Just north of the Gold Coast is the partially renovated Hoboken Ferry Terminal. The ornate Tiffany skylight in the public train station has six sisters along a currently dilapidated corridor. The terminal sits on wooden piers over the water, where the piers are being replaced with sturdier concrete. LCOR has been the redeveloper for the project for the past two years. Ironically, the cleaning of the Hudson River has caused some of the pier damage, since the waterborne organisms that eat away at wood weren't thriving when the river was polluted.

Hoboken's nexus of the Light Rail, PATH, NJ Transit trains and ferries makes it unusually well connected. "There might be five cities in the US that rival what Hoboken has here," says Hoboken Mayor David Roberts, who met the tour at the ferry terminal. From Hoboken, the Light Rail stretches up into Weehawken, Union City and North Bergen, with further expansions under consideration.

On the other side of Jersey City, the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor (formerly the Military Ocean Terminal) sits off the 34th Street station. It offers vast parcels of land for various development purposes, said Nancy Kist, executive director of the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority. Two of the terminals warehouses have been used for movie and television production (the Bourne Ultimatum, Oz), but that is not part of the long-term plan since roads are planned to run right through both building sites.