URL-Harborside-Skyline.jpg

The URL Harborside apartment towers will feature three uniquely shaped buildings on Jersey City's waterfront.

Jersey City is home to the tallest building in the state — the Goldman Sachs office at 30 Hudson Street. Soon it will welcome New Jersey’s second tallest building, and the tallest apartment complex in the state.

Ground was broken yesterday afternoon for the URL (Urban Living Ready) Harborside apartment building at Greene and Hudson streets and near the Exchange Place PATH station. It will stand 69 stories tall and contain 763 energy-efficient rental units. It is a joint project of Mack-Cali Realty Corp. and Ironstate Development.

The building will be part of Mack-Cali’s Harborside Plaza and is the first of three planned high-rise apartments that are expected to change the Jersey City waterfront skyline with their Jenga block-like appearances.

The Urban Living Ready concept was created by Ironstate President David Barry and features compact, partly furnished apartments.

About 25 percent of the apartments will be 470-square-foot or smaller studios. The one-bedroom apartments will be about 630 square feet. Roughly 120 apartments will feature two bedrooms and be approximately 870 square feet.

"Everyone is drawn to live here," Barry said in a statement, "but the costs of housing can be prohibitive. To meet modern housing challenges, we need creative and thoughtful solutions."

Rental prices were not yet available.

The atypical design is by the Dutch firm Concrete.

The developers received $33 million in tax credits from the state Economic Development Authority in October for the first tower. The project is expected to cost $291 million and employ about 700 construction workers. Construction is scheduled to be completed in about two years.

No date has been set for the other two towers, which are expected to be about the same height. When completed, they will include about 2,358 apartments with commercial space and parking.

The tallest building in New Jersey is the Goldman Sachs office tower in Jersey City at 781 feet. The Harborside building will be 713 feet, about 13 feet taller than the Revel casino and hotel in Atlantic City.

Jersey City has been experiencing a residential building boom. About 5,000 residential units are under construction and another 12,000 have approvals for this year and next.

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