Federal regulators say they are keeping a close watch on the mortgage of the LeFraks' four large rental apartment buildings at the Newport complex in Jersey City.

Pilings are being driven deep into a slice of Jersey City's waterfront for the foundation of Riverside Tower, the first new residential construction at the huge Newport complex in six years.

Indeed, the Newport complex, where much of the housing now exists, can fit 7,000 additional residences.

But that one segment through the Newport complex conceivably could be stranded because the state has yet to reach agreements on where the line will run on the north and south of the property.

Samuel J. and Richard LeFrak are building two apartment towers, two office buildings and a hotel on their 600-acre Newport complex in Jersey City.

One location about to add a new stretch of walkway is the Newport complex in Jersey City.

Richard LeFrak, president of the Lefrak Organization, said his company had leased 100 percent of the 2.8 million square feet of completed office space in the company's Newport complex here.

The 189-room $21 million hotel would be on a 1.7-acre site in the Newport complex that the Lefrak Organization owns next to the Newport-Pavonia PATH station.

"It's a shame," said Richard Lefrak, president of the LeFrak Organization, which owns the Newport complex on the waterfront in Jersey City.

He demanded to know how she could talk about cooperation while she was offering Standard & Poor's $50 million to take its 2,000 employees to the Newport complex.