Newport’s tallest tower is on its way. So is a Bjarke Ingels-designed plan for about 1,700 apartments on the Sixth Street Pier, and 288 homes carved out of the upper floors of an office building.
At 40, the Jersey City waterfront community is still growing. And by the LeFrak family’s own estimate, it has a long way to go.
“We kind of have about 19 more sites, at least big sites,” Jamie LeFrak, vice chairman of LeFrak, said last week at Newport’s 40th anniversary celebration. That’s roughly 8,000 more apartments.
The coming growth is the continuation of a uniquely incredibly story in development – not just in New Jersey but around the country.
The families already have transformed an abandoned stretch of rail yards along the Hudson River into a neighborhood of more than 6,000 apartments, about 20,000 residents, eight office towers and a regional mall.
But the message from the stage last week was less about what’s been built than about what’s coming.
“We are far from finished,” Chairman Richard LeFrak said. “Newport will continue to grow. The demand for housing, dining and shopping will be met.”
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According to Newport, the next phase includes:
- Newport’s tallest tower, 20 Long Slip, a 47-story, 528-unit building designed by Arquitectonica at the neighborhood’s northern end, near the Hoboken border;
- The conversion of the upper floors of 480 Washington Blvd. into 288 residences with views of the Hudson and the skyline;
- A new vision for the Sixth Street Pier, one of the region’s most significant remaining waterfront sites, where Ingels is designing about 1,700 apartments;
- A major new public art installation, set to be unveiled in the coming weeks;
- Kayak and paddle tours on the Hudson and an 18-hole mini golf course, both coming next year.
Beyond those, the families said, are more homes, more amenities and more parks and open space.
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The mall is growing, too.
Eli Simon, CEO and COO of Simon Property Group, said Newport Centre has more than 100 stores and keeps adding tenants. Old Navy opened about a month ago, and JD Sports and New Jersey’s first Muji are set to open next year.
“We are very excited about the future of the mall and continue to see more and more great new tenants want to locate here,” Simon said.
He argued the mall matters more now, not less. In a world of AI, with younger generations increasingly online, he said, a physical “town square” is “more important than ever.”
Jersey City Mayor James Solomon agreed, calling the mall one of the city’s “third spaces.”
“If you’re in the Newport Mall, you see all Jersey City there, every neighborhood, every community,” he said.
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For the city, the buildout is about more than new neighborhoods. It’s about revenue.
Newport says it pays about 20% of Jersey City’s property taxes while housing about 4% of its population.
Solomon noted that share is money “which, if you have read the news, we desperately need right now.”
That revenue, Solomon said, doesn’t just stay in Newport.
“It funds our parks in Greenville. It funds our police officers in the Heights. It funds our community and recreation efforts in Journal Square,” he said.
Newport says each new home on the waterfront generates an average of $19,500 a year in combined city, county and school taxes. At that rate, 8,000 more apartments would mean roughly $156 million a year.
Solomon said he’s looking forward to “the full buildout of Newport” over the next 40 years.
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The people finishing the job will be a new generation.
Richard LeFrak, who walked the site with his father, Sam, four decades ago, used the celebration to point to his sons, Harrison and Jamie, both of whom he said have worked on Newport their entire careers, and to Eli Simon, now running his family’s company.
“I trust Harrison, Jamie and Eli will work together and continue the investment in the project and the city of Jersey City,” Richard LeFrak said.
Eli Simon, whose grandfather Melvin Simon and father David Simon partnered with the LeFraks, said the two families plan to keep building “for many generations to come.”
Jamie LeFrak put it in family terms. Newport is on its third generation, he said, with a fourth, his 15-year-old among them, waiting in the wings.
“Most businesses don’t survive that long,” he said.
