Bergen-Lafayette is neighborhood is located in the central part of Jersey City. It is surrounded by five other neighborhoods. Liberty State Park is its eastern border and Bergen Avenue in the West Side neighborhood its western border. The northern border is jagged around Grand Street and Fairmount Avenue in McGinley Square. The southern border is Wegman Parkway separating MLK-B/L from Greenville.
The principal retail center in the MLK-B/L neighborhood runs along Martin Luther King Drive. The Drive was previously known as Jackson Avenue, an upscale shopping corridor in the 1940s and 1950s. Storefronts of many original Jackson Avenue stores are still evident. Retailers are using some today; others stand vacant. Several smaller retail strips run along other east-west roads in the neighborhood. A six-block area is undergoing a $3 million façade rehabilitation program funded by the Jersey City Urban Enterprise Program.
The MLK Hub, located along MLK Drive and Virginia Avenue, is one of Jersey City’s most ambitious economic revitalization projects. Primarily funded by the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation, the Hub is home to a new firehouse, a supermarket and retail strip mall and a new post office. Significant investment of public capital has been the catalyst for private investment in the area.
At one time, there were a number of manufacturing companies on sites located on the eastern edge of the neighborhood, around Garfield Avenue. These sites, once abandoned, are being purchased with the intention of turning them into residential uses. With two light rail stops in or adjacent to the area, it is more accessible to downtown Jersey City and New York City than any other part of Jersey City, with the exception of the Waterfront.