Jersey City Brownfield to be Green Multifamily/Retail Project
Jersey City, N.J.--The transit-oriented community will feature a New Jersey Transit pedestrian walkway.
Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
Jersey City, N.J.–Hoboken Brownstone Co. has unveiled plans for Van Leer Place, a seven-acre brownfield redevelopment. The site will become a mixed-use property of more than 400 multifamily residences and 7,500 square feet of retail space with numerous sustainable features. The site previously was home to the former Van Leer Chocolate Factory in Jersey City.
The residences at Van Leer Place will be housed in two six-story buildings adjacent to one another. In addition to the buildings themselves, the transit-oriented community will feature a New Jersey Transit pedestrian walkway to the Second Street Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Station in Hoboken. The developer will also create a new park on the site.
A number of energy-saving technologies will be incorporated into the project, such as a mass wall concrete system (autoclaved aerated concrete) that will form a thermally efficient building enclosure. The building also will be designed to demonstrate insulative mass wall (IMW) technology and energy recovery ventilation (ERV).
In addition, there will be a geothermal test well at Van Leer Place that will demonstrate the energy potential and efficiency of that technology as an integrated alternative energy delivery system in dense urban settings. With all of these elements integrated into one design, Hoboken Brownstone asserts that it can produce a building capable of 50 percent to 90 percent energy savings when compared to standard buildings.
It will also be more competitive as a real estate development, Daniel Gans, CEO of the Hoboken Brownstone Co. tells MHN. “People are looking for ways to live lifestyles that are less damaging to the environment and want the health benefits of living in a building that have better air quality,” he says.
Specifically, Gans says, “Energy recovery ventilation will mean that excess humidity and stale air can be evacuated with out the loss of conditioned air and without having to turn on the HVAC system.” There will also be the fact that utility bills will be 50 percent to 80 percent less than a similar conventional building due to the autoclaved aerated concrete mass wall enclosure, teamed with the ERV and geothermal and solar hot water systems, he adds.
The project will be developed with assistance from power utility PSE&G’s Energy Efficiency Economic Stimulus Program. A $3.6 million grant was awarded to the developers by PSE&G as part of the program, which has been approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to promote energy efficiency and to stimulate economic growth and job creation.
