October 12, 2022
Albanese Organization Advances Major Jersey City Apartment Development on Coles Street
Jersey City’s rental market keeps climbing, and one of Long Island’s most established developers just made a significant bet on it. The Albanese Organization has closed on a $70 million site purchase at 286 Coles Street, setting the stage for a large scale Jersey City apartment development that will bring 670 units and nearly 17,000 square feet of retail to downtown.
A 1.8 Acre Site With a Head Start
The 286 Coles Street parcel was split off from a larger 305 Coles Street project being developed by Hoboken Brownstone Company, which has been moving through the pipeline for at least two years. GRID Real Estate represented Albanese on the land acquisition, giving the firm a direct hand in one of the more closely watched deals in the downtown corridor this year.
Albanese expects to break ground next year on the 1.8 acre site. The project will be built in sections of 21, 14, seven and five stories, along with parking for 355 cars and 350 bicycles, a scale that reflects both the size of the site and the density downtown Jersey City can support.
Unit Mix Designed Around Real Demand
One of the more notable parts of this Jersey City apartment development is its unit mix. Roughly 70 percent of the 670 units will be studios or one bedrooms, with 67 studios and 400 one bedroom apartments planned. Two bedroom units will account for 189 apartments, and just 14 will have three bedrooms.
That mix runs against a pattern seen often in New York City, where politicians frequently push developers toward more multi-bedroom units on the assumption that families will fill them. In practice, those larger units are just as likely to be split among unrelated roommates who could not find an affordable studio or one bedroom. Jersey City did not push Albanese toward that kind of redesign, and the result is a project built closer to what the local rental market is actually asking for.
Retail Space and the Design Team
The retail component will total nearly 17,000 square feet across three stores, including one 13,500 square foot space spread over two floors. Marchetto Higgins Stieve, the Hoboken based architecture firm, is designing 286 Coles Street. The firm previously designed Albanese’s only completed New Jersey project to date, the Hendrix, a 41 story, 482 unit luxury rental tower in Jersey City totaling 526,000 square feet.
Why Jersey City Rents Keep Pulling Developers In
The timing behind this Jersey City apartment development lines up closely with rent data coming out of the broader metro area. Zumper recently reported that Jersey City rents rose 50 percent over the past year, the largest increase among 15 cities in the New York metro region. The median one bedroom in Jersey City reached $2,650 last month, just behind Hoboken’s $2,830 and trailing only New York City’s $3,950.
For a developer like Albanese, numbers like that make the case for downtown Jersey City on their own. Rents climbing faster than almost anywhere else in the region signal strong, sustained demand, and a well located site with an established architect and a clear path to groundbreaking is exactly the kind of opportunity that demand tends to attract.
A Family Firm With Deep Roots
The Albanese Organization traces back to 1949, when brothers Vincent and Anthony Albanese began buying sites in Queens and building four story attached houses. By the 1970s the firm had expanded into Manhattan apartment buildings and Long Island commercial space, and it now holds roughly a dozen properties in each market. The 286 Coles Street project marks the firm’s next step into New Jersey, building on the foundation it set with the Hendrix.
What This Means for the Jersey City Market
As more developers follow Albanese into downtown Jersey City, projects like this one are likely to keep shaping how the market answers its ongoing shortage of studios and one bedrooms. For owners, investors and tenants watching the Coles Street corridor, this acquisition is a strong signal of where downtown Jersey City is headed next.
GRID Commercial Real Estate Advisors represented the Albanese Organization on this acquisition and continues to track development, leasing and investment activity across Jersey City, Hoboken and the greater Hudson County market. Contact our team for insight on opportunities in this corridor.
