Wasseem Boraie, Principal, Boraie Development

New Jersey’s urban development is marked by cities like Jersey City and New Brunswick, both experiencing significant growth. “I think those are urban cities in New Jersey that have done extensive master plan analysis and outreach in the last 25 years,” Wasseem Boraie, principal of Boraie Development, told Invest:.

How do you see local urban development in New Jersey?

Several urban cities in New Jersey, like Jersey City and New Brunswick, have done extensive master plan analysis and outreach in the last 25 years. Jersey City is five times the size of New Brunswick. Population-wise, they have about 280,000. New Brunswick has about 55,000 to 60,000 residents. Planting those seeds and doing that work and creating that planning and financing infrastructure early pays dividends over time. 

If you look at the growth of housing in New Brunswick versus the growth in development in Jersey City, on a percentage basis, it’s relative. They’re similar. That’s because both cities spent a lot of time thinking about their future, and that’s based on good leadership. Jersey City, under Steve Fulop, has had great leadership for the past 15 years, and New Brunswick and Newark under Mayor Cahill and Mayor Baraka are “on deck” in essence.

What cities do you think are doing the best job when it comes to development?

It would be hard to argue that there’s a better mayor in the state of New Jersey than Jim Cahill in New Brunswick. Other cities have had to play catch-up; Newark started doing a similar analysis around 2010, so they were 10 years behind. That’s why their development is just starting to catch up. There’s a lag between planning the investment apparatus and how you get development accomplished, and then seeing the fruits of that work. The three cities that have gotten the most credit in the state in the last 25 years are Jersey City, New Brunswick, and Newark. Over the next 10 years, Newark and New Brunswick will see the most growth because they’re going to see the results of the investments they’ve made. There aren’t a lot of other cities in the state that have made those investments. 

If you look at global economic development, it’s easier for countries to plan because they have organizations like the World Bank, the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) in Europe, or the IFC (International Finance Corporation). These entities push countries to implement the planning mechanisms to reach goals.

When it comes to domestic urban development, you don’t have the World Bank, you don’t have the IFC. These cities have to cobble together funds through the federal government, the state government, and what they can get from the limited budgets of their cities. 

Given the proximity of the 11 Spring Street tower to the HELIX innovation campus, how do you plan to integrate or complement the objectives of the HELIX project?

Downtown New Brunswick has always been the heart of the city, and what we’re seeing now is simply a new level of scale and momentum. The HELIX project — bringing Rutgers’ medical school, industry partners, and nearly a million square feet of super Class A space — represents a concentration of innovation and tenancy that you won’t find replicated anywhere else in New Jersey on a single block. Its arrival fundamentally elevates the center of gravity for the entire region.

For us, the redevelopment of 11 Spring Street fits directly into that trajectory. By removing one of our existing parking garages and delivering a 27-story, 300-unit residential tower, we’re meeting a clear and growing demand for high-quality housing that aligns with the caliber of office and research space coming online. This is about creating balance — matching super Class A commercial with super Class A residential — and doing it in a way that supports the city’s long-term vision.

One thing we’re intentional about is not cannibalizing the market. There aren’t many true Class A assets in New Brunswick, and we already own several of them. Our goal is not to flood the market with supply for the sake of scale, but to grow in step with demand. The HELIX campus is a generational catalyst — the kind of project that will reshape downtown over the next 25 years. As its impact compounds, we expect demand for top-tier residential, office, and mixed-use space to steadily increase.

How do you balance development between affordable and market price?

Our latest project is going to be 80% market, 20% affordable. I think it’s good governance and it’s also good development, because at the end of the day, words like inclusion sound forced. You need to build the right products for the right people who want to be in your downtown. I think having the affordable component is good public policy, and it also serves as a good development policy because you have a good group of non-homogeneous people living in the building. When I was a young guy, I went to NYU in the 1990s, and what made New York City great was how diverse every part of the city was. I would argue now that when you go to New York, you don’t feel that way. You feel there’s one quadrant that’s for this group, one quadrant for that group, and another quadrant is for this group. When every day is the same, life loses some of its color. 

When it comes to development overall in New Jersey – and I give Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration a lot of credit for this – they have pushed not just for people to be inclusive, but to have a real plan to ensure the fabric is technicolor. They don’t want people just checking boxes and doing only what’s necessary to get whatever planning objective they want from those towns or the state.

In what areas of the state do you see the highest potential?

New Jersey has a good reputation in all its big cities: Jersey City, Newark, and New Brunswick. Some of the burgeoning new cities, like Asbury Park and Atlantic City, are also seeing diverse communities. At the end of the day, diverse communities in New Jersey are going to win at a faster clip than those places where it has been the same old, same old for the last 70 years. When it comes to certain places, people might feel like it’s a nice town, a nice place to go for dinner, but they might not want to live there. You’re going to find that successful urban towns are those where people, especially young people, want to be, and it’s where you’re seeing companies go. Morristown is an interesting town, for example. They’ve done well recently with new office opportunities, not so much on residential, but they have outperformed on the office. 

What is your outlook for the real estate development sector in New Jersey and in New Brunswick for the next five years?

We’re just focused on doing developments. We’re currently working on doing them to the best of our ability. I’ll leave the predictions to folks like Carnac; let them tell us what they think is going to happen.