JERSEY CITY-Athena Group LLC and GoldenTree InSite Partners are teaming up to add yet another high-rise residential condo building to this city's Hudson River waterfront. The partners will start construction next month on a 33-story tower, a block west of the river, which will bear Athena's "A" brand.

"A" Jersey City will total 250 condo units. Other elements of the project, which will take about 18 to 24 months to build, include 10,500 sf of ground floor retail space and a 238-car parking garage. Design of the brick-and-glass structure is by the Hillier Group in association with Schuman, Lichtenstein, Claman and Efron Architects.

"Jersey City is in the midst of a phenomenal housing boom," says Louis Dubin, Athena's president and CEO. His New York-based private investment and development company primarily builds multifamily properties in the Eastern US, but recently opened an office in Los Angeles to cover the western part of the country. Over the past several years, Athena has been involved in 2.8 million sf of properties worth $888 million. "We are confident that this project will play a major role in the continuing growth and development of this city."

"Our project will have excellent access to Manhattan by car or by public transportation," says Tom Shapiro, president of GoldenTree InSite Partners. "Because of the rising cost of housing in New York City, Jersey City has become an attractive alternative for high net worth apartment and condominium seekers who want to remain in the metropolitan area."

GoldenTree InSite Partners is a relatively new entity, formed just this past March. The firm itself is a joint venture between Shapiro and GoldenTree Asset Management, a $7-billion investment management firm specializing in the management of leveraged financial assets. Other founding partners of the firm include Josh Pristaw, who came over from Coventry Real Estate Advisors; Matthew Ross, late of Sterling American Property; and JR Herlihy, who was most recently with GMAC Commercial Holding Capital Corp.