March 19, 2009
By KATHERINE DYKSTRA
HOBOKEN and Jersey City are hardly the only New Jersey areas with spanking new housing stock on offer. Newark, South Orange, Trenton and Union City all have new roofs to put over your head. And it’s no surprise, in this economy, that developers are highlighting exactly the same selling points. Namely, cheap and commutable.
“The Trenton market is probably the most affordable urban market that you can commute to New York from,” says Michael Goldstein, principal at HHG Development, which has turned the city’s original oyster cracker factory into condos.
“We’re the last affordable place left 20 minutes outside of New York,” says Joe DiMare, director of sales and marketing at Union City’s 100-unit Altessa.
But despite the similarities of the sales pitches, the products are all quite different.
Altessa Union City
Altessa is located at the highest elevation in Union City, but its prices are pretty low.
At the 15-story, 100-unit building under construction, three-bedroom, three-bathroom, 1,450-square-foot spaces start at $410,000, and two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,000-square-foot spaces start at $325,000. That’s $282 a square foot and $325 a square foot, respectively.
“A two-bedroom, two-bathroom? If you put that in Brooklyn or Queens, it’s a half a million dollars,” says Patina Realty’s Joe DiMare, director of sales and marketing at Altessa. “Forget Manhattan.”
Until offering plans are solidified, DiMare is taking nonbinding $25,000 refundable deposits. He has four reservations but expects to start moving units in earnest when the model unit is completed in April.
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