Sometimes finding new ways to stir interest in a city can be simple: give visitors a place to stay. Over $20 million has been invested in constructing the DoubleTree Hotel along the Jersey City waterfront. While this lavish new building may be a rest stop for travelers, it is also attracting more developers to consider the brownfields site just a quarter-mile away. Garden State Development, a Jersey City-based developer, and Hartz Mountain Industries of Secaucus, have been working with the city's economic development corporation on the DoubleTree project, which is expected to open for business on July 4th.

Sometimes finding new ways to stir interest in a city can be simple: give visitors a place to stay. Over $20 million has been invested in constructing the DoubleTree Hotel along the Jersey City waterfront. While this lavish new building may be a rest stop for travelers, it is also attracting more developers to consider the brownfields site just a quarter-mile away. Garden State Development, a Jersey City-based developer, and Hartz Mountain Industries of Secaucus, have been working with the city's economic development corporation on the DoubleTree project, which is expected to open for business on July 4th.

"This is the first new hotel in Jersey City in 30 years," says Stuart Koperweis, president of the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation. When completed, the hotel, which is famous for offering guests free chocolate chip cookies, will offer 200 suites, as well as 1,500 square feet of meeting space. Employees of Au Bon Pain, a sidewalk cafe, will greet hotel guests as they enter the new hotel, and a fitness center will be available to travelers who want to keep in shape.

Peter Mangin, CEO of Garden State Development, believes the DoubleTree is well suited for Jersey City. "We have 8 million square feet of office space in this city, and no rooms for business travelers. I think the hotel is going to do very well," he says. The office buildings dotting the waterfront and the large residential population are expected to generate all the business the DoubleTree can handle. Approximately 30,000 people work in the downtown area.

The plans for the DoubleTree have attracted other hotel developers to Jersey City. Marriott Courtyard, for example, will be building on the waterfront as well. "We are looking at going from nothing up to three to five hotels in the next two years," says Koperweis. Even office developers are snatching up property in the surrounding area. Approximately 3 million square feet of office space will be under construction in the next six months.

The brownfields near the development sites may benefit from the attention as well. With waterfront property running about $750,000 per acre, cleaning up the environmentally distressed properties for construction will be more cost effective. Frankly, Jersey City is running out of room for new construction. "A lot of the property is just not available anymore," says Koperweis.

With ferry service to and from New York City, the DoubleTree and other waterfront hotels may end up serving more people than Ellis Island. And I bet they have better chocolate chip cookies at DoubleTree, too.