Listen to this article

Alpine Residential Managing Partner William Rosato took part in the 9th Annual Jersey City Summit as a panelist during the SciTech Scity discussion.

As described by Liberty Science Center CEO and President Paul Hoffman during the presentation, the mission of SciTech Scity builds upon LSC’s guidepost to bolster the next generation. With the “heavy lifting” underway now, the project is set to debut in 2026.

At the 30-acre “Science City of Tomorrow,” Alpine Residential is developing Scholars Village. Currently in pre-construction, the innovative high-rise mixed-use project will feature two residential buildings with 250,000 square feet as well as incorporate new technologies developed on campus. Work is expected to get underway this quarter. It builds upon the company’s presence in the emerging Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood.

Following his speaking engagement at the summit, Rosato spoke with NJBIZ about the event, the Liberty Science Center project, Jersey City and other topics. The questions and answers were edited for length and clarity. 

NJBIZ EDITOR JEFFREY KANIGE: What do you think of this event? Why are you here? What do you hope to get out of it?  

WILLIAM ROSATO: Every year I come, it’s an incredible event. They get a great turnout. Most years, I’m on a panel, so I like to do that and I like to spread the word about what we’re doing and see what other people are doing and meet old friends and new people. 

Q: So, tell us about the panel you were on. What was the discussion like and what do you hope people took away from it? 

A: It’s the SciTech Scity panel. SciTech Scity is an exciting project here in Jersey City, headed by the Liberty Science Center. The site’s directly adjacent to Liberty State Park. Alpine was chosen as the residential developer. We’re building 500 apartments. Also on campus is Edge Works, which is an incubator office and science lab headed by LSC, and a high school … with the county.  

Q: Now, there’s a lot of discussions surrounding SciTech Scity, Liberty Science Center—what it means, not just to this region but to the state. I’m curious what you can tell us about where the project is now, your involvement in it and … what’s going on?  

A: The project is very far along from an approval standpoint, I think all three developments. The high school, Edge Works facility and Scholars Village.  

The apartments are ready to break ground within the next couple of months. So, that’s really exciting because it’s been a long time coming. I think that Edge Works and the school will probably have 18- to 24-month construction schedules and the apartments will take a little longer,  probably 30 to 36 months. But everything’s ready to go. We’ll probably break ground in July or August. 

So, it’s not that far. It’s imminent and for us personally, our capital’s in place, construction contracts are in place and we’re ready to go. 

Q: What else can you tell us about what the firm is doing? Are there any other interesting projects that we should know about? 

A: Well, one of the things that interests us about SciTech Scity is we do a lot in Jersey City, and the adjacent neighborhood, Bergen Lafayette, we’ve now built six buildings.  

We’re developers, owner and operators, so we’re here. We like to develop where we already have a presence. In Bergen Lafayette we’ve built probably 540 apartments. So, with the Scholars Village, it’ll bring us to over 1,000 units within the neighborhood. So, that’s exciting for us to have that kind of mass.

And it’s also helpful for our management company to have economies of scale and we have a great company and everybody loves living in our building, so we hope to just keep it going. 

Q: You’re obviously active in this area. What’s your assessment of the climate for doing business here? You’ve got everything in place, you said for SciTech Scity, the project there. What’s it been like for you? What have your biggest challenges in the past few years been, particularly in this area? 

A: I would say that the challenges are acquiring good properties and getting approvals, because most of what we acquire—it’s competitive and then they don’t have their zoning in place. So, we have to go through that process. 

I will say that Jersey City is very good to work with and we have a lot of experience, so we’re able to get those approvals. So, those are the challenges.  

What I think of the market – especially this immediate market – is very strong.   

We build rental apartments. Currently, we’re renting two properties in the neighborhood. One is called Starling; it’s 39 apartments; and the other is called Atlas. It’s 169 apartments. They’re both renting very strong at good monthly rents. 

Q: Now I’m curious, then about your outlook for the rest of the year. We just had a panel discussion … on trends in banking and finance. A lot of discussion, problems going on across the real estate market, given uncertainty of interest rates and some of the other macroeconomic problems keeping people up at night. I’m curious if those things are worrying you and where do you see the market going? Again, let’s talk about this area in particular, Jersey City, New Jersey as a whole. What are you planning for? What do you anticipate? 

A: Well, the market’s been worrisome over the past 24 months. I will say, we were able to capitalize Scholars Village, which is a $250 million project, but it’s because we have a good track record with lenders and we have a good track record as developers, we are able to attract [an] equity partner. So, I think that groups that have strong banking relationships and a good balance sheet and experience can weather the storm. It’s not easy.

And we’re about to finish our both construction loan and equity deals, and we didn’t know how long it would take or how successful we would be, but we did OK. I’m not saying that’s the story for everyone – and everyone should worry a little bit, but hopefully beginning next year things will improve.

And now that Scholars Village is behind us from a financing standpoint, we’re starting to look for new projects.

Q: Alright, so you’re not seeing anything that’s insurmountable? 

A: We’re not shutting down. 

More from the Jersey City Summit

• On affordable housing, Jersey City offers ‘incubator’ for new ideas, says NJHFMA Executive Director Melanie Walter
• ‘Full-time city’ JC still boasts emerging markets, plenty of interest
• NJBIZ Conversations: Jersey City Summit offers expert insights to unique market