Block of Monticello has brighter look for 13 businesses

Friday, January 18, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

New awnings. Red brick facade. The name of her store, "Grace Bakery and Restaurant" artfully etched in the show window.

Yves Desir, who opened for business at 140 Monticello Ave. on Saturday, couldn't be more pleased with the $1.3 million facade makeover she and 12 other commercial neighbors have received, courtesy of a state program that kicks back sales tax money to the city.

"It's practically a new building," Desir gushed. "I am very pleased with the job they did. It makes the neighborhood look better."

Several city officials, including Mayor Jerramiah Healy, joined in a ribbon-cutting yesterday to celebrate the completion of the facade makeover along Monticello Avenue between Astor Place and Brinkerhoff Street.

Indeed, the block seems transformed from everything around it, with all the businesses on the east side of the street having received new signs, awnings, windows, wall repairs, security gates, lighting, and doors.

"The facade brings out the avenue very distinctly," said Tommie Cates, whose sister runs The Word Works, a store a few doors down from the bakery that sells Biblical materials. "It's definitely upgraded."

Completed in six months by Newark-based Admo Construction Inc., the work was paid for with state Urban Enterprise Zone funds. Roughly a third of Jersey City falls into a UEZ zone where store owners can arrange to charge half of the state's 7 percent sales tax. The 3.5 percent tax they do charge is recycled into the community through projects such as this, city officials said.

"We want this to continue," said Healy. "We are confident we will bring this kind of success to other parts of the city."

Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson called the project "a real uplift for this area. Much more needs to be done, but this is a real good beginning," she added.

Michele Massey, executive director of the Main Street Program, the group that oversaw the work, said her group has several other projects on tap, including building renovations and bringing a new supermarket to the area.

Six other similar projects have been completed across the city, said Eugene Nelson, executive director of the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation.