In 1995, Roseland acquired $20 million of notes from Crossland Savings Bank and Chemical Bank, ultimately resulting in the foreclosure and acquisition of 100 acres, or one mile of waterfront land, on the Hudson River directly across from midtown Manhattan spanning the municipalities of West New York and Guttenberg. In 1997, Roseland acquired a 50% partnership interest in 100 adjacent acres in Weehawken and completed a master plan encompassing two miles along the Hudson River waterfront.
Farallon and Prudential (PGIM) invested alongside Roseland in a buildout that would eventually exceed $3 billion. Roseland worked with the NJ DEP to develop a voluntary clean-up program that would allow for environmental closure of these contaminated sites concurrent with the ongoing construction activity.
The two miles of Hudson River waterfront eventually came to be known as Port Imperial and included zoning for 6,000 residential units, 350,000 SF of retail, 1,000,000 SF of office, 400 hotel keys, and a series of large-scale and urban pocket parks and a waterfront walkway.
These parcels had a 100-year history of industrial and railyard use, necessitating extensive geotechnical and environmental remediation. In order to redevelop Port Imperial, Roseland funded an infrastructure budget of $70 million via a land loan. The entire basis totaled $100 million, or only $16,666 per unit plus commercial land.
Working with NJ Transit, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the New Jersey federal congressional delegation, Roseland and NY Waterway (an affiliate of the partnership and owner of the underlying land) created the eastern seaboard’s only intermodal connection between ferry, rail and bus service.
From 1997 to the present day, Roseland developed rental communities and commercial space in partnership with Prudential, while additional parcels of land were sold in tranches to multiple national homebuilders including K Hovnanian, Lennar and Land-Sea. Current rents for apartments exceed $40/SF and for-sale prices for waterfront units have exceeded $1,500/SF.
To date, approximately 4,500 rental apartments, townhomes and condominiums have been completed or are under construction, along with over 150,000 SF of retail. Upon completion, Port Imperial will be one of the largest and most valuable single planned developments in the history of the state of New Jersey.
