Chinese company to build NJ's tallest building

The tallest building in New York City is a 96-story residential complex being completed in Midtown Manhattan. Now a Chinese real estate developer plans to put up a 95-story residential tower but not in the city. It will be across the Hudson River in New Jersey's waterfront.

China Overseas Inc is building the tower at 99 Hudson Street. It will have 760 condominium units and be the "most significant condo project ever" in New Jersey, according to the Jersey City mayor's office.

The project will include 18,000 square feet of space for commercial and retail opportunities and 7,365 square feet of parking space.

"We are committed to developing this iconic project on Jersey City's waterfront," said Cindy Xiu, president of China Overseas America, in a statement. "This is indicative of the continuing growth of Jersey City and the administration's vision to make this the best mid-sized city in America."

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said`the project will " put Jersey City on the map."

"Our plan here is to continue building a world class skyline and to continue leading the region in job creation with projects like this, and we couldn't be more excited to attract hundreds of millions of dollars of investment into the city," he said in a Jan 20 statement.

At 950 feet, it will be the tallest building in New Jersey when it is completed, overtaking the Goldman Sachs Tower at 781 feet and the Trump Plaza at 532.

While only one-story taller than the Jersey City building, the Manhattan tower will be 446-feet taller at 1,396 feet; that is taller than the Empire State Building and even taller than 1 World Trade Center without its spire. An apartment in the 104-unit building starts at $16.95 million.

Construction on the Jersey City building is expected to begin in late spring, according to the mayor's office.

The Jersey City project comes at the same time as another Chinese-led investment in US property. China Orient Summit Capital has partnered with Atlanta-based Portman Holdings to redo a project in downtown Atlanta.

The development — 230 Peachtree — is 27 stories high. The inside of the building is being redeveloped and a new hotel is in the process of being built, scheduled to open in late 2015.

"Downtown Atlanta is a market with improving real estate fundamentals, and given their long history in the city, there is no market that Portman knows better," said Chen Lijian, CEO of China Orient Summit Capital, in a statement. "Creating value through physical repositioning of a property is also one of our preferred investment strategies."

Ambrish Baisiwala, CEO of Portman Holdings, said that Atlanta is becoming an increasingly attractive destination for real estate investment as gateway cities like New York become more expensive.

"Atlanta had an incredible 2014 in terms of employment creation and very limited new supply across all sectors, except for multi-family," said Baisiwala. "A lot of population coming into Atlanta and so there has been a lot of interest from capital in Atlanta as the gateway cities become more and more expensive. I think the outlook for downtown and metro Atlanta is very positive."

Baisiwala said that there have been Chinese investors in Atlanta for a long time, but mostly at the individual level and the sector is starting to experience more interest from institutions looking to develop and invest.

Chinese real estate developers have said that investment in US property is a "new normal" because real estate opportunities in China have declined along with the country's economic growth while US economic growth has picked up.

"We are looking at two countries now. We want Chinese capital to be properly allocated in the US, and we want to introduce American capital, experience and technology for Chinese [real estate] development," said Zhong Bin, secretary general of the China Real Estate Chamber of Commerce.

Dalian Wanda Group announced on Monday that it was investing $1 billion in Sydney, Australia, to purchase two buildings in the Sydney Harbor.

The Chicago-based real estate investment firm Jones Lang LaSalle said on Monday that it predicts Chinese will invest $20 billion on offshore property in 2015, up 21 percent from what they invested in 2014.

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com