Littered park to be pretty 'plaza' --Tiny area Grove Street station will be transformed

Ricardo Kaulessar -- Hudson Reporter staff writer 03/23/2007

SOON A PLAZA ? It looks like an unsightly construction site but this area by the Grove Street PATH Station in Downtown Jersey City will become a new Pedestrian Plaza by early June.
You may not know this, but the tiny one-tenth of an acre public park near the Grove Street PATH station actually has a name.

It's Fitzgerald-Holota Park, named for two local World War II vets.

It also has a big future. It will soon morph into a "pedestrian plaza" for residents of the nearby Grove Pointe development-in-progress and the public.

Grove Pointe is a 29-story building-in-progress on Columbus Drive near Newark Avenue that will consist of 67 condominiums and 458 rental apartments when it is completed in June.

SK Properties, the Grove Pointe development team, will revamp the park as well as a one-block section of Newark Avenue that runs past the park. The one-block section will be closed off to vehicles during weekday mid-day hours and on the weekends.

Only during morning and afternoon rush hours will buses be allowed to come through, going one way westbound.

Annie Kessler, who has resided in downtown Jersey City for over 25 years with her husband Charles, led the community push for the plaza.

"Just the impression it makes of being a high-end, well designed area, has an effect on people who live here as well as visitors," said Kessler.

Jeff Persky, a principal in SK Properties, said last week that the plaza project, which began last fall, will be completed by late May.

The new plaza

According to Annie Kessler, the plaza will have bluestone on the ground, considered among the best surface materials to use. There will also be removable tables and chairs that Grove Pointe management will be responsible for putting out every morning by 8 a.m. and removing by 10 p.m.

The agreement also calls for garbage cans to be emptied and plaza grounds maintained daily. The grounds will also be power-washed four times a year.

Kessler said movable planters will be placed at both ends of the Newark Avenue section that runs past the plaza.

Kessler also said a range of activities for which the old park had no capacity could take place at the plaza.

"It's designed in a way that events can take place there," said Kessler. "There could possibly be a farmers market [and] there could be concerts because of the way it's designed."

Neighbors look forward

Paulus Hook resident Gerry Bakirtjy, who took part in the plaza's initial planning, said last week he "very proud" to see the plaza becoming a reality.

"It's a good project that will add to the resurgence of Grove Street," said Bakirtjy.

Medhat "Zak" Dewaik, a broker and owner of Avalon Realty on Grove Street, which will have a direct view of the plaza, was also spirited.

"I look forward to when it's finished," said Dewaik. "It's happening a lot faster than I expected. When it's done I can have lunch there or take my clients."

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com

Sidebar

Rejecting the blue rectangle

Annie Kessler said that around 2001, then-Mayor Bret Schundler proposed a "blue, rectangular wall" at the entrance to the Grove Street PATH train station. The idea was not well received by Kessler, then president of the Harsimus Cove Neighborhood Association, and fellow members.

At around the same time, the developers for Grove Pointe started meeting with Harsimus Cove members to discuss the pending residential project by the PATH station.

Kessler then put together a committee, made up of members of other downtown neighborhood associations that included several architects, to explore beautifying the area around the train station.

"[There were] lots of rats and garbage. It was not well maintained," said Kessler.

Kessler credits fellow Downtown resident Jeff Elkind with the idea of the Pedestrian Plaza.

"[Elkind] was the one who suggested the plaza," said Kessler. "And that went over very well with many of the residents in the area, and the developers were immediately receptive to the idea."

The developers agreed to create the plaza. The committee also had an ally in then-City Councilman E. Junior Maldonado, who took up their cause and crafted an ordinance, which the City Council passed, stipulating that the developers take responsibility for maintaining the plaza.

"The maintenance agreement was a function of Junior Maldonado saying that the community should come up with what they thought was a good agreement," said Kessler, "and the developer should work with them to make it happen." - RK