From: New Jersey Business, January 1999

By James T. Prior

Journal Square, the core of Jersey City and hub of Hudson County, is rising like a Phoenix from the ashes of past problems - thanks to a partnership of business and government. It had once been a commercial center, but its light had been dimmed by economic hard times, heightened competition by malls and catalogue and on-line shopping. When the economy rebounded, all eyes were focused on the waterfront. But that is Wall Street West and Silicon Valley East. This is the heart of the city. Daily, some 30,000 travelers (would-be shoppers) use the mammoth PATH Station that anchors the Square.

About four years ago, business leaders, landlords, merchants and city officials banded together to form the Journal Square Restoration Corporation (JSRC), the state's largest downtown improvement district. Brian T Coleman is executive director, overseeing a $1.7-million budget Crews are hard at work right now reconfiguring the Square, planting a plethora of trees, and installing a fountain, pedestrian plaza, new lighting and streetscape improvements. It is all part of a sweeping $7.5-million capital improvement project, funded in part by monies collected in the Urban Enterprise Zone.

A tour of the Square with Coleman, JSRC Chairman Scott Harwood, who operates Square Parking, and board member Elliot Braha, proprietor of Lords, a very popular children's department store on Kennedy Boulevard, illustrates the varied activities. Harwood's and Braha's families have had operations on the Square for a half century.

Hartz Mountain and Joseph Panepinto plan a 500,000 square foot office center, Journal Square Plaza 111, opposite the PATH Transportation Center. The foundation is already in place, awaiting enough would-be tenant interest. Panepinto says he is "moving this project up" on his agenda.

Loew's Jersey Theatre, which opened on the Square in 1929, succumbed to a changing lifestyle and was converted to three movie houses and finally closed in 1986. The theater is leased to the Economic Dev elopment Corporation, and Friends of Loew's (FOL) volunteers are doing a massive restoration job. A $2-million grant pays for much of it; but volunteerism keeps the price down. Colin Egan is chairman of the FOL.

26 Journal Square, an art deco 15-story office tower built in the 1920s, has been purchased by Fort Lee-based BFE Properties and updated with 21st century amenities. The 115,000 square-foot mixed-use unit is already 80 percent leased.

The Earle Hotel, a 1920s facility, is being totally rehabilitated as an eight-story, plus two-story penthouse, residential tower by Trip Brooks. Studio, l- and 2-bedroom and penthouse units will rent from $900 to $2,500 a month.

Adjacent to the PATH Center is a phalanx of fast food and retail shops and a defunct Hotel on the Square, which is boarded up. All that is on property leased from New Jersey Transit for 99 years by a Sea Girt realty investor. The city would like to raze that and create a new retail-office-educational complex. "It's a linchpin for development of the Square," says Coleman.

Hudson Community College has rapidly expanded in the Square, drawing thousands of students from all over northern New Jersey. It anticipates that more than 10,000 students will attend school there in the coming two to three years.

Executive Director Coleman says the 11-member JSRC (plus non-voting Mayor Bret Schundler and a councilperson) is a veritable who's who on the Square. All the major banks - Provident Savings, Statewide Savings, Trust Company of New Jersey - are involved. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has pumped some $1.5 million into sprucing up the complex. Footlocker has just announced it is opening a retail shop here - others are about to be announced.

"We have a great partnership of city officials, business leaders, banks, shopkeepers, the Part Authority, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and many others," says Coleman. "There is a true dynamic in motion here."

If all goes as planned, nightlife, shopping, dining and educational, cultural and entertainment activities will return to Journal Square. Can art galleries, coffee houses and bookstores be far behind?