The Bayonne City Council approved a 25-year payment in lieu of taxes agreement (PILOT) agreement for a 232-unit project being developed by the Alessi Organization.Â
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The city council was voting on a project being developed by Peninsula View Urban Renewal, LLC, a subsidy of the Alessi Organization. The property spans from 77 East 31st St. through 268 Prospect Ave.
Francesco Alessi, the manager of the development company, explained that his family’s business has been in Bayonne since 1966, highlighting recent projects such as the South Cove development, Dollar Tree and Quick Chek.
“We are local developers here to the City of Bayonne and I think for benefit of the public, to understand what a tax PILOT is, and the benefit: not only to the developer, but at the end of the day, it’s really to the long-term stability and viability of a project,” Alessi said.
“And that is for the long-term benefit of the community.”
Frequent Mayor Jimmy Davis administration critic Peter Franco was predictably unimpressed, claiming that Alessi projects had done little to help the residents of Bayonne.
“That was cute and all, but the reality is, we’re not building what we need in this city … the fact is we could be incentivizing things to create real jobs not Auto Zones, not Quick Checks, not Costcos, we could incentivize and advance that way,” said Franco.
“We’re not doing a complete benefit for the community by building constant high rises and high-density projects and we don’t even know what the effect of this is. He sits here and says ‘oh I built things without an abatement.’ Well keep building ’em without an abatement!”
Also expected was Business Administrator Joe DeMarco begging to differ with Franco’s opinion.
“That is a Bayonne company that employs a number of Bayonne people. He also, if you look at his job site and look who his contractors are, they are Bayonne contractors: Alessandro Electric and various other contractors, suppliers and vendors,” DeMarco stated.
“So he is utilizing skilled labor out of companies and I think I’ve asked him a number of times, some of his jobs – the Quick Check job, things of that nature, are about 60, if not closer to 70, percent done by local contractors.”
The council ultimately passed the measure by a vote of 4-1, with only 3rd Ward Councilman Gary La Pelusa voting no.
