Amid area's decay, officials envision revitalization of Jersey City eyesore

February 18, 2005

The scenes represented opposite sides of Journal Square . Ironically, they were played out just a short walk apart.

Smiling broadly, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy stood at the top of the escalators leading to the PATH station at Journal Square on Tuesday, accepting a cardboard replica of a $100,000 check from state officials to help plan the future of the transportation hub and once-storied Square.

Healy spoke about a revitalized Loew's Jersey Theater just across Kennedy Boulevard, referred to the old State Theater building now being redeveloped and set to re-open in the fall as a 130-unit mostly market-rate rental complex.

But just down the block, a less reassuring reality was playing out.

Michael D'Angelo and a crew of helpers were removing boxes of unsold supermarket goods from a dark and cold corner deli, one of 10 businesses shuttered in November when city inspectors deemed 22 Journal Square unsafe because of numerous code violations.

"Nobody cares," shouted D'Angelo, a friend of the owner, as he dragged another crate of unsold goods toward the door. "They just come here and shut us down. Boom. The landlord didn't even talk to them."

The deterioration of 22 Journal Square and the cracks discovered in another long-standing Journal Square eyesore, the Hotel-on-the-Square, didn't happen overnight.

Their slow but steady demise - along with the recent closure of Canton 's Chinese restaurant on Bergen Avenue , one of the last white-tablecloth restaurants in the area - is emblematic of the decline of the Square itself.

A major cultural and retail hub in the 1940s and 1950s, the square is now a tarnished image of its former self, given over to panhandlers and pushers by night.

"The first thing is cleanliness and beautification," said Naty Caballero, a 25-year Jersey City resident and frequent PATH train rider, when asked how she would improve the square. "Soon as it gets dark, it's scary walking around here."

But city officials and advocates for the Square paint a different picture. They argue the glass is half full and the seeds for a revival are in place.

Middle-class singles, couples and families, perhaps shut out of the booming Hoboken housing market, are flocking to the Journal Square area, they said.

And there are tangible improvements: More than 200 city employees will soon be working at One Journal Square Plaza, the preservation of more than 100 jobs at the ADP building at Two Journal Square Plaza and the ongoing presence of Hudson County Community College, including its new culinary arts center under construction on Newkirk Street.

And planning for the Hotel-on-the-Square properties and 22 Journal Square is ongoing.

These properties are owned by limited liability corporations traceable to the Tawil family, based in New York City , officials said. Plans are in motion to raze 22 Journal Square .

The city remains open to negotiating a deal with the Tawil family to redevelop their property, said Steve Lipski, the area's councilman.

The city also has the option to seize them under eminent domain, but Lipski said he favors first negotiating with the Tawils, and, he said, Healy is reluctant to use eminent domain.

"We'd have to pay for the highest and best use of that property which would be millions and millions of dollars," said David Donnelly, special assistant to the mayor. "The mayor believes that would be unfair to the taxpayers of Jersey City ."

Even if it's somewhat costly, Donald Smartt, director of the Journal Square Restoration Corporation, a private entity supported by local businesses, believes it's time to bring in a new developer.

"There have been probably four administrations since the current property owners have become the current property owners and each administration is tempted to have the same conversation (with the Tawils)," Smartt said. "What is problematic is the property owner's failure to address . the impact of this vacant, unmaintained, unattractive property in the midst of our central business district."

Phone calls to a representative of the Tawil family were not returned.

Lipski sees the mix of uses contemplated for the Square area as a key to success.

"It is a balanced approach: city employees, education, parking facilities, the residential units," he said. "It's not just all abated, private, market-rate units."

The reactivated Loew's Theater is seen as another catalyst for a rejuvenated Journal Square .

To this point, the Friends of the Loew's, the group spearheading the theater's comeback, have invested roughly $2.5 million for restoration and solicited $1.4 million worth of volunteer labor, said Colin Egan, director of the 76-year-old theater, which closed in 1986 and re-opened in 2001.

"What we haven't looked at is what to do with the Square proper," Egan said. "How do we get restaurants? What kind of retail do we want? We just haven't looked at this in a long-term way."