The basics:

• Fulop reflects on 12 years of development and reform as Jersey City mayor
• Bayfront, Journal Square cited as key projects
• Emphasis on tax policy and pro-growth philosophy

The roster of speakers taking the stage at the Jersey City Summit for Real Estate Investment, Placemaking & Innovation included the current governor and a Democratic primary candidate hoping to succeed him.

Harborside 1 at 150 Hudson St. served as host venue for this year’s 10th annual event. According to organizers roundtable&advisory, the May 15 conference expected more than 1,250 attendees.

During a late morning fireside chat with Connell Foley Real Estate & Land Use co-Chair W. Nevins McCann, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop reflected on his 12 years as the mayor of Jersey City – a time of significant local transformation that “didn’t happen by accident.”

Citing meaningful change in real estate, criminal justice reform, policing and the health department as areas that have moved the city along its current trajectory, Fulop noted the intentionality at play. “The reality is that it’s changed because we’ve pushed each of those departments,” he said.

Select successes

Zeroing on real estate, the mayor highlighted Bayfront. The first phase of the ultimately 8,400-unit redevelopment broke ground along the city’s Hackensack River Waterfront the day before. Bayfront Promenade on the West Side will add 210 rental units, with 74 affordable residences. In January, the project secured an up-to $64 million Aspire award from the state. “It was a more-than $100 million investment; it was politically tough for us to get that done,” Fulop said at the Summit.

“You look at the Journal Square skyline, how that has change over the last 12 years. That didn’t happen by accident,” Fulop continued. “It happened because we have an administration and department of redevelopment, JCEDC [Jersey City Economic Development Corp.] that really believed in what happened there.”

He also described the City Hall Annex and complex project on Jersey City’s South Side as “politically tough.” And noted Liberty Science Center’s epic expansion SciTech Scity, which has also received state support, as a watershed.

“If you think about the space between Hoboken and the Holland Tunnel, that whole geographic area there was desolate and very different — didn’t happen by accident,” Fulop reiterated, later adding, “I think that we’ve had our fingers in every corner of Jersey city and it’s changed in a meaningful way that you could visibly see.”

Developing a plan

Overall, Fulop characterized the philosophy behind the work as, “A healthy city is a growing city, and that if we eliminated some of the politics around basic procedures on how we approach the developer business community, you would get some commitment around development and investment in areas that you wouldn’t have.”

Speaking about activity moving from the waterfront to the rest of the city, Fulop highlighted the why and how behind it. He pointed to his efforts around long-term tax abatement reform, starting when he took office in 2013.

“It seemed like a very political negotiation prior to that, and I thought that if we could change the process to base it on census tracts so that you could almost get a tax abatement by right, based on where you’re building,” Fulop explained. “This is the affordable housing, and the census tract and just a formality of moving forward. If somebody had that clarity, they’d be willing to invest in different areas so they could see that was a better financial incentive to be away from the waterfront. And I thought that once we got the ball rolling, we could move those things back a little bit and stopped giving those tax abatements in the same way.

“That all worked and proved to be correct,” he said.

The complimentary component for success was the support of the development community. Fulop said that contingency “actually believed in the city as well.”

Exceeding expectation

He said part of what makes Jersey City a standout in the region for development is because it is a livable city. He cited the work around the Newark Pedestrian Plaza, which has fostered a pseudo-downtown area. A big part of that is also the embrace of arts and culture, according to Fulop.

As for what else he’d like to do before leaving office, the mayor mentioned investing more in the South Side as well as the need for added school construction.

“But by and large, I think that the city’s outperforming any expectation,” he said. “I think that there’s not a lot of gaps in things that I think back about saying that I wish I would’ve done that differently.”