Fire fails to slow luxury building

Real Estate Weekly,  Oct 17, 2007  by Maggie Hawryluk

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Completion of Equity Residential's newest luxury rental tower in Jersey City is unlikely to be delayed, despite a four alarm blaze at the building last week.

Marry MeKenna, assistant vice president of investor and public relations at Equity Residential, said early indications were that there would be no serious delay to the scheduled 2009 completion date, although he added, "We are still evaluating the situation and do not have any new information regarding any effects on construction or completion."

Marketing of the 481 units being built at the property, located at 70 Greene Street on Jersey's famed Gold Coast, has yet to begin.

Early reports of the fire, which tipped through the top floors of the construction at about 8:15 p.m., October 8, claimed that it was located at the neighboring condominium complex, 77 Hudson. But Doug Fenichel, spokesman for that building's developer, K. Hovnanian Homes, said that, although the adjacent complexes share a parking garage, the only way the fire affected 77 Hudson was a pause in construction.

"We have been cooperating with the investigation," he said. "We don't see any problem but a brief work stoppage. It won't affect sales or deliveries."

Fenichel said that 75 of 420 homes at 77 Hudson have been sold, including a recording-breaking sale of two combined penthouses for $6 million. Unit deliveries are set to begin in the summer of 2009.

According to reports, the fire focused on the top levels of 70 Greene Street, which were constructed of wood frames that were waiting for the next pour of concrete. Firefighters had trouble extinguishing the fire because the standpipe had only extended to the 14th floor, which is a standard practice in construction as the above floors have yet to be completed, and wasn't a safety violation.

Investigators have yet to confirm the cause of the blaze. No one was injured in the incident.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Hagedorn Publication
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning