Journal Square Redevelopment Plans

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Journal Square business gloom

Decaying buildings a factor in long decline new pain in closings
Thursday, December 04, 2004
By Maria Zingaro Conte
Journal staff writer

While Hudson County big box and shopping mall retailers may be optimistic over their prospects for turning holiday season profits, the outlook among business owners in problem-plagued Journal Square in Jersey City is not as bright, according to the results of a recent survey.

The survey, conducted Nov. 23 and 24 by the Journal Square Restoration Corporation, which oversees the business district, came just one week after city inspectors closed down three buildings in Journal Square because they were deemed unsafe.

According to Journal Square Restoration Corporation Administrator Donald Smartt, the survey found that merchants in the area estimated holiday sales would be either flat or down 7 to 10 percent from last year.

The questionnaire was given to Journal Square retailers who participated in this year's sidewalk sales program. Most merchants also reported that current sales, customer spending and in-store traffic overall had not changed or were down slightly from the previous year, Smartt said.

The results are just the latest piece of bleak news for Journal Square businesses.

Last week, in the wake of the building closures, engineers from Consulting Engineers Collaborative in Kenilworth were brought in to inspect one of the vacated buildings, the Hotel on the Square. The engineers found that the structure's chimney and parapet needed to be repaired, according to a report issued Nov. 23.

The report also calls for a more detailed engineering study to be done as soon as possible.

The engineering firm, hired by Centurion Realty, the company that manages all of the closed buildings, also recommended that the billboard atop the five-story Hotel on the Square be removed because of the strain it placed on the structure. The sign was taken down Saturday.

Along with Hotel on the Square, the report assessed the two-story building adjacent to it, at 10 Tube Concourse, which was also closed by the city, and found that the structure's wooden roof was falling in and would have to be replaced.

Representatives from Centurion Realty did not return telephone calls seeking comment on the findings.

Although the businesses on the first floor of the Hotel on the Square building were allowed to reopen—the upper stories have been vacant for years—the businesses in 10 Tube Concourse and at 22 Journal Square, on the corner of Sip and Bergen avenues, were not so lucky. Those buildings have been closed to all occupants since Nov. 16.

Several of the remaining merchants in Journal Square blame the poor condition of the evacuated buildings and other nearby structures for the recent decline in business.

"The haunted house has got to go," said Sunflower Deli owner Chris Chang, referring to the Hotel on the Square. "Get rid of those buildings and build new ones, strip malls."

Chang said he would welcome any new development in the area to draw more people in and bolster his sagging profits.

Mike and Terry Randolph, who were out shopping on Journal Square yesterday, both said they had noticed a decline in the number of people shopping in the area recently.

"The 99 cent store closed and that really hurt," Mike said, referring to one of the shops in 10 Tube Concourse.

"All this closing up, it gives you a very morbid feeling," Terry added. "The neighborhood is dying."

Smartt said while the building closures themselves probably have had very little effect on business in the Square, the condition of the buildings had significantly hurt commerce in Journal Square in recent years.

"The condition of the Journal Square properties, the hotel and the surrounding half-block, is clearly detrimental to the long-term viability and health of all of the commercial properties," he said. "No healthy business district can suffer the lack of investment that is clearly seen in these properties."

Yoon Kim, who has owned Song's Hallmark in Journal Square for last 17 years, said he had mixed feelings about whether the vacant buildings should be razed or simply repaired. His greeting card and gift store sits between two of the closed structures and could also fall prey to the wrecking ball, depending on what is developed there.

"That would be the best thing for Jersey City , but as a merchant, for me it's vice versa," he said. "For me, to repair the buildings (would be best)."

Kim is among those who believe the shuttered buildings are deterring customers from coming to his shop because they give people the impression that all the stores along the east side of the Square are closed.

But on the opposite side of the square, Abraham Sedhom, owner of Way In Jewelry, reported that business was down there as well.

Sedhom's nephew, Sam Sedhom, who was in the shop visiting, said he recently moved his jewelry store out of Jersey City because business had been so bad. He blamed his uncle's business troubles on the parking shortage in Journal Square .

"People come to shop for 10 minutes and they wind up paying a $50 parking ticket," he said.

Joanne Van Dorn, president of the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce, agreed that insufficient parking is a deterrent.

"It's a similar problem in all of the shopping areas," she said. "Parking is always their biggest problem and that prevents people from coming out at night to shop there."

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To remove Square building's parapet

Also, parking lot work will send scores of drivers elsewhere
Friday, December 03, 2004
By Maria Zingaro Conte
Journal staff writer

This weekend, workers will remove the parapet from the deteriorating building at 22 Journal Square in Jersey City in what could be the first step in the demolition of the entire structure.

In recent days, several sources have confirmed that the owners of the vacated structure have brought in contractors to estimate the cost of razing the building.

