Journal Square Jersey City 07306 » redevelopment plan

New Plan: The Journal Square 2060 Redevelopment Plan

Del — Tue, 11 May 2010 01:21:45 +0000

The Journal Square Redevelopment Plan has been revised last Friday. From the sources that I’ve read, (NJ.com, JC Independent, and JC City Planning Division), there will be some changes in the plan which include: zonings (nine zones in the JSQ including the Beacon area), and more open spaces (city will build decks over the open PATH tracks).

The 2060 plan will still focus on Zone 1 – the empty lot by the PATH station, the previous location of the demolished hotels – bounded by Sip Avenue, JFK boulevard, Pavonia Avenue, and Summit Avenue.

The zones are mapped below:

Click to view larger size

The Pedestrian Plaza
The planned open space for pedestrians is bounded by Garrison Avenue on the west, and Baldwin Avenue on the east, as shown in the maps below:

The color green highlights the Pedestrian Plaza

Open PATH Rails - JFK Boulevard and Pavonia. Loews in the background.

Baldwin Avenue overlooking PATH Transportation Building

Follow the link to download and read the Journal Square 2060 Redevelopment Plan. If you think 37 pages is a long read, just click on the links above(nj.com and JCI) for a summarized read.

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JSQ Redevelopment Scaled Down; Planning Board Will Meet with Residents

Del — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:26:10 +0000

Originally, the Journal Square Redevelopment Plan — dubbed as the “Vision” — covered a wider territory of our district. It was scaled down, though, after hearing what the residents have to say.

The new plan features the development of the two tall towers (City Center) and only includes the square itself — bordered by the following streets: John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Bergen Avenue, Sip Avenue, Summit Avenue.

(Note: Although the demolition of dilapidated hotel was celebrated during the Renaissance Ceremony last April, nothing seems to be going on in the area even though it was said that the development will start later that year.)

According to Jersey Journal, Jersey City planning officials will hold a meeting with residents and community groups before moving ahead with a Journal Square redevelopment plan. So Expect more changes and revisions to the plan before any move is done.

News and Info Sources:

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From JJ Editorial: “Journal Square needs more than it gets”

Del — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:44:45 +0000

The Jersey Journal (JJ) asks today why the redevelopment of Journal Square is taking so long. The editorial points the finger to the Special Improvement District (SID) – the agency responsible for the beautification of our district, including the promotion of local businesses.

Snippet of the editorial:

… It is time to re-evaluate this agency, which is funded by imposing special tax assessments on commercial property owners to produce what initial taxes failed to provide — clean streets, security and successful promotion of Journal Square.

There is little evidence that the SID does much to help shop owners or attract a bounty of new retail stores that are a step up from fast-food eateries. It is time to go beyond providing new facades for old stores…

JJ then proceeds to compare JSQ SID to other SID’s of New Jersey, including our neighbor Mcginley Square. “…The McGinley Square SID seems more successful. It at least provides a newsletter and holds events — and volunteers run the agency’s show. It is time for some accountability in Journal Square.”

Read the rest HERE.

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JSQ Redevelopment Plan is Moving Forward

Del — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:55:36 +0000

Journal Square rendering shows towers, new PATH station, and greener surrounding

Just a quick post to give you an update on the Journal Square Redevelopment Plan. It is moving forward after it was discussed by the City Council last Monday. As a matter of fact, today, the Jersey City Council will give the plan its first reading.

Read the rest for the full news…

Jersey City Council considers Greater Journal Square Redevelopment Plan
by Amy Sara Clark / The Jersey Journal
Monday February 09, 2009, 10:45 PM

The second major topic discussed at tonight’s City Council caucus meeting was the Greater Journal Square Redevelopment Plan.

The plan would include in the 244-acre area several skyscrapers, landscaped streets, pedestrian malls, a revamped PATH station, a narrow-gauge trolley from Route 139 to McGinley Square, a light rail spur to Journal Square, bike paths and more parks.

Bob Antonicello, executive director of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, praised the plan, saying it would bring people out of the PATH station and back onto the street, bringing vibrancy back to Journal Square.

He said the plan was based on more than 20 community meetings.

Tony Nelessen, principal planner of the plan, said, “One of the things we’ve heard over and over again is a kind of wonderful romance and nostalgia for the past. We wanted to capture the nostalgia for the past, but bring it into the future.”

Council members were also fairly quiet about this plan, but one issue that came up was a plan to allow developers to build higher than the cap of a floor area ratio of 10 if they gave money to a district improvement fund, which would be used only in the Journal Square area.

“I don’t know that I’m jumping for joy for that one,” said Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano.

The plan will receive its first reading at Wednesday’s council meeting.

News Source: Jersey Journal

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“Vision” — Closer to Adoption

Del — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:12:22 +0000

Click to view larger size

The picture above is how this block in the square looks like from Sip Avenue. The photo was taken last September, but it doesn’t matter since nothing has changed. This is the location where two high-rise buildings will be built as the center of what Mayor Healy terms as the “VISION“.

View from the back - click to view larger size

The Journal Square Vision, according to this news, is closer to adoption, as it has been reviewed and approved by Jersey City Planning Board last week. The plan will be passed to the council for final approval.

The picture below is the rendering of the buildings that will replace the dilapidated hotel above.

The rendering of two towers

Journal Square ‘vision’ closer to adoption
Planning Board recommends City Council approval
by Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter Staff Writer

The Jersey City Planning Board voted at its meeting on Tuesday to recommend the Journal Square Redevelopment Plan for final adoption by the City Council.

