RAD plan a $quare boost

Saturday, April 05, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City officials are coming up with a RAD-ical plan for Journal Square - and right on time as far as some developers are concerned.

To spur development, city honchos intend to carve out a special "revenue allocation district" in the center of the city so a certain amount of property taxes - or payment in lieu of taxes in the case of tax-abated properties - collected in the area can be used to raise bigger bucks in the bond market.

The money raised from selling bonds would then be used to finance infrastructure projects within the district, officials said.

"We are already a transportation hub in Journal Square. Now we want to restore some of the magnificence to what Journal Square used to be," said Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy. "It's an investment in infrastructure back in your city."

The concept is receiving rave reviews from developers who have projects brewing with the district, whose tentative boundaries stretch from Summit Avenue to Tonnelle Avenue, and from Sip Avenue to Pavonia Avenue.

Peter Mangin, president of Jersey City-based Garden State Development, is exercising an option to purchase air rights over the PATH rail lines to the west of Kennedy Boulevard. Needless to say, Mangin, who hopes to build a mixed-use development over the six-acre area, is "supportive" of the idea.

"I think that (the RAD) would ultimately assist us in helping to pay for infrastructure costs that would have a spill-over effect for the entire area," Mangin said.

Joseph Panepinto, who has built several projects in the Square, including the ADP Building with Mangin and Hartz Mountain, said if the RAD happens - and other projects in the Square take off - he might replace the Burger King and Dunkin Donuts that sits on land he owns on Magnolia and Summit avenues with a high-rise office tower.

"It makes a lot of sense," Panepinto said about the RAD. "If some of that money comes back to help us get a project started that's a good idea."

The complete plan should be ready in about eight months, said Jersey City Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Robert Antonicello. The plan would have to be approved by the city council.

Current thinking is to use between 10 and 15 percent of taxes collected in the area for the RAD, he said.

The RAD is based on tax incremental financing (TIF), which has been used to raise money for projects in 49 states, including New Jersey, said Eugene T. Paolino, a prominent real estate attorney in Jersey City.

TIF money is currently being used to help finance infrastructure costs for Hudson Yards in New York City, a 350-acre development on the city's west side, Paolino said.