Hoboken / Manhattan Real Estate Blog

Sunday, November 18, 2007

By KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER

Palisades Park’s Long Swamp is a sliver of land tucked away behind stores and offices on busy Bergen Boulevard. For almost two decades, the town resisted development on the property — but ultimately was forced to allow it, under the state’s Mount Laurel doctrine.

Now, two 10-story luxury condo buildings — part of a complex called Trio — are almost complete on the site. Built by Tarragon Corp. of New York, the buildings feature floor-to-ceiling windows that, depending on the location, offer views of the New York skyline, the top of the George Washington Bridge and the Hackensack River meadowlands (and beyond).

Prices at the buildings start at $350,000 for a one-bedroom unit and $500,000 for a two-bedroom. So far, about 65 percent of the first building’s 70 units have been sold — many to young singles or couples who commute into New York. The second building is expected to be finished in April.

The two buildings are on Long Swamp’s western slope, overlooking the marshy wetlands surrounding Wolf Creek. A third building is planned for the other side of the creek, closer to the Fort Lee border. But Tarragon President William J. Rosato said the company is holding off on the third building for now, because of thehousing market slowdown.

Se Pak and his wife, Chaerry Kim, moved into a two-bedroom unit in the first Trio building a few weeks ago. Pak, a clothing importer, likes the 10-minute commute to his job in Ridgefield Park. He also enjoys living in new construction.

“I like it because it’s clean,” Pak said. It’s also quieter than the couple’s previous condo, near a fire station in Edgewater. There, sirens sometimes woke their 20-month-old daughter, Grace.

The units, which are full of light, feature hardwood floors, granite kitchen countertops, cherry cabinets, and marble in the bathrooms as standard. Rosato said the luxury finishes are necessary in a competitive market.

“Buyers have become much more sophisticated and have higher expectations, even from two or three years ago,” he said.

Development of the 14-acre Palisades Park site has a 20-year history. A Westchester developer, Bernard Rosenshein, bought the land for more than $9 million in the 1980s, planning at first to build a regional shopping mall. But town officials and residents fought the proposal, saying development would generate too much traffic.

In the mid-1990s, Rosenshein got permission to build residential buildings on the site, under the so-called Mount Laurel builder’s remedy, in exchange for a $230,000 payment to the town to support affordable housing.

Rosenshein sold the property in 2003 to a group of Bergen County development professionals, including architect Conrad Roncati of Architectura in Edgewater. Roncati brought the project to Tarragon, which bought the land in 2006, according to property records.

“Fourteen acres in Bergen County — that’s not easy to come by,” Rosato said. “We were very impressed with it because it was a good location where there weren’t a lot of competing projects.”

As the housing market has slowed since 2005, Tarragon has faced financial challenges, especially in Florida, one of the nation’s hardest-hit housing markets. Over the summer, the company announced that it was in default on several large loan agreements. In an effort to reduce its debt and increase liquidity, the company has sold millions of dollars’ worth of property in Florida and Tennessee. It is now current with all its lenders and in good financial standing, Rosato said.

As demand for condos has declined, the company has changed its plans for some buildings — making them rentals instead of condos.

The company has recent projects in Hoboken and Edgewater. Overall in North Jersey and the rest of the New York metropolitan area, Rosato said, demand for housing remains relatively healthy compared to other parts of the nation.

“Our Northeast projects are very profitable, and we’ve got a great pipeline of work to do here,” he said.

Sunday, January 7, 2007

By MARY AMOROSO
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD

Mark and Teri King had been looking for a house in North Jersey for almost two years.

“It was a long two years,” said Teri King. “I had to take a break from house hunting somewhere in there. I thought I was having a nervous breakdown.”

Their story — which has a happy ending — is good news for all those home buyers who have despaired of finding anything in their price range because they have been continually outbid by other fevered buyers. It turns out that the cooling-off real estate market could help make some home buyers’ dreams come true.

Both husband and wife work in college bookstores. They lived with family in Hoboken. Teri King had been working at the bookstore at Seton Hall University. Then she got a promotion to run the Ramapo College bookstore all the way up in Mahwah.

“I was coming up Route 17,” she said. “And the traffic was killing me.”

The Kings started by browsing online. Then a family friend who was a part-time real estate agent showed them some houses. But it quickly became apparent that they needed an agent who could devote large chunks of time to house hunting. Enter Betty Nugnes.

“We would look at three or four houses at a time,” said Nugnes, who works for Coldwell Banker in Rutherford. “I think we had exceeded over 100-and-something homes. I know Elmwood Park like the back of my hand. I think we went to every block humanly possible there.”

