* a 153,000-square-foot building with a 132-room hotel. 40,00-square-foot conference center and a 189-space parking garage

* and a 104,874-square foot office building with education space and 40 parking spaces.

The charitable group Medical Missions for Children is developing the project, uner the business name MMC-DB Group LLC.

St. Joseph's plans to lease space at the office building, according to the EDA.

The other project approved under the Urban Transit Hub program at the EDA's Tuesday meeting is PHMII Associates' plan to redevelop a site across from the Port Authority Transit Center in Jersey City's Journal Square.

That project is a 13-story apartment tower with 240 residential units and 2,400 square feet of retail space.

PHM II is a partnership of Hartz Mountain Industries, Panepinto Properties, Inc. and Garden State Development, Inc.

The luxury rental will be built above an already existing foundation and parking deck that was developed in 1984 by the partners and has been operated by Hartz Mountain.

“We are very honored to receive the EDA's Transit Hub Tax Credit, and thrilled that we can use it to continue our development work in Jersey City,” said Emanuel Stern, COO and President for Hartz. “This building is a phenomenal location at the nexus of the state's transportation infrastructure—it will certainly stimulate the economic activity that the program was meant to create.”

Hartz has a long history in Jersey City, helping to trigger modern redevelopment there in 1998 with its development of the Colgate Center and - ten years later - pushing into ultra-upscale residential development with its Monaco tower.

Hartz expects to break ground in spring of 2014 and to open the building to residents by winter 2015.

3 Journal Square will become a part of Hartz's luxury residential portfolio of 3,000 units in New Jersey, New York, Chicago and Seattle, which the company began assembling in 2010.