The plan is meant to revitalize the Journal Square area of town, adding 10,000 to 15,000 new residential units including two towers next to the existing bus/train station.

The plan calls for a 244-acre area to be redeveloped covering Vroom Street to the south, Tonnelle Avenue to the west, State Highway 139 to the north and Baldwin Avenue to the east. The plan is known as the Journal Square Center City Plan or “Jerramiah T. Healy’s Vision for Journal Square.” It is currently posted on the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency’s website (www.jcra.org).

Within the area, the city envisions thousands of square feet of commercial and retail space and 9 acres of park space. As part of the plan, the existing Journal Square transportation station might be replaced with a newer model. Implementing the plan is estimated to take upwards of 50 years and billions of dollars.

The centerpiece of the plan is the two $400 million towers (68 and 50 stories) to be privately built on land adjacent to the Journal Square Transportation Center by longtime Journal Square businessman Lowell Harwood and Washington D.C.-based pension firm MEPT. That project is expected to break ground this spring.

In November, the City Council approved a resolution declaring Journal Square an “area in need of rehabilitation”, a necessary step before any adoption of a comprehensive redevelopment plan, which calls for improvements to properties by their owners.

Now that the Planning Board approved the plan, the council may vote for final approval within a month’s time.

Watching closely

A truncated version of the plan was presented to the board by veteran urban planner Anton Nelessen, who along with Hoboken architect Dean Marchetto was commissioned by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency earlier this year to develop a plan based on input from city officials, and from community meetings that were held since July. Longer presentations on the plan were given last fall.

In those community meetings, there has been both praise and opposition from people living in the Journal Square area. At Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting, there was a little of both from longtime Journal Square resident Richard Boggiano, a former Jersey City police officer and president of the Hilltop Neighborhood Association.

Boggiano said he did not object to the plan but wanted the city to make improvements to infrastructure and city services, which will be impacted by future Journal Square development. He also does want any large-scale parking garage or skyscrapers built in the vicinity of his block of Magnolia Avenue, both concepts which were proposed in the plan.

“We have one of the last neighborhoods in Jersey City … we are a tight neighborhood and we will be watching,” Boggiano said.

‘A model’

Mayor Jerramiah Healy. Healy, as expected, touted the plan.

“We think it is a great plan and it is a great vision,” Healy said, “and we really think it’s going to be a model for the United States.”

But Healy admitted that the financing is not readily available to fulfill many of the goals set out in the plan. The city is currently exploring the idea of designating the Journal Square Rehabilitation Area as a revenue allocation district (RAD) where the revenues generated in that district is dedicated to capital improvements within the district and/or retiring debt incurred due to redevelopment within the RAD. But the city has to wait for the state Legislature to pass a pending bill that would also allow RADs in an “area in need of rehabilitation” not just in “an area in need of redevelopment.”

After Healy’s speech and some other business, the audience was treated to a slide show containing numerous images of Journal Square at the present time, with its wide-lane roads, surface parking lots, and lack of greenery. Then images were shown of a future Journal Square, with narrower roads, more pedestrian walk space, and an abundance of trees.

Nelessen also talked about the other transportation elements of the plan, including the Hudson-Bergen light rail running through Journal Square, and buses that stop in the Square rather than inside a station.

News Source: Hudson Reporter

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JSQ Redevelopment Plan Unveiled Today

Del — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:10:33 +0000

A rendering of the planned development of the Hotel on the Square Block in Journal Square

Today, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy spoke at the Hudson County Community College Culinary Institute about the redevelopment plan making Journal Square a premier Shopping Center it was once.

Full article from nj.com if you read the rest…

Jersey City Mayor Unveils Journal Square Redevelopment Plan
by Russell Ben-Ali/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday October 15, 2008, 4:01 PM

New parks, pedestrian-friendly streets and thousands of new apartments would surround Journal Square if a multi-billion dollar plan unveiled today by Jersey City’s mayor is approved.

The plan suggests the creation of nine acres of park space, configured to connect with existing city parks to stretch from Journal Square to the Jersey City waterfront, making it “the longest single urban greenway in the United States,” Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy said.

The plan also calls for an extension of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to Journal Square and the revamping of the Journal Square Transportation Center, including the PATH station and buses that carry some 8 million passengers per year. Trolley cars would carry commuters to shops and businesses, according to the designs.

Journal Square, once a center for shopping and entertainment for Jersey City, has been on the decline for decades, noted Healy, who said he remains hopeful that the city can repeat in the square its redevelopment success on the waterfront.

The mayor acknowledged, however, that the credit crisis has slowed the building industry and said it could take as long as 15 years for the Journal Square vision to be realized.

“The issue is can it be accomplished,” Healy told local, state and regional officials this morning at the Hudson County Community College Culinary Institute. “I think it can. And if you don’t have a vision nothing can be accomplished.”

Earlier this year the city commissioned two firms, A. Nelessen Associates, Inc. and Dean Marchetto Architects, P.C. to develop a plan known as “Vision Journal Square.” The firms based their designs in part on responses to surveys taken of residential and business communities in the area.

The study cost about $400,000, with $150,000 paid through a Department of Community Affairs grant and the balance from Urban Enterprise Zone funds, officials said.

A public hearing on the plan is scheduled October 23.

News source: nj.com

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