While the price has raised some eyebrows--the assessed value of the 13 acres has been put at just under $3 million--it's a lot more than the original sale price. In late 2002, the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency had agreed to sell the site to the partnership for just $1. But shortly after she became the new executive director of the agency, Suzanne Mack nixed that deal.
Local officials have justified the low-ball price on the basis of the amount of remediation the site will require to prepare it for redevelopment. PPG Industries, which once had a glass manufacturing plant there, and PSE&G have jointly taken responsibility for the on-site pollution and have launched a clean-up.
Under the terms of the agreement, the sale won't actually close until that clean-up is completed and certified by the state. The parties in the sale couldn't be reached for comment.
Florio, a Democrat who served as governor from 1990-1994, now heads Xspand Inc., a Morristown, NJ property tax lien redemption and consulting services firm he founded in 1997. Daggett was a DEP commissioner in the late 1980s during the administration of Gov. Thomas Kean.
The site itself lies along the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system near the New Jersey entrance to the Holland Tunnel. While the new owners haven't laid out specific plan, they've indicated that the combined 16 acres will eventually be redeveloped with either retail or warehouse/distribution uses.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.