We are based in Jersey City, and the Hudson County waterfront is where a lot of our work happens. It is also where a growing number of Manhattan companies hold their events, because the rooms cost less, the skyline looks better from this side, and a PATH ride from World Trade Center or 33rd Street takes less time than a cab across town. This post is about what those venues are like in practice: the kinds of rooms, how equipment gets into them, where the cars go, and how staff coming from Manhattan actually get there and home.
The kinds of rooms Jersey City and Hoboken have
Jersey City's event inventory clusters along the water between Newport and Paulus Hook, with a second group in the Powerhouse Arts District and a third scattered around Grove Street, Newark Avenue and Journal Square. Hoboken's is mostly on Washington Street and along the waterfront, plus the piers.
Waterfront hotels and corporate spaces. The office towers at Exchange Place and Harborside, and the hotels at Newport and near the Exchange Place PATH station, have ballrooms, conference floors and amenity spaces with the Manhattan skyline as the backdrop. Many financial and technology firms with offices here have their own event floors, and a holiday party or town hall in the company's own space is common. These buildings behave like Manhattan buildings: managed by large property companies, with freight elevators, security desks, dock scheduling and a certificate of insurance required before load-in. Do not assume that because the venue is in New Jersey the paperwork is lighter. On the Jersey City waterfront it is the same paperwork.
Rooftops and terraces. Rooftop bars and residential amenity roofs facing Manhattan are popular for summer company parties. Everything in our rooftop post applies: sound cutoffs are enforced because the surrounding buildings are residential, wind comes straight off the river, and the view is the reason the room was booked.
Converted industrial and loft spaces. The Powerhouse Arts District and the blocks behind it have former warehouses converted to event lofts, galleries and studios, with brick, timber and concrete, high ceilings and exposed systems. These are the raw-space venues: often no house sound at all, power that may be a single panel on one wall, and lively acoustics. They are good rooms for a DJ, and they need us to bring everything.
Restaurant private rooms. Both cities are full of restaurants with a private room or a buyout option, along Washington Street in Hoboken and around Grove Street, Newark Avenue and the waterfront in Jersey City. Small footprint, a house music system in the ceiling, neighboring diners, and the constraints described in the restaurant private room post.
Waterfront outdoor spaces. Hoboken's piers and parks and Jersey City's waterfront walkway host outdoor events, and the large state park at the south end of the city hosts bigger ones. Outdoor public spaces involve permits and production that are the client's or a production company's to arrange, not ours; we play them once the power and cover are in place.
Load-in: what is different from Manhattan and what is not
The waterfront towers and hotels have the same freight elevator, dock and COI process as Midtown, and we treat them the same way: confirm the dock, the elevator hours, the entities for the certificate, and the on-site contact, well ahead of the date.
Away from the water the load-in is more like the rest of New Jersey, with one exception: the streets. Hoboken is a mile square of one-way streets with parking on both sides, and there is no dock at a Washington Street restaurant. Load-in means double-parking with flashers on for the twenty minutes it takes to roll cases to the door, then moving the vehicle. We schedule a Hoboken load-in for early afternoon on a weekday when the curb is quieter, and we bring cases that one person can move quickly so that the vehicle is in the way for as short a time as possible. Downtown Jersey City around Grove Street is similar, with narrower margins on evenings when the restaurants are full and the side streets are parked solid.
Converted industrial spaces are the easiest load-in in the county: a roll-up door or a ground-floor freight entrance, and a straight push into the room. What they lack is power. We ask for the panel location, what else runs on it (the bar, the caterer's warmers, the lighting vendor), and whether a dedicated circuit is available. In some older buildings the answer is one circuit for the whole floor, and we plan power distribution to avoid tripping it during dinner, when the caterer's warming cabinets are all on at once.
Parking and where the vehicle goes
This is the question that catches out Manhattan-based planners booking on this side of the river, because they expect it to be easy. It is easier than Manhattan, but it is not easy.
Jersey City's waterfront has parking garages at Newport, Harborside and Exchange Place, which is where a vendor vehicle ends up after unloading at the dock. Street parking in downtown Jersey City is largely residential-permit or metered with time limits, and enforcement is active. Hoboken's street parking is famously difficult: residential permit zones, meters on the commercial streets, and garages that fill on weekend evenings. For a Hoboken event we build parking time into the schedule and plan on a garage several blocks away. If your venue has a loading zone or an arrangement with a garage, tell us; it saves half an hour.
For guests, the practical reality is that most people do not drive to a Hoboken or downtown Jersey City event. The venue may have a validation arrangement with a garage, and it is worth asking, but the reason these locations work for a mixed New Jersey and New York staff is that nobody needs a car.
Transit: why this side of the river works for a Manhattan office
The PATH connects Newport, Exchange Place, Grove Street and Journal Square in Jersey City, and Hoboken Terminal, to World Trade Center and to 33rd Street via Christopher, 9th, 14th and 23rd Streets. From lower Manhattan to Exchange Place is one stop. From Midtown to Hoboken is roughly twenty minutes. NY Waterway ferries run between the Jersey City and Hoboken waterfronts and Midtown and downtown Manhattan, and for a summer party the ferry is often the part of the evening people talk about. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail links the Jersey City waterfront to Hoboken Terminal and north to Weehawken and beyond, which matters for staff coming from the rest of Hudson County.
Two things a planner should know. PATH service late at night runs on a reduced schedule, and there are periodic weekend service changes, so check the schedule for the date and plan the end of the event with the last convenient train in mind. And the walk from the Exchange Place or Newport PATH to the waterfront venues is short and well lit, but from Hoboken Terminal to the north end of Washington Street is a real walk; guests in December will want to know that in advance.
For the DJ, the transit picture matters in one specific way: a room where most of the staff are catching a train home empties in a rush at a predictable time. We plan the last forty minutes of a Hoboken or Jersey City event around that, so that the end of the night is a wind-down rather than a sudden exit while the floor is still full.
Booking a Jersey City or Hoboken event
Because we are based here, there is no travel component and short-notice dates are easier to take on this side of the river than in Manhattan. The three packages are the same as anywhere else, and which one fits depends on the room and the program rather than the city; the pricing page has the breakdown, and the New Jersey corporate event DJ page covers the wider area.
Send us the date, the venue and the rough headcount through the contact page or call (201) 705-3139. If we have played the room, and in Hudson County we often have, we will tell you what to expect from it. We reply within 24 hours.