Developers of the mammoth project planned for the Journal Square area is seeking a 30 year tax abatement, ten years longer than most abatements in the downtown, but on par with abatements already granted to the Beacon, reports the Jersey Journal.

Harwood Towers has plenty to offer the city. The city’s efforts to revitalize the Journal Square area have been decades long, and while the waterfront and downtown neighborhoods have certainly seen tremendous growth and redevelopment, western neighborhoods have been slower to follow suit. Past proposals for the square have not worked out, and even the current Harwood Towers still needs to finalize eminent domain seizures.

While its perhaps time to start reconsidering tax abatements in the gentrified areas of Newport where momentum will be enough for continued development for years to come, the success and failure of Journal Square revitalization efforts essentially reside with the success and failure of the Harwood Towers project. Already the mere prospect of the towers has brought proposed construction projects to the table, and once the towers are complete, further redevelopment is inevitable.