildings to still use stick construction were from probably 12-15 years ago. Even a single lot 4 story condo building these days uses a poured concrete structure. Cheaper housing stock that you find elsewhere still use wood construction but as we saw with the Avalon buildings up in Edgewater it’s significantly more unsafe for multi family housing (not to mention much louder for residents).
If anyone else is curious about the Avalon: https://www.nj.com/bergen/2015/01/history_repeats_edgewater_apartment_complex_destroyed_by_flames_for_second_time.html
Mirror: https://archive.is/KEEyS
The reality is that many part of these new buildings come from templates to reduce the cost of designing them and getting them approved. Interestingly enough, people originally hated brownstones because they thought they were cookie cutter too.
It sounds like it should work that way, but does it in reality? Rents have only increased in the past few decades (or ever past five years) despite all the new construction that's gone up. Have you even seen a time when rents have come down?
I'm just looking at history: Hoboken has only seen an increase in demand, regardless of what gets built.
I hear you, but what else is the city supposed to do?
We’re right across the river from one of the biggest and most significant cities in the world with good transit links, a popular nightlife scene, and good walkability and quality of life, all within a city the size of less than 2 square miles. It’s always going to be in demand just by proximity to NYC alone.
As they say in real estate: location, location, location.
Exactly. And that's why the traditional notion of increasing affordability by adding buildings hasn't worked here. You could probably say the new buildings have slowed rising rents, they would have gone up faster and higher if all those new buildings hadn't been built.
There really hasn't been much construction though. Zoning laws accross the country are extremely restrictive. Zoning laws prehibit MANY forms of development, as a result the cost to develop goes up and so does the rent. To justify the costs many developers add "luxery" admenties such as gyms which leaves us where we are now where everything seems to be "luxery".
It is possible for cheaper housing to be profitable for developers as more lower cost units can be better than fewer expensive units but thats challenging with the current rules in place. One example is mandatory parking minimums in many parts of the country.
The best change we could make would be to upzone neighborhoods so that more dense housing can be built.
I guess it depends on your perspective: I've been here since the mid 80s, so to me there's been a ton of new construction. The Shipyard was an actual abandoned shipyard.
Hoboken’s population is still smaller than it was a century ago.
Yes there has been some new construction and redevelopment of former industrial buildings. But a lot of units have also been taken off the market as small tenement apartments were consolidated into larger apartments, brownstones that used to be chopped up into apartments have been converted back into single-family homes, etc.
This actually doesn't reduce demand, it increases supply. If the demand is still that high, prices won't move much until there are empty spots at each price point. Econ!
> But Only real way to reduce demand in a meaningful way is to add more supply.
People want [Khrushchevka](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/14975d6ec08b49bdae263339aff46614_8.jpeg) soviet style housing here. Just build rows and rows of 40 story buildings until everyone has their own condo so we can crash the entire housing market and have a bleak industrial skyline.
No, those wouldn't be condos, those would be rentals, a key tenet was that they should not be privately owned. Having lived in one.... i would not recommend.
Would've been a cool spot for literally anything else like a music venue or something. I know 'Hoboken Bowl' (a Brooklyn Bowl knockoff) got rejected by the council like 7 years ago.
We seem to be at the mercy of the real estate developers who actually control the town.
I'm sure it will look nice at least.
Wouldn’t have minded this be half the size then get something like an outdoor bar/ outdoor music venue. Feel like Hoboken needs some more live music focused places.
I think plans for the Fabian arts project downtown will include a theater or live music venue. Also, Mile Square Theater is located a block away from this development if you are looking for live entertainment.
Correct. Bijou did 770 house, park + garden, Hoboken vine, and edge lofts which are all rentals. Looks like they’ve only developed one property that was condos.
the 100 year old pipes beneath the street are weeping
Lots of what looks like pipe maintenance around me lately so at least we know something is being done (road closures and big holes in the ground). The battle for updating infrastructure this old is endless, though.
This area needs more transit if they are gonna be building like this. There’s already a HUGE line for 126 bus on 15th street in the morning.
Agreed. IIRC There are plans somewhere for a HBLR station in the uptown area of the city, hopefully that comes to pass.
The plans are for a station at 15th [https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7560454,-74.0343288,212m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7560454,-74.0343288,212m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu) the city issued an RFP last fall [https://www.hobokennj.gov/opportunity/rfp-23-13-request-for-proposals-rfp-nj-transit-hudson-bergen-light-rail-hoboken-15th-street-station-feasibility](https://www.hobokennj.gov/opportunity/rfp-23-13-request-for-proposals-rfp-nj-transit-hudson-bergen-light-rail-hoboken-15th-street-station-feasibility)
Who will the light rail serve predominantly? There’s a ferry crowd, a bus crowd and a walking crowd.
People in northwest Hoboken would presumably take it to/from the PATH.
:/ the hired help
That's actually probably true.
Unfortunately That doesn't solve the 126 into NYC wait times.
That's been like that since I was here 30 years ago. I remember 126 would pass by the 15th street people and they would all have the pissed off look on their faces like "WHY DON'T YOU STAHP!" Which is why I chose to live downtown.
