51-Story Journal Square Tower Pushed to December After Councilman Blasts "Over a Thousand Studio Apartments"

JERSEY CITY — A developer’s plan for a 51-story, 1,454-apartment twin tower at the corner of Newark Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard in Journal Square won’t get a vote until at least December, after a special Planning Board hearing Monday night ended with Ward C Councilman Tom Zuppa blasting the project’s heavy mix of studio apartments and board members raising questions about traffic, valet parking and the future of the Hudson Pride Center, which operates out of the building that would be torn down.

The applicant’s attorney, Charles Harrington, asked the board to carry the case, saying “there’s some work to be done on our part.” The board agreed to bring it back on Tuesday, Dec. 8, with no further public notice required. No vote was taken and no public comment was heard Monday.

What’s being proposed

The site, 3000 Kennedy Blvd. (Block 6502, Lot 13.02, case P2025-0244), is now a three-story commercial building. Harrington told the board it currently has a dollar store and once housed a Hudson News.

Applicant Namdar Group LLC wants to replace it with two connected towers, according to the public notice and testimony:

• 51 stories, 559 feet tall, per project architect Christina Attiyeh
• 1,454 apartments — 710 in the north tower and 744 in the south tower, per the legal notice
• 146 affordable units (10%)
• 151 public parking spaces, run as a 24/7 valet garage on the second and third floors; Harrington said parking would carry a fee and be privately owned
• About 6,578 square feet of ground-floor retail
• Construction in two phases a few months apart, with both towers finished at the same time, Attiyeh said

Why it’s so tall

Harrington said the height comes from bonuses written into the Journal Square 2060 Redevelopment Plan: extra floors for commercial space, about 20 additional stories tied to the 10% affordable-housing requirement, and up to four more stories (46 feet) for providing at least 150 public parking spaces. Without the garage, he said, “you could have this as a 47-story building” with the same 10% affordable share and no parking.

He said the parking bonus grew out of a shortage around the county courthouse, which he said was “about 700 spaces low” for lawyers, judges, staff and jurors, plus demand from the Loew’s theater and Newark Avenue businesses. He also said Namdar has been designated a redeveloper by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA), and the redevelopment agreement is still being drafted.

The developer is asking for several breaks from the rules, including putting the two towers side by side with zero feet of separation where 50 feet is required, and tower setbacks under the required 15 feet — including 5.95 feet along Kennedy Boulevard, according to testimony from the civil engineer.

Hudson Pride Center would have to move

The Hudson Pride Center, Hudson County’s LGBTQ+ community center, lists its address as 3000 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Suite 306 — inside the building that would be demolished.

Councilwoman Eleana Little, who sits on the Planning Board and arrived late from the City Council caucus, asked which ground-floor retail space would go to Hudson Pride. Harrington answered: none. He said the developer agreed, as part of the redevelopment designation, to move Hudson Pride into “one of their buildings along the Homestead Place extension” closer to the Journal Square PATH, and said “there’s a lease being negotiated there.” Asked whether the developer would accept a guaranteed replacement space as a condition of approval, Harrington said, “Absolutely.”

Because she arrived after the hearing started, Little said she would have to abstain from any vote on the application.

The councilman’s pushback

Zuppa, whose ward includes Journal Square, spoke near the end of the night and said the lease for Hudson Pride should be signed “before any approvals are made,” noting it “is not the case yet.”

He also said traffic must be fixed first, pointing to backups he said are caused by Golden Door Charter School traffic on Kennedy Boulevard, plus the nearby senior building and Summit Plaza.

Then he went after the apartment mix.

“To have this project with over a thousand studio apartments while asking this board for variances misuses the purpose that we’re going for in this city,” Zuppa said, adding that he believed studios make up “70% or 75% of the total.”

“It’s 20 extra floors because of the 10 percent mandatory affordable housing. Don’t make it any easier to double profit by allowing so many studio apartments, especially with the variances that he’s asking for,” he said. “Journal Square is doing its part, but let’s build for our families.”

The applicant’s team did not give a full market-rate unit breakdown during Monday’s testimony, so Hudson TV could not independently confirm Zuppa’s studio figure from the hearing.

What happens next

Harrington said the team would go back to the city’s traffic staff, look at a sidewalk issue at the Kennedy Boulevard corner and revisit the requested deviations. He first asked for the November meeting; Nov. 10 was then described as too soon, and the board set Dec. 8.

A board member said they still had questions about how the valet garage would work, including cars queuing on the entry ramp, and the board agreed the applicant should meet with the city’s transportation team before returning.

What doesn’t add up yet

• The developer is getting four extra stories for public parking, but the garage will charge a fee and be privately run.
• The Hudson Pride Center’s relocation lease is still being negotiated, even though Zuppa said “many, many months have gone by” with it as a “prerequisite” at the JCRA and the Planning Board.
• The full mix of studios vs. family-size apartments in the 1,308 market-rate units was not laid out at the hearing.

Hudson TV asks: Should a 51-story Journal Square tower be allowed to be mostly studios, or should the city demand more two- and three-bedroom apartments for families?

Share your take in the comments — ❤️ Studios OK · 😡 Families first.

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Source: Jersey City Planning Board special meeting, Oct. 5, 2026 (official video posted by the City of Jersey City on YouTube); legal notice for case P2025-0244; Hudson Pride Center website.