Newark Avenue Pedestrian Plaza To Get $6.7M Upgrades

JERSEY CITY, NJ — Jersey City has a $6.7 million makeover planned for the Newark Avenue pedestrian plaza.

City officials announced the upgrades at a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday which was attended by the Historic Downtown Special Improvement District as well as small business owners along the plaza. Mayor Steven Fulop said the city will get started on the upgrades immediately and expects to be finished by mid-October.

The plaza was first closed off to vehicular traffic in 2015 as an experiment to limit traffic and create a pedestrian destination. The plaza continued to grow, with another block added in 2018 following the plaza's success and more expansion throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as demand for outdoor dining and pedestrian space increased.

The $6.7 million will come from capital dollars according to Mayor Fulop, "A long-term bond is a better way to say that, so it doesn't have a significant impact to a budget on a year-to-year basis."

The plaza is closed off by cement planters and the roadway is painted over green. The upgrades will include new pavers and surface improvements, new planters, lighting changes and a stage. While construction is gearing up to start immediately, Fulop said the city plans on phasing in the work, to accommodate restaurants and outdoor dining.

"There's no perfect time to do it, you can't do this kind of work in the cold weather really, so we're going to try to do it as quickly as possible to have a minimal impact on businesses," Fulop said, "Ultimately we think that the outdoor dining that you've seen throughout COVID is going to stay here in some form, and certainly we value places like this even more so now."

The vision to create and expand a pedestrian plaza downtown has been in the works for six years, according to the mayor. Steven Kalcanides, President of HDSID and owner of Helen's Pizza, said he's had his mind on a pedestrian plaza since he joined HDSID in the 90s.

"One of my goals was to have a closed street plaza, giving it some type of European feel," Kalcanides said, "I'm really excited about it, I know most of the businesses are."