A new place of worship is rising in the heart of Jersey City.
The Muslim Federation of New Jersey, a Jersey City-based Islamic nonprofit, broke ground on a new mosque last month at its McGinley Square headquarters.
The new, roughly 17,000 square-foot mosque will include two floors and a mezzanine, as well as a dome and minaret. Renderings of the project show a sleek, white-and-green building flanked by trees.
A line of shops and 62 parking spaces adjacent to the property, also owned by the Muslim Federation, will receive improvements as well.
“The community is growing, so we need a bigger place,” Arshad Chatha, president of the Muslim Federation, said. “Since this is a religious place, we should make it beautiful and it should be presentable.”
The project, designed by Manhattan-based GRO Architects, is a testament to Jersey City’s burgeoning Muslim community. Chatha estimated that the city’s Muslim population has more than tripled since he arrived in the 1980s. In those days, he said, Muslim residents would gather at each other’s homes to pray.
After the Federation acquired the property at 530 Montgomery St. in 2000, they founded a mosque on the land. But that building, which Chatha called “very old” and “not enough,” was demolished to make way for the new mosque.
“The population grew tremendously over the last decade at least,” he said.
The new facility will have the capacity to accommodate between 500 and 600 congregants.
