Jersey City’s Holistic Urban Building

Jersey City certainly lives up to its motto: “America’s Golden Neighborhoods.” Residents from each part of the globe are not the only ones discovering the city -- even Wall Street has expanded operations here. Since the third quarter of 1998, Lord Abbett, Cigna, US Trust, Paine Webber, American Express, Insurance Service Offices, and National Discount Brokerage have moved operations to new waterfront office towers. Moreover, Goldman Sachs, Datek, and Chase Manhattan will soon be here.

Jersey City’s Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) is unparalleled by any municipality in New Jersey and, perhaps, the entire country. The city’s vigorous rebirth is a league apart from others as state-of-the-art office edifices rise up from the decaying remnants of rail yards and industrial compounds from a bygone era.

“Mayor Healy's leadership and his innovative use of the Urban Enterprise Zone program have made Jersey City’s economic reconstruction the example for other cities to follow,” says Gene Nelson, chief executive officer of the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation (JCEDC), a private non-profit corporation that administers the UEZ.

In addition, the Healy Administration and the JCEDC have effectively leveraged $52 million from the UEZ’s Zone Assistance Fund into $3.8 billion in private investments throughout the city.

Along Christopher Columbus Drive, a major thoroughfare to the waterfront, the $180,000 UEZ art mural -- the second largest in the United States -- artistically conveys the city’s celebration of progress.

In June 1996, the JCEDC bestowed more than $1 million for the Journal Square Plaza Streetscape to augment $6.5 million from public and private funds. The project blanketed the broad asphalt taxi stand with a granite-paved concourse, and neatly embellished the plaza with benches, streetlamps, fountain, food kiosk, potted blossoms, and a floral-dedicated median -- all centered on a grand mosaic compass. Most of all, the venture led to additional private investments in Journal Square totaling $19 million.

The partnership between the JCEDC and the Neighborhood Development Corporation has sparked the revival of Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. More than $5 million has been provided from the UEZ as part of the $18 million plaza development. On February 2, 2000, the opening of the 50,000 square foot Citimarket shopping center began the return of a vibrant corridor of commerce. A post office, Ponderosa Restaurant, Ashley Stewart, Kid’s Spot, and others are lined up for Martin Luther King Plaza’s 100,000 adjoining retail center.

And, through an enterprising initiative of the Healy Administration, the JCEDC has apportioned more than $9 million for the Neighborhood Blockfront/Façade Improvement Program. In the last three years, a total 51 blockfronts were refurbished. Thus, scores of dilapidated facades from six shopping corridors were restored to turn-of-the-century architectural motifs.