"In reality, Newport has become part of Manhattan's expandingresidential and business core," says Richard LeFrak, president ofthe organization founded by his father, Sam. "This community andthe entire New Jersey Gold Coast have become addresses of choicefor young professionals and their families."

LeFrak does have a vested interest and a partiality to what'sgoing on at Newport, but the facts tend to bear out his contention.Over the past couple of decades, a planned community of 600 acres,with a total investment of more than $10 billion, has risen out ofa bunch of abandoned piers and rail yards. None of that would havehappened without demand. And while folks in Jersey City don'treally like the 'New York's sixth borough' tag that has been pinnedon them, the reality is that much of the business and residentialgrowth along the waterfront has indeed come from across theriver.

The Southampton brings Newport's residential statistics to ninebuildings (eight are rentals), 4,000 units and more than 12,000residents. The finished Newport is expected to have upward of 9,000residential units as well as 1,200 hotel rooms. Existing units arepre-wired for cable TV, computer data transmission and T-1accessibility options. According to some estimates, the influx ofnew residents will propel Jersey City ahead of Newark as thestate's largest city in the near future, perhaps as early as whenthe results of the 2000 census are made official.