Back in 2015, a project with 980 apartments in four 25-story buildings was proposed for 180 Baldwin Avenue, the longtime site of the C.F. Muller Pasta Factory in the Hilltop section near Journal Square. While the factory buildings were demolished later that year following 18 years of vacancy, no further progress was made toward development of the site until 2024, when a new site plan with 2,411 apartments in seven 25-story towers was filed.
Under that site plan, 2,088 apartments would have been built in six towers along Baldwin Ave, while a future phase would have another roughly 300 apartments in a seventh tower along Academy Street. A public promenade and a playground would have set along the site’s cliffside edge. Later that year, the Jersey City Council passed new inclusionary zoning rules that gave several sites, including the Muller site, a 20-story height bonus in exchange for inclusionary zoning requirements that would designate 10% of units to be rented at below-market rates to very-low to moderate-income households. Since the site plan was filed before the new rules were enacted, the 2,400-apartment plan was grandfathered under the old rules; it was unclear if the developer would revise the plans to conform to the new rules.
At a May 4 meeting of the Hilltop Neighborhood Association, the new owner of the site and MHS Architects presented a new larger proposal that would conform to the new rules, including the inclusionary zoning requirements. Rather than seven towers with 2,411 apartments, the new proposal calls for 3,200 apartments across five towers, as well as 93,000 square feet of retail. The public promenade and playground would remain, and the total open space would increase by about 10,000 square feet. About 1,200 parking spaces would also be included.
The new proposal conforms to current zoning rules so it cannot be blocked by Mayor Solomon (who is currently blocking thousands of units, including hundreds of proposed below-market-rate apartments, at several sites that require JCRA designation or rezoning). Here, however, the total number of subsidized below-market-rate apartments that get built will ultimately depend on decisions from the mayor and city council.
The site is seeking a PILOT agreement and state Aspire tax credits that would enable 20% of the apartments to be set aside at below market rates as income-restricted affordable housing as well as a project labor agreement with construction unions. Without the Aspire tax credit, only 10% of apartments will be set aside under the new proposal. The choice to grant a PILOT to get more low-income, below-market-rent apartments will be a political test for the new mayor who is generally hostile to new housing but also wants to curry favor with labor unions and deliver on his affordable housing promises to advance his political ambitions.
