Building for Working Families connects wages and housing costs with Canal Crossing the latest project to break ground
TLDR:
1. Jersey City’s Building for Working Families initiative links affordable homes, union wages and neighborhood benefits.
2. Canal Crossing, which broke ground Oct. 21, will add 508 homes, including 102 affordable apartments, and a public park.
3. Canal Crossing, Homestead Gateway and Bayfront Promenade are being built by union labor under project labor agreements.
Jersey City faces a problem familiar to cities and suburbs across New Jersey: many people who work there struggle to afford a home there. The average monthly rent for a three-bedroom apartment is $5,738, according to RentCafe’s September 2026 data, putting family-sized housing out of reach for many teachers, police officers, construction workers and other essential workers.
Jersey City’s Building for Working Families initiative was designed to approach affordability from two angles, addressing what people earn and what they pay for a home. Launched by Mayor James Solomon in June, the agenda seeks to expand affordable and workforce housing while creating union construction jobs that pay living wages and benefits.
Two of the developments, Canal Crossing and Bayfront, also return formerly contaminated industrial land to productive use after years of environmental cleanup. Their redevelopment involves more than constructing apartments; it requires roads, utilities and public services to support new neighborhoods. Bayfront’s broader master plan includes a new elementary school and firehouse, while Canal Crossing includes new roads, sewers, electrical infrastructure and a public park.
At the Oct. 21 groundbreaking for Canal Crossing, Solomon described two ways the project is intended to help working people afford Jersey City, “I judge every deal that comes before me based on what it can do for the broader community. On these projects, construction workers will earn living wages and benefits on the job; then the development adds affordable apartments where workers and other eligible residents can live.”
The city says it will seek the greatest number of affordable homes each project can feasibly provide. Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) are in place for three of the most prominent projects. PLAs establish labor terms for a construction project, including wages, benefits and working conditions across the participating trades. On these developments, the agreements connect the housing being created with the employment standards of the workers building it.
Canal Crossing moves from cleanup to construction
Canal Crossing broke ground Oct. 21 at the former PPG Industries chromium plant property near the Garfield Avenue light rail station in Bergen-Lafayette. The development follows an environmental cleanup spanning nearly 20 years, preparing long-contaminated industrial land for housing and public use.
The first phase calls for 508 homes, including 102 affordable apartments. According to the city, those affordable homes will serve households earning no more than 50 percent of area median income, with 13 reserved for households at or below 30 percent.
Plans include three-bedroom homes, a 33,000-square-foot public park and about 20,000 square feet of commercial space. Roads, sewers and electrical infrastructure will be built to support the new neighborhood.
“We’re going to have three-bedroom homes in this apartment, so we’re not just building affordable studios. We’re building affordable apartments for families, families who are going to send their kids to our public schools,” said Mayor Solomon, “Those kids are then going to grow up and contribute and make our city a better place because they’re going to love Jersey City like everybody does.”
Developed by Boraie Development, Canal Crossing is supported by a 30-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, or PILOT. Under the agreement, the development makes negotiated payments instead of conventional property taxes, with 10 percent of PILOT revenue directed to Jersey City’s public schools.
Homestead Gateway moves forward in Journal Square
At 701 Newark Avenue, Lions Group’s Homestead Gateway will bring another 360 apartments to Journal Square, including 90 affordable homes. The 34-story development includes ground-floor retail and a public pedestrian connection near the Journal Square PATH station.
The project is being built with union labor, and will be run permanently with union building operations through 32BJ SEIU. Its affordable apartments account for one-quarter of the total homes.
“The highest price of an affordable unit in this development is $1,600 for a three-bedroom. That’s providing the housing we need for our families that would otherwise be displaced with some of the rising costs,” Ward C Councilman Tom Zuppa said. “Also, the development is fully 100% built by unions … the employees are getting paid a livable wage, they’re getting health care, they’re getting protected the way that they should.”
Bayfront brings mixed income housing to the West Side
Bayfront Promenade is the first residential building in the broader redevelopment of former industrial land along the Hackensack River. The city’s groundbreaking announcement describes 210 apartments, including 167 set aside for low- and moderate-income households.
That includes 74 affordable apartments for households earning no more than 60 percent of area median income and 93 workforce apartments for households earning up to 120 percent. Those limits serve a wider range of incomes than Canal Crossing’s affordable apartments, underscoring the different housing needs the projects address.
Bayfront Promenade is also being built by union labor under a PLA. Like Canal Crossing, its construction follows a lengthy effort to clean up industrial land and prepare it for housing.
“We have to help our working families here in Jersey City,” said Mayor Solomon, “The kids that will live in these units are going to grow up and contribute and make our city a better place because they’re going to love Jersey City like everybody does,” Solomon said. His remarks put the housing effort in terms of whether families can remain, raise children and take part in the city’s future.
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The Bayfront Promenade is the first residential building in Jersey City’s Bayfront redevelopment along the Hackensack River.
Bayfront Promenade rises on land once used to dump chromium-processing waste from the former Mutual Chemical Company plant. The waste filled wetlands along the Hackensack River, leaving contamination that Honeywell, Mutual’s corporate successor, was required to clean up. The broader redevelopment will replace that industrial legacy with housing, parks, retail space, a school and a firehouse.
Union construction workers build Homestead Gateway at 701 Newark Avenue in Jersey City’s Journal Square neighborhood.
Crews work amid formwork and temporary supports at Homestead Gateway, where construction is being performed under a project labor agreement. The development will add affordable homes near the Journal Square PATH station, along with ground-floor retail and a public pedestrian connection to Homestead Place Plaza.
Sources:
- City of Jersey City. (no date). Building for Working Families.
- New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. (2010). DEP secures commitment for removal of chrome wastes from Garfield Avenue site in Jersey City.
- Israel, D. (2026, October 21). Jersey City & Hudson officials tout affordability at Canal Crossing groundbreaking. Hudson County View.
- Fry, C. (2026). Renderings revealed for further Canal Crossing phases in Jersey City. Jersey Digs.
- Lewis, J. (2026, October 21). Canal Crossing groundbreaking footage [Unpublished video recordings, clips C011 and C012].
- City of Jersey City. (2025). Jersey City breaks ground on historic redevelopment project with 80% affordable and workforce housing.
- Fry, C. (2025). $200 million financing secured for 34-story Homestead Gateway tower in Jersey City. Jersey Digs.
- Lewis, J. (2026, October 9). Tom Zuppa site-visit remarks concerning 701 Newark Avenue [User-supplied interview material].
- City of Jersey City. (2026, June 4). Mayor Solomon launches Building for Working Families a housing agenda that delivers.
