Others say Governor McGreevey has made things worse with his threat to eliminate a state program that has lured businesses from New York. With war raging in Iraq and concerns about terrorism, the situation will probably get worse before it gets better, said Carl Eriksen, the senior managing director of Insignia/ESG, a real estate brokerage firm. Not a single office project has broken ground since Sept. But Merrill Lynch, which was going to occupy it, has shelved the plans indefinitely it is still a parking lot. Ground was to be broken by the end of the year for the second-tallest building in the state - at 665 feet - at 99 Hudson Street. Plans to build a university, hotel and convention center at the site have all been shelved for now, and far fewer than 5,000 employees will be moving in next year, says a senior official at Goldman who requested anonymity. Vacancy rates for office buildings have soared to 17.5 percent, up from around 10 percent in 1999.Ībout 6,000 employees of the investment bank Goldman Sachs were to move into a 781-foot tower - the tallest building in the state - by June 2004, but those plans have been significantly scaled back. The city's unemployment rate stands at 8.8 percent, compared with 5.5 percent statewide. All along the waterfront in Jersey City, jobs have disappeared.
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What is even more remarkable is that this evolution has occurred during a decidedly rough patch for towns along the Hudson River. And in an even more inescapable sign of what is to come, a Starbucks may be headed for Erie Street. A pricey bakery is opening not far from the French restaurant. Farther west, on Fourth Street, where youths once chucked rocks at newcomers, there is a tiny French restaurant called Madame Claude that since October has featured escargot ($8.50) and crème brûléee ($5). A renovated dive on Newark Avenue is a lounge bar that since September has been selling beer in fluted glasses and attracting a diverse crowd. On Grove Street, across from City Hall, a storefront that was boarded up for years is now a cafe that sells Belgian beer for $12 a bottle.
In a short time, Uncle Joe's has transformed itself from a run-down gay bar on First Street to a live-music venue for up-and-coming bands - the only one of its kind in this city of about 240,000, long a haven for blue-collar workers and immigrants. ''It's been kind of amazing to watch, to see this transformation,'' said Ralph Cuseglio, 27, who attended high school here and is now the lead singer of Rye Coalition, a well-known local band.