The Kings’ price limit was $350,000, and they had no illusions. They were looking for a fixer-upper, because Teri’s father and husband can do rehabbing.

“Anytime we did find something in our price range, we were being outbid by the contractors who were coming in and putting up little ‘McMansions,’ ” she said. “We had to find a situation where the people wanted to sell and were negotiable on price. I kept saying back then I wish we had an extra $10,000 to $20,000 so we could compete.”

Teri King wanted to shave some time off her commute, and be near family in South Bergen. So they looked at homes in Hackensack, Maywood, Rochelle Park, Hasbrouck Heights, Rutherford and East Rutherford, and ventured up to Hillsdale, Wayne, Mahwah and West Milford.

“Betty was a trouper,” said King.

“But every time Teri found something in their price range, she would be outbid by $5,000 to $10,000 because contractors were paying that kind of money,” Nugnes said.

And then, in the last four to six months, prices started coming down. King saw a home online in Wood-Ridge and called Nugnes.

“This house was originally listed at $429,000, then $409,000 and then $399,000,” said Nugnes.

It was a three-bedroom, two-bath home with hardwood floors under the carpeting. The basement has a dirt floor and the kitchen needs to be redone completely. But all in all, said King, it was in a lot better shape than many fix-uppers they’d seen.

And, with the fix-up-and-flip contractors having largely evaporated, the Kings were able to bid successfully in their price range. They’ll rehab the house before they move in.

“My father is going to help us upgrade the kitchen, which isn’t functional now,” said King. “I’m really big on entertaining, and I want to make sure the kitchen works. We’ll put in a brand-new basement, which will be a playroom for my husband.

“The bathroom upstairs needs to be updated, but I can live with that.”

King figures living in Wood-Ridge will reduce her 90-minute commute by 30 or 40 minutes. She’s excited about being able to pull her car into her own driveway, rather than hunt for a parking spot on the streets of Hoboken.

And Nugnes is happy that her long association with the Kings will end with a sale.

“My manager says, ‘You don’t let your people go.’ I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ I believe there is a home for everyone.”

Her advice to frustrated house-hunters? “Keep looking,” said Nugnes. “The market is becoming favorable for first-time home buyers.”

Monday, June 20, 2005
By JARRETT RENSHAW
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
HOBOKEN - The new owner of the Hudson Tea Building hopes to convert the exclusive Hudson Avenue apartments into condominiums, with a number of the 525 units scheduled to hit the market at a price tag of more than $1 million.

News of the conversion has prodded a number of tenants to go on the offensive, forming an association and hiring their own engineers and attorneys to review the situation.

The city has chimed in on the situation as well. In a March memo from the city’s rent control office, the new owner, Toll Brothers, was warned that the proposed conversion would result in the building being placed under rent control.

Officials from Toll Brothers declined requests to be interviewed for this article.

When the old Lipton Tea factory became the Hudson Tea building in the late 1990s, the former owner received a rent control exemption from the state under a plan designed to attract rental housing in areas where such units were lacking.

Most recently, the rent control exemption has opened the door for large rental hikes from lease to lease, say tenants who have hired an attorney to investigate whether the rent increases - some claiming as much as 20 percent over the past two years - were illegal.

“We are looking at the validity of the rental increases, and whether or not there is enough evidence to pursue an attempt to recoup some of that money,” said William Kaplan, a member of the Hudson Tea Tenants Association.

The Hudson Tea Building has long been considered one of the prime pieces of urban living in Hoboken, from its unhampered view of Manhattan to its quick access to Hoboken’s posh restaurants and chic boutiques.

The building also boasts, at one time or another, a number of celebrities from the world of politics and sports, including Eli Manning and Jesse Palmer of the New York Giants and Democratic gubernatorial candidate U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine.

According to company records filed with the city, the company will go with a “non-eviction” conversion plan, meaning current tenants will be allowed to remain in their apartments.

Tenants interviewed would not say whether they planned to buy an apartment once the units go on sale. The insider price for the condos are $240,000 for a studio to $1.01 million for a three bedroom, according to an offer sheet submitted to the tenants.

The lack of rent control meant routine 8 to 15 percent increases in rental unit prices from lease to lease for many tenants. Tenants said increases have grown more common and more steep in recent months.

Tenants believe the new owners are intentionally raising rental prices on lease renewals in hopes of either forcing the tenant to leave, thus opening the unit for sale, or setting the base rental price as high as possible to negate the impact of rent control.

Toll Brothers has yet to file its master deed with the county, which would make the conversion complete.