HIGH HOPES FOR SQUARE EYESORE
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Two glassy high-rise towers with apartments, retail stores, three levels of underground parking, and possibly a hotel.
It's all coming to Journal Square and Harwood Properties, a company with deep roots in Jersey City, is going to make it happen, city officials announced last week.
Last month, Harwood Properties signed a contract to purchase almost every property on the block next to the Journal Square Transportation Center, including the defunct Hotel-on-the-Square building, the hopeful developer and city officials said.
The third-generation family-run firm - which already owns the Ramp Garage behind the Loew's Jersey Theater, another parking lot on Sip Avenue and is part-owner of the recently opened State Theater apartment complex - is buying out Ralph Tawil Jr., a New York City investor who has racked up nearly $4 million in fines on his Journal Square holdings. All of Tawil's buildings are slated for demolition.
City officials hailed the purchase contract and the proposed plans as the biggest step forward to date toward the rebirth of the once storied square.
"This comes after two decades of eyesore and waste," Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy said. "Obviously the Harwoods have a long history in the city and in Journal Square in particular."
Lowell Harwood - a Lincoln High graduate and managing partner of the company - declined to say how much his firm is paying for the properties, citing a confidentiality agreement with Tawil.
However, he said he's already spent a hefty sum on the first phase of an environmental study, drillings to find out how much rock is on site, and renderings of the finished product.
Chris Fiore, interim director of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, said the limited partnership entity formed by the Harwoods to develop the site, Journal Square Development LLC, is likely to be named "designated developer" for the site at the agency's meeting on March 21.
Once that is accomplished, city officials and Harwood would negotiate the details of the plan, including the height of the towers, and how many apartments they will contain, Fiore said. A market study would help determine the feasibility of a hotel, Harwood said.
Harwood wouldn't say when a closing was scheduled, but pointed out that in order to be named "designated developer" for the site, Harwood Properties has to demonstrate that it owns or is about to own the land.
If all goes according to plan, Harwood said, construction will begin in January.
Harwood said he's in negotiations to purchase the three buildings on the block not owned by the Tawils - 15-16 Journal Square, which houses the McDonald's and Songs Hallmark; 14 Journal Square, which formerly housed a Wendy's; and 12 Journal Square, which houses Kentucky Fried Chicken.
© 2006 The Jersey Journal
© 2006 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.