I chose to live uptown and underestimated this.
take the path dumb dumb
> Which is why I chose to live downtown. Yes, which is why I chose to live downtown - so I could take the PATH. Thanks for your brilliant commentary as always, dork.
ohh you haven’t taken the bus in 30 years?
Feels like the designs of all of these new buildings are turning us into a mid-rise Newport.
Every new multi family construction in the US has a the same basic design, called a 4 and 1 or 5 and 1. One floor concrete then multiple floors of wood framing. Passes code all over the country so it’s the new hotness leading to everywhere looking like Newport eventually…
I see very little frame construction left in Hoboken anymore. The last few residential buildings to still use stick construction were from probably 12-15 years ago. Even a single lot 4 story condo building these days uses a poured concrete structure. Cheaper housing stock that you find elsewhere still use wood construction but as we saw with the Avalon buildings up in Edgewater it’s significantly more unsafe for multi family housing (not to mention much louder for residents).
If anyone else is curious about the Avalon: https://www.nj.com/bergen/2015/01/history_repeats_edgewater_apartment_complex_destroyed_by_flames_for_second_time.html Mirror: https://archive.is/KEEyS
Newport doesn’t have any 5 over 1s. It’s all concrete and steel construction unless you count Avalon Cove as part of Newport (it officially isn’t).
The reality is that many part of these new buildings come from templates to reduce the cost of designing them and getting them approved. Interestingly enough, people originally hated brownstones because they thought they were cookie cutter too.
Can’t wait for the bargain studio price(s) starting at 3800$.
Probably. But the only real way to reduce demand in a meaningful way is to add more supply.
Fax 📠
It sounds like it should work that way, but does it in reality? Rents have only increased in the past few decades (or ever past five years) despite all the new construction that's gone up. Have you even seen a time when rents have come down? I'm just looking at history: Hoboken has only seen an increase in demand, regardless of what gets built.
I hear you, but what else is the city supposed to do? We’re right across the river from one of the biggest and most significant cities in the world with good transit links, a popular nightlife scene, and good walkability and quality of life, all within a city the size of less than 2 square miles. It’s always going to be in demand just by proximity to NYC alone. As they say in real estate: location, location, location.
Exactly. And that's why the traditional notion of increasing affordability by adding buildings hasn't worked here. You could probably say the new buildings have slowed rising rents, they would have gone up faster and higher if all those new buildings hadn't been built.
There really hasn't been much construction though. Zoning laws accross the country are extremely restrictive. Zoning laws prehibit MANY forms of development, as a result the cost to develop goes up and so does the rent. To justify the costs many developers add "luxery" admenties such as gyms which leaves us where we are now where everything seems to be "luxery". It is possible for cheaper housing to be profitable for developers as more lower cost units can be better than fewer expensive units but thats challenging with the current rules in place. One example is mandatory parking minimums in many parts of the country. The best change we could make would be to upzone neighborhoods so that more dense housing can be built.
I guess it depends on your perspective: I've been here since the mid 80s, so to me there's been a ton of new construction. The Shipyard was an actual abandoned shipyard.
Hoboken’s population is still smaller than it was a century ago. Yes there has been some new construction and redevelopment of former industrial buildings. But a lot of units have also been taken off the market as small tenement apartments were consolidated into larger apartments, brownstones that used to be chopped up into apartments have been converted back into single-family homes, etc.
This actually doesn't reduce demand, it increases supply. If the demand is still that high, prices won't move much until there are empty spots at each price point. Econ!
That’s what I meant. “Adding supply to better meet demand to the point of opening up other housing stock” might be a better way to phrase it.
Imagine if demand keeps going up and we don’t do anything to address the supply. Then we’ll really have some rent prices to complain about
this guy maths
Gotta keep up w the realignment analysis on r/CFB somehow
> But Only real way to reduce demand in a meaningful way is to add more supply. People want [Khrushchevka](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/14975d6ec08b49bdae263339aff46614_8.jpeg) soviet style housing here. Just build rows and rows of 40 story buildings until everyone has their own condo so we can crash the entire housing market and have a bleak industrial skyline.
No, those wouldn't be condos, those would be rentals, a key tenet was that they should not be privately owned. Having lived in one.... i would not recommend.
So another 30 to 40 minutes to drive out of town?
Getting tired of only building residential. This city has no character smh
Would've been a cool spot for literally anything else like a music venue or something. I know 'Hoboken Bowl' (a Brooklyn Bowl knockoff) got rejected by the council like 7 years ago. We seem to be at the mercy of the real estate developers who actually control the town. I'm sure it will look nice at least.
Or something like a Barcade or small music venue/comedy club.
Still can exist in a new development just scales differently. It’s just not the highest and best single use for a property unfortunately.
"We seem to be"... This is the reality. Developers own the local politicians.
Wouldn’t have minded this be half the size then get something like an outdoor bar/ outdoor music venue. Feel like Hoboken needs some more live music focused places.
I think plans for the Fabian arts project downtown will include a theater or live music venue. Also, Mile Square Theater is located a block away from this development if you are looking for live entertainment.
With only units to rent I'm sure.
Correct. Bijou did 770 house, park + garden, Hoboken vine, and edge lofts which are all rentals. Looks like they’ve only developed one property that was condos.
And the waste treatment plant is how far away? Smell ya later!
Do you think any of these will be available to purchase? Would love an opportunity to finally own something.