The old buildings retain hints of their past. The Joseph Dixon Crucible Company in Jersey City, for example, was transformed into a residential complex in the 1980s, and the original name still adorns the pencil factory’s signs and towering smokestacks. Maxwell Place sits on the former site of the Maxwell House Coffee manufacturing facility, which halted operations in 1992 and was later razed to make way for the luxury condominium project.

Some areas are still works in progress and require extensive cleanup, including the RCA redevelopment area in Harrison and the H&M Powerhouse in Jersey City. Hoboken city officials have said they are still finalizing plans to rehabilitate the former Neumann Leathers factory.

Bijou Properties purchased the Hostess Building—formerly home to the maker of Twinkies, the Continental Baking Company—in 2003, said Larry Bijou, the development firm’s founder. The building was vacant and in poor shape at the time, he said, but his firm was able to reuse its original brick and wood in order to maintain much of the factory’s former aesthetic.

“That was a building that was really in bad shape in terms of structure,” he said. “It was just a charming old building that needed to be lovingly restored.”

Hudson County isn't alone in reanimating its industrial relics. Cities across the country, including Philadelphia, Denver and New York City, all have embraced adaptive reuse to an extend, said Randall Mason, who heads the University of Pennsylvania School of Design's graduate program in historic preservation. He pointed to SoHo, where artists began infiltrating abandoned manufacturing lofts in the 1970s. Many urban areas experience a similar cycle: Artists move into blighted areas, which eventually experience a resurgence in popularity, especially among young people, he said.

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