One of Jersey City's biggest proposed residential projects may be back on: NJ.com reports that Kushner Companies plans to revive the long-stalled development at 1 Journal Square, which appeared to be DOA after a scandal-plagued spring.
According to NJ.com, the developer will present revised plans for the massive residential project—which features two 56-story towers with more than 1,000 apartments, plus retail and office space, between them—to the Jersey City planning board this week, with the hope of getting the project off the ground again.
The background: Jared Kushner paid $27 million for the vacant site, located smack in the middle of Jersey City's Journal Square neighborhood, in 2015. The firm had initially courted WeWork as an anchor tenant, but the co-working (and co-living) company backed out of the project earlier this year, forgoing its alleged 50 percent ownership stake in the development and putting a planned tax abatement for the project in jeopardy.
Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop also announced that the city would no longer back One Journal Square, only saying that the project "doesn't work for us."
The project was also the subject of some controversy because of Kushner Companies' attempts to raise $150 million for the project from Chinese investors via the EB-5 visa program. Jared Kushner's sister, Nicole Meyer, led the pitch; as we previously reported, "Meyer pointed to her brother's position in the White House and showed a picture of President Donald Trump in her pitch to Chinese investors, both in Beijing and Shanghai, according to Bloomberg." That led to a federal investigation of the firm's use of that visa program.
Still, there are some who'd like to see the Journal Squared finally come to fruition; Jersey City councilman Rich Boggiano told NJ.com that he'd support tax breaks for the project, because "I'm tired of looking at an empty lot in Journal Square."
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