Bloomberg reported today that the Kushner tower in Jersey City has suffered several setbacks including:
- Losing the anchor tenant (WeWork)
- Losing NJ subsidies (because Jersey City won’t support them)
Though Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop had written a letter to the state in support of the tower and was considering issuing $10 million in city bonds to help it along, this past weekend he stated publicly what he earlier told the family: that he opposes the Kushners’ new petition for $30.4 million in city bonds and a 30-year tax abatement. — www.bloomberg.com/…
WeWork was supposed to help attract a live/work community to the towers and purchase half the property. Now that they’ve pulled out, the project need to raise equity and figure out an alternative plan to attract tenants/buyers for the commercial/residential spaces.
The China pitch illustrates an emerging pattern for the family of the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser. The Kushners increasingly are turning to international investors, often in China, to get tough deals done. It previously lobbied Anbang Insurance Group Co., a Chinese financial behemoth, for a redevelopment of its troubled tower at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Those negotiations fell apart. — www.bloomberg.com/…
It seems as if the Kushners have also learned something else from Trump. When your initial plan fails, come up with a more bombastic one.
Oddly, the version Meyer promoted in China is bigger, grander and more than twice as expensive as plans pitched to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in November 2015. It will cost nearly $1 billion, including $150 million from Chinese investors, $301 million in owner equity and $525 million in debt, according to a pitchbook for an upcoming meeting in Guangzhou. It will have more than double the 744 apartments originally proposed to New Jersey. — www.bloomberg.com/…
The Kushners bought the site in 2015 for $27 million, the prior owner too, had a grand redevelopment plan that didn’t go anywhere.
This isn’t the first time a developer has promised to build on the lot now set for One Journal Square, which the planning board chair noted when he voted to approve the newest plans.
“It feels like every year or so we vote on this same project over and over again,” he said. — NJ.com