But according to acting Jersey City Construction Official Ray Mayer, demolition is still a long way off.

"I heard that they brought contractors in to demolish it, but it's not a definite yet," Mayer said.

Before anything can happen, the property owner, Adams Acquisition Company, based in New York City , must first obtain a demolition permit from the city. The city also would have to determine the stability of the remaining structure, Mayer said.

In the meantime, the building's parapet will be removed.

Asked what he wants to see happen at 22 Journal Square, Mayor Jerramiah Healy said he would support any future development of the property that would bring more ratables, investment and jobs, but noted that such a project would not necessarily entail demolition of the structure.

"I don't own the building. They can do what they want with it," he said. "Whatever they do they will have to be in conformity with our zoning ordinances."

On Nov. 16, city building officials uncovered numerous building and fire code violations at 22 Journal Square and closed the building, forcing all of the businesses there to close.

Officials were alerted by a Jersey City Incinerator Authority worker who saw a piece of the building's facade fall.

The nearby Hotel on the Square building, at 8 Journal Square , was also closed after inspectors discovered structural cracks running through that building.

Since then, engineers hired by the property owners recommended that the parapet and the masonry between the roof and upper-story windows at 22 Journal Square be removed.

According to a Nov. 18 engineering report, prepared by Engineers Plus of Hasbrouck Heights, the parapet was unstable because of severe cracking. The report also said that once the parapet is removed, the building's steel structure should be inspected.

For several days before the building closures, workers had been removing a steel roofing structure over the parking lot next door to 22 Journal Square , which is owned by NJ Transit and leased to Central Parking. At the time, city inspectors theorized that the removal of one of the girders supporting that roof may have caused the building facade to weaken.

Yesterday, workers from the parking company were handing out flyers to customers to inform them the lot will be closed for a week beginning today because repairs are again proceeding.

Mayer confirmed that the last of the girder structure would be removed, but said the process would not pose any danger to the adjoining structure, since it was only a section of plaster and lathe that had crumbled away before, not a structural element.

But just in case some debris does fall, bridges have been installed over the sidewalks surrounding the building, Mayer noted.

Representatives from Central Parking did not return telephone calls yesterday. Jersey City Ward C Councilman Steve Lipski, who represents Journal Square , said he was happy that at least some action was being taken in the area.

"I think that when people see that things are moving in the direction of addressing its unsightliness and unsoundness, then people will start to say 'Hey, at least the ball is starting to move and something will happen.'"

But to Nader Wahba, the owner of the Associated Business Center insurance agency, which was displaced when 22 Journal Square was closed, the situation still seems bleak.

"The last thing that happened yesterday was I went upstairs to find some items and I found the door broken, the door to my office and that of my neighbor," he said.

For Wahba, the past two weeks have been a scramble to relocate his office.

"I am planning to move this Saturday," he said, adding that he would be seeking reimbursement from his landlord for the November rent he paid.

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Building woes may rejuvenate Square

Thursday, December 02, 2004
By Michaelangelo Conte and Maria Zingaro Conte
Journal staff writers

The shops at 22 Journal Square remained closed due to numerous fire and building code violations this week. City workers found large horizontal cracks running through the masonry above the fifth-story windows at the rear of the Hotel on the Square, as well as on the side of the building at the same level, Jersey City Acting Construction Official Raymond Mayer said.

"The structural cracks up there indicate a possible failure," said Mayer, standing in the parking lot behind the hotel building, which has been closed for more than a decade. "We asked the owner to have his engineer figure out what is going on and provide an assessment as to its remediation - removal, shoring up or demolition."

The crisis on the Square began Nov. 16 when city officials found about 20 violations at 22 Journal Square , a building on the corner of Sip and Bergen avenues housing several businesses. They also found threatening cracks in the masonry at the top of the building's front wall.

Those discoveries led to inspections in adjoining buildings along Sip and Bergen avenues, and their subsequent closure due to fire code violations. Most of those stores have reopened, but 22 Journal Square has been locked down and will remain closed until the owner corrects all fire and building code violations, officials said.

The violations may finally mean the end to Hotel on the Square, long criticized by Journal Square residents and workers as an eyesore, said former Mayor Gerald McCann, special projects manager for the Jersey City Incinerator Authority.

"These violations may foster redevelopment of the area," McCann said. "I think the solution is the redevelopment of the area and demolition of the buildings, regardless if redevelopment is done by the county, city or privately. I think the solution has to be demolition."

Jersey City officials are waiting for the engineering report that will determine the fate of the Hotel on the Square building, which was shuttered two weeks ago for building code violations, but Mayor Jerramiah Healy said he hopes the deteriorating structure will ultimately be demolished.

"Everyone wants to do something about the Hotel on the Square," said Healy. "That's an eyesore. It's holding up progress in Journal Square ."

