There could soon be a new haven for artists who call Jersey City home. Local and statewide organizations are planning a new development in The Heights called the ‘Artist HUB and Residences’ at 364-366 Palisade Avenue, located in the northernmost section of Ward C at the southeastern corner of Franklin Street.
According to Mark Munley, the Chief Investment Officer of New Brunswick, Middlesex County-based New Jersey Community Capital (NJCC), the project is expected to include 15 condominium units, at least four of which will be designated as affordable housing.
On the building’s first floor, there will be a venue that will be at least 1,500 square feet for local artists to work and display their creations. ”We hope for it to be for existing neighborhood and Jersey city artists,” Munley stated in an interview with Jersey Digs, adding that NJCC expects it to be “a signature project.”
Currently, the property, which, according to, NJ Parcels records, was acquired by William Perez for $1 in 2014, contains a four-story building dating to 1900. Although according to a LoopNet listing from 2007, the structure contains six apartment units and a retail space once occupied by the Shooting Star Beauty Salon, for the last decade, it has been vacant, even while the surrounding community has seen increasing development.
In 2011, the building was added to the Jersey City municipal government’s list of unused structures under the Abandoned Properties Rehabilitation Act, and in 2016, in was designated by the City Council as being in need of redevelopment. Then, in March, the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency entered into a property redevelopment agreement with Artist HUB and Residences, LLC.
However, Munley said that before work can start at the site, NJCC must undergo the condemnation and approval processes, and that the project is “really critically contingent” upon the organization receiving $940,000 from the City of Jersey City in order to finance the affordable housing. Should all those steps be completed, construction could begin at early as the first quarter of 2018.
NJ Transit’s Bus 123 to Manhattan and three other bus lines stop right in front of the property, and residents of the new development will be within walking distance of the 2nd Avenue Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Station, the Central Avenue business district, supermarkets and Riverview Park.
Munley cited “the incredibly active involvement of the Riverview Arts District (RAD) collaborators” who have been “integrally involved every step of the way” in developing this concept.
The announcement of the Artist HUB and Residences comes after New Jersey Community Capital and RAD received a technical assistance grant in December 2016 from The Kresge Foundation, which is based in Michigan. At the time, Mayor Steven Fulop said that “we hope to leverage this opportunity to do many things, but especially to create properties that provide affordable housing options in our neighborhood and also grow the RAD and its art community.”
