With New Jersey residents set to decide whether or not casino gaming will come to North Jersey on November 8, a new website is advocating for a 90-story hotel and casino complex known as Liberty Rising in Jersey City.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Liberty Rising is a world-class resort with gaming that will bring jobs and economic opportunity to Jersey City and the surrounding region,” according to a website created by Our Turn NJ.
The $4 billion luxury complex, the brainchild of billionaire Reebok founder Paul Fireman, would potentially be located at 100 Caven Point Road – which is south of Liberty State Park and between an industrial area and Liberty National Golf Course.
The website says that the project would not disrupt residential areas near LSP or impact traffic on the Jersey City waterfront and would also provide easy access to the NJ Turnpike and Manhattan.
Furthermore, Our Turn NJ states that the large-scale entertainment center would be 100 percent privately funded, create 9,000 union construction jobs, as well as “6,000 resort operation jobs.”
Back in January, Hudson County View first reported that Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, an expected Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said that a local casino would bring “a revenue boon” to the city, creating anywhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 to 6,000 jobs.
After a spring visit to Atlantic City, Fulop backtracked on his pro casino stance, stating he would support North Jersey casino gaming – just not in Jersey City, leading to a heated Twitter exchange with state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-20) back in April.
Lesniak, who is also mulling a run for governor, said then that he’d be all for a facility like Liberty Rising coming to Elizabeth – the largest municipality in his legislative district.
Lesniak, state Sen. President Stephen Sweeney (D-3), Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-32), state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-13), state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-11), among many others, are pictured with quotes favorable to expanding gaming outside of Atlantic City on a section of the website titled “Our Support.”
Additional information on the Our Turn NJ website claims that NJ has lost $1.8 billion in gaming revenue since 2006, funding that could have went toward programs for low-income and disabled seniors, such as Meals on Wheels, housing programs and group homes.
Trenton’s Bad Bet, an advocacy group fighting against bringing casinos to North Jersey, announced their formation in July, pointing to the state’s recent struggles with the Transportation Trust Fund as one of several reasons why new casinos would not live up to the hype.
Our Turn NJ, which has a mailing address of 85 Livingston Ave. in Roseland, has recently paid for two TV commercials encouraging voters to support making North Jersey casinos a reality.
Both commercials, released on August 17 and August 22, respectively, have been released on the group’s YouTube channel (which currently doesn’t have any other videos uploaded) and can be seen below.
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