The sidewalks around 22 Journal Square were closed Nov. 16, and although crews worked overnight to erect heavy-duty scaffolding around the building, portions of the sidewalk remained closed pending a report determining if the scaffolding is strong enough to provide protection to pedestrians should masonry fall, officials said.

Questioned over his hopes for the site and over talk of moving Hudson County Community College to the site, the mayor was unequivocal.

"I certainly don't want another school there, which does not bring any ratables to Jersey City ," he said. "We need ratables and jobs for Jersey City ."

Representatives from Centurian Realty, the company which manages the buildings, could not be reached for comment last Monday.

Engineers hired by the building owner, Adams Acquisition L.L.P., of West 40th Street in Manhattan, were compiling a report on the condition of the building's cracked facade, said Steven McGill, coordinator of the Jersey City Office of Emergency Management.

Once complete, the engineering report will be turned over to the city Building Department for use in determining if the sidewalks can reopen, and also to decide how the bowed and cracked parapet bordering the three-story-high roof can be made safe, McGill said.

Owners of the six shops in the building's first floor and three offices in its third floor won't be allowed to reopen until the parapet is rendered safe and about 20 fire code violations inside the building are addressed, McGill said.

City officials said representatives of the 22 Journal Square ownership group didn't arrive until the morning of Nov. 18 to look at the site.

When they arrived, city officials told them they could be arrested if a good faith effort to deal with the violations wasn't made within 24 hours. That night, the owner had a scaffold construction crew working on the Square.

The Hotel on the Square building is owned by Oxford Acquisition, at the same West 40th Street address as the 22 Journal Square owner.

But the 99 cent store on the Square will remain closed because it has no secondary exit, and Jersey Bargain Center is shuttered because its roof is in danger of collapse, officials said.

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Building violations close businesses

Thursday, November 25, 2004
By Michaelangelo Conte
Journal staff writer

Nine Journal Square businesses were locked up and a section of sidewalk remained off limits this week because some 20 fire and building code violations remained uncorrected in a building at the corner of Sip and Bergen avenues, officials said.

Last Thursday morning, the operators of six shops on the first floor of 22 Journal Square and two on the building's third-floor were given time to take what they wanted from their stores before city officials shut them down, officials said.

"Our goal is to get them up and operating as soon as possible, but it's based on the owner doing what he has to do," said Jersey City Fire Department Prevention Specialist Matthew M. Barrett.

"In order to get them open, they have to put up a scaffold to make the street safe, and they have to abate the electrical problems and bring the building up to code."

Samuel Stark, assistant property manager for Centureon Realty LLC Construction, promised a construction crew would begin constructing a protective scaffold over the sidewalk, Barrett said, and last Thursday night workers could be seen putting it up. The scaffold will allow the busy sidewalk around it to reopen, Barrett said.

"The shop owners felt they have been there a long time, have been complaining to the owner a long time, and nothing has been done," Barrett said. "City officials tried to explain that they were working for their safety."

Last Thursday night, the water, electricity and gas service to the building had been turned off, the shops closed and the doors had been boarded up, Barrett said. Temporary guard rails channeled pedestrian traffic away from the building and out of danger of being hit by any falling masonry from the cracked and bulging parapet.

Since last Tuesday, city officials have demanded that the building owner, Adams Acquisition L.L.P., of West 40th Street in Manhattan , make necessary repairs to the building, Barrett said.

As of last Wednesday, Barrett said, city officials had tried to contact representatives of the owner by phone 16 times and of the five times they got through, they were told someone would arrive at the building within half an hour.

It was not until 10 a.m. last Thursday that representatives of the building owner arrived at the site and city officials notified them they could be arrested if they did not show a sign of good faith that they would make the required repairs within 24 hours.

Last Tuesday, threatening cracks in the facade and numerous fire code violations were found in the three-story building and inspectors also found fire code violations in adjacent businesses running along Bergen Avenue to the PATH Transportation Center .

Officials shut down all the businesses, but many of those along Bergen reopened the next day and by last Thursday, all but the Hunan Gardens Restaurant had remediated the violations and were open for business, Barrett said.

The McDonald's that is adjacent to 22 Journal Square put up a protective scaffold over its doorway by noon last Thursday.

A dangerous masonry condition also exists on the rear wall of the Hotel-on-the-Square building, which is owned by Oxford Acquisition, at the same West 40th Street address as the 22 Journal Square owner, Barrett said.

Inspectors took a look at a few other Journal Square businesses last Thursday and said there is a chance they would have to close a few of them due to rat problems and other violations, Barrett said. When inspectors entered 22 Journal Square last Tuesday they found six homeless people inside, Barrett said.

Representatives of Centureon Realty could not be reached for comment last week.

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