JERSEY CITY-The LeFrak Organization is actively shopping for a big tenant to commit before it adds a new 1.25 million-square-foot office tower to its sprawling, mixed-use Newport development on the Jersey City waterfront.

The pitch to potential tenants includes this potent lure: Some could reduce their net effective rents to below $10 a square foot for ten years, even $0 for ten years, “depending on how they qualify for the state’s incentives programs.” The primary break comes through the state’s Urban Transit Hub tax credit program, for which most funding is already committed. However, renewed funding of the program is now under consideration by legislators.

Pier Six is a 8.76-acre site, directly on the Hudson River, that offers up to a total 1.25 million rentable square feet. Jamie LeFrak, a principal of the company that has been building Newport for almost three decades, says in a statement that permits, plans, and capital funding are all in place.

“Construction would begin immediately upon the signing of the lease,” says LeFrak. The family-run company has long maintained a policy of not building an office structure on speculation, however. “The developer is seeking a tenant that has the vision to understand what Pier Six can be, and one that will help determine the identity of the state-of-the-art, new-construction project,” LeFrak says. In advertising, the developer is offering tenants of 300,000 square feet or more the opportunity to “put your brand on the skyline.”

Plans are available for a 17-story tower, and alternatively for multiple buildings with different sizes and layouts, Lefrak said. The design architect for the project is Kohn Pederson Fox.

Newport’s 600-acare community of residential, office and retail buildings already is home to 17 of the global Fortune 500 largest companies.

Instant Insights /

LeFrak Looks To Build Newport Tower, But First Seeks Big Office Tenant

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