PSEG Sells Two Retired Coal Sites to Hilco Redevelopment Partners
The properties will be remediated and returned to commerce, as HRP plans a second life for both sites as warehouse distribution hubs.
NEWARK, NJ—PSEG Power, a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group, has sold the sites of its retired Hudson Generating Station in Jersey City/Secaucus and Mercer Generating Station in Hamilton Township to Hilco Redevelopment Partners, an operating company within Hilco Global.
Both coal-burning power plants were built in the 1960s and retired in June 2017, as part of PSEG’s commitment to providing clean energy. Last year, the company set the goal of eliminating 13 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2030 from 2005 levels.
After reviewing more than two dozen proposals, PSEG selected Chicago-headquartered HRP based on its strong environmental track record and demonstrated success in managing complex redevelopment projects, including retired coal plants. HRP envisions redeveloping the sites as state-of-the-art industrial parks to serve the growing need for regional warehouse distribution hubs in central and northern New Jersey.
“We hope these sites will continue to be productive assets for the communities that hosted the plants for decades,” says John Paul Cowan, senior vice president of operations for PSEG Fossil. “That’s why we sought out a buyer that understands the strategic value of both locations and will leverage the great labor pool in the surrounding areas. Hilco Redevelopment Partners has a track record of success taking on both the remediation of these types of industrial facilities and, most importantly, redeveloping them into economic engines for the people who live in and around the sites.”
HRP also recently acquired retired coal power facilities from Exelon in Boston and NRG in Chicago.
“Our goal with every redevelopment project is to return economic vitality to these dormant industrial sites, giving them a new purpose and generating new strategic opportunities,” says Roberto Perez, HRP CEO. “The locations of both the Hudson and Mercer sites offer transformational opportunities to reposition underutilized land into modern industrial parks in one of the strongest warehouse/distribution center regions in the entire country.”
HRP has several current transactions and ongoing development projects underway, in Baltimore, Boston, and Chicago. HRP’s other projects include redevelopment of The Gauge, a decommissioned manufacturing facility in Waltham, MA; modernization of One North LaSalle, updating the tenant amenities of an art deco-era office building in Chicago’s Central Loop; and the decommissioning and redevelopment of numerous other large industrial sites across the country.
“We’re excited about this acquisition from PSEG,” Hilco Global chairman and CEO Jeff Hecktman says. “These are unique projects that require a special skill set in order to bring new economic development and jobs back to communities.”