Construction broke ground this week on the first phase of Bayfront, a 100-acre mixed-use development in Jersey City, New Jersey. Designed by Dattner Architects and developed in a joint venture between Pennrose LLC and PATHS Development LLC, the first phase consists of a six-story apartment building called Bayfront Promenade, featuring 210 rental units along the southeastern portion of the master plan. The building will also include ground-floor retail space, a 10,000-square-foot community facility, and an on-site daycare facility with services provided by Greater Bergen Community Action. The sprawling site is located to the west of Route 440 along the Hackensack River, directly north of the Droyers Point housing complex, and immediately south of the Hudson Mall shopping center.
Bayfront is expected to yield nearly 8,000 homes with 35 percent dedicated to affordable housing, 23 acres of new green space, up to 340,000 square feet of commercial/retail space, a 50,000-square-foot charter school, and a fire station. Plans also call for the potential extension of transit to the development.
The main rendering above is a street-level perspective of Bayfront Promenade showing an earth-toned brick façade framing a uniform grid of windows. The first two levels will feature more expansive glass with black metal spandrels and mullions.
Below is a master plan overview of Bayfront, highlighting the new street grid that will be formed in subsequent phases of construction. Currently, the site is a 5-minute car ride and a 15-minute walk east to the West Side Avenue light rail station that connects south to Bayonne, up the Hudson River between the Jersey City waterfront and Weehawken, and all the way north to North Bergen.
The Bayfront master plan. Rendering courtesy of Bayfront Jersey City.
New Jersey Transit could potentially extend the Hudson Bergen Light Rail into Bayfront for more convenient access, which can be seen in the below rendering.
The proposed light rail extension for Bayfront.Rendering courtesy Jersey City. Redevelopment Agency.
Here we see an aerial perspective of Bayfront looking east over the Hackensack River.
An aerial view of Bayfront. Rendering courtesy of Jersey City Redevelopment Agency.
The 167 affordable units at Bayfront Promenade will be split into 74 apartments designated for low-income families earning 60 percent or below the area median income (AMI), and 93 units for workforce housing units for moderate-income families earning at or below 120 percent AMI.
Residential amenities will include an outdoor terrace with grilling stations, a community lounge and kitchen, a coworking/media lounge, a fitness center, yoga rooms, and bicycle storage. There will also be a 52-vehicle on-site parking garage and a public waterfront esplanade. The project will include sustainability features such as flood mitigation built into the landscape design.
The development is being supported by New Jersey Housing Mortgage and Finance Agency (NJHMFA) Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Bayfront Promenade was granted a $64 million tax credit earlier this year, and is set to include the largest affordable housing percentage of any private mixed-income community in the United States. In addition, the Hudson County Improvement Authority issued $52.5 million in tax-exempt County-Guaranteed Housing Revenue Bonds for the project in March, which is expected to have a 12-year term and will cover the approximately 22-month construction period of the first phase. The city purchased the land for Bayfront for $170 from Honeywell in October 2018 in the form of a 30-year payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT). Environmental cleanup has been taking place ever since.
The second phase of Bayfront is called Cove Pointe, which is depicted in the below aerial rendering. It will yield 1,438 units, with 35 percent dedicated to affordable hosing, as well as the aforementioned charter school. The city recently awarded a Request for Proposals (RFP) to Kalel Companies and BRP Development for phase two, but plans have yet to be finalized.
The second phase of Bayfront. Designed by Perkins Eastman.
Bayfront Promenade is anticipated to be completed around summer 2027, while the completion date for the full Bayfront complex has yet to be announced.
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Wow, this is quite impressive although it seems there could be more than 8,000 units here given the land size. It’s really great to see a traditional street grid embraced again. Great news for JC.
Oh my god this is HUGE. Had no idea there was this much empty space left in Jersey City
I don’t think it is on the Hudson waterfront side. It is on the inner bay side.
440 has some of the worst car-oriented development in all of North Jersey. It will need a lot of expanded bus and rail to make this level of urbanism successful.