What Applied has in mind is an Art Deco-style building, which it's calling Harborspire, with 445 units ranging from studios to three bedrooms. The $80 million project, which will rise across the street from the Harborside Financial Center, will also include some 9,000 sf of ground-floor retail space and six levels of parking.

Applied is scheduled to go before city council tonight (Feb. 28) is search of favorable tax treatment. Specifically, the developer will ask for a 15-year exemption, offering to make payments in lieu of taxes that would start out at $1.5 million a year, rise by 20% after six years, and increase in further increments for the rest of the 15-year program. After that, the project would be subject to Jersey City ratable base, according to David Barry, president of Applied.

Barry sees the project as "ideal" to fill the needs of the corporate community that has been actively filling up the burgeoning office space along this city's waterfront, where the vacancy rate is a scant 0.41%. Conceding that current economic uncertainties "are a concern," he nonetheless feels that Jersey City is "in a unique position" to support the project. If all goes well with the project, Applied plans to complete Harborspire at some point down the road with a companion tower rising 50 stories with a total of some 420 units.

One possible hitch are calls raised by some activists for setting aside some of the units as affordable housing. The developers and city officials apparently agree that Harborspire, with its focus on luxury living, isn't the time and place. If the tax exemption is Okayed by the city council, work is expected to start late this year and be completed by late 2003.