A preliminary settlement deal is in place for Hoboken’s Monarch project, an agreement that would transfer the development area to the city and the pave way for the redevelopment of the Department of Public Works garage site.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The settlement, negotiated by Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s administration, would temporarily prevent the Applied Development Company from building two 11-story high rise residential buildings along Hoboken’s uptown waterfront.
Furthermore, the scenario presents the opportunity for the city and Applied to negotiate a Redevelopment Agreement to officially transfer the Monarch site to the City and set the terms to build a new DPW facility.
The settlement will be presented to the city council for approval at a meeting in August, though the transfer of the Monarch site is contingent on the council approving a redevelopment agreement at a later date to be determined.
“This settlement is a win for the City of Hoboken. Not only does it protect our precious waterfront from development and preserve the site for open space, but it also presents an opportunity to revitalize an area in downtown Hoboken,” Mayor Ravi Bhalla said in a statement.
“And, a new, state-of-the-art municipal garage will facilitate improved public works services. While we have work to do over the next several months to finalize this proposed deal with a Redevelopment Agreement, this settlement is a critical step forward.â€
The DPW garage is located at 256 Observer Highway, and along with providing a full renovation of the facility, Applied would also agree to building 4,000 square feet of retail along the thoroughfare, as well as 264,000-square-foot transit-oriented rental building – which would dedicate at least 11 percent of their units to affordable housing.
Again, this whole development would only be made possible once the terms of a redevelopment agreement is approved by the council.
Meanwhile, the Monarch site, located on the waterfront in the 2nd Ward, would be part of an open space project where Applied would pay the city up to $1 million to remove debris and other cleanup efforts.
The latest wrinkle in the ongoing Monarch saga, which has been tied up in litigation for years, is another bit of a surprise after the New Jersey Supreme Court granted the City of Hoboken’s request to review their appeal of the project.
City spokesman Vijay Chaudhuri said that the case is still scheduled to “be heard simultaneously on a parallel track,” though said it would be premature to speculate on what would happen pending potential outcomes of the court hearing.
“There are a number of unknown factors that could influence the final outcome of the Monarch site,” he added.
“While the City continues to defend its position in the Supreme Court, the settlement reflects a desire for both parties to protect Hoboken’s waterfront while revitalizing downtown Hoboken with additional retail and a new municipal garage at no cost to taxpayers.”
A spokesman for the project did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
The devil is always in the details. I suspect the biggest winners of this proposed plan when all is said and done will be Applied by trading a nightmare collapsed pier development site for prime real estate near NJT and PATH and Councilwoman Fisher who owns two low floor condominiums in the Hudson Tea building facing Manhattan, which would lose much of their value if the pier were developed eliminating her views and could increase in value if Hoboken taxpayers pay for a river front park outside her windows.
Nice try… But you do realize if the views of Hudson tea’s 100PLUS units are destroyed, their tax assessment goes down and so do the city’s revenue. This isn’t about Tiffanie!
The tax assessment would remain the same as it is today but any future resale price would drop.
Glad you aren’t an accountant!
Read what Bhalla wrote: ““This settlement is a win for the City of Hoboken. Not only does it protect our precious waterfront from development and preserve the site for open space, but it also presents an opportunity to revitalize an area in downtown Hoboken,†Mayor Ravi Bhalla said in a statement.”
It’s not about Tiff- you keep talking idiotic stuff like this Nora will surely lose .
Councilwoman Fisher’s ownership of adjacent property that would increase or decrease in value would have to recuse herself from any negotiations or vote on the project
Can someone please help clarify something Im not totally understanding. Mayor doesn’t want any 11 story building uptown, though is ok with putting a 20 story Hilton Hotel Downtown on top of the postoffice?
http://hudsoncountyview.com/hoboken-pba-pres-rutherford-mayoral-hopeful-not-facing-discipline-over-alleged-rapinoe-slur/#comment-149406
Just tell everyone your ticket is a big tent party that runs the gamut from democrats to Trump-worshiping bloggers who think calling Megan Rapinoe a c***, a piece of s*** and a classless cur is just a matter of exercising free speech. Your party is so inclusive!
It is a HUGE dirty tent it includes favored racist bloggers and of course tent maker Mayor $acco.
Ravi freeing up some legal
Fees to fight the dry dock for 5-10 years in Federal and State courts only to lose. Seems like a great deal for Applied
There’s not much transparency in this so-called “deal.” Hoboken doesn’t see any valuation on what those Barry brothers getting for the most valuable land the City of Hoboken holds. Nothing. We can only be sure that Ravi Bhalla will make out really well on the backend with lots of of mysterious monies finding their way to him like that shady second job of his with municipal contracts.
Outrageous accusations with no basis in fact. The only thing we can be sure of is that a few psychopathic political zealots. will continue to make up conspiracy theories to attack the Mayor no matter what he does.
Why doesn’t the mayor’s office do real work instead of coming here and lying?!! Oh and that includes the biggest azzhole paid political liar for Ravi Bhalla who is all over this website with more screen names than ever.
This negotiation presented underway is NOT A SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT!
Can Ravi Bhalla ever stop lying? For cripes sakes, the guy lies all the time and is the bad example for the rest of this dirty crew.
Questions:
1. Do we know if Ironstate would ever really build the Monarch?
2. Was this just a ploy to get the garage site they have been after since the 1980’s?
3. How do we know what Ironstate’s cost to build at the Shipyard over the water versus being handed a larger plot of land with city funded remediation?
4. Has the city hired CBRE to do an analysis like they asked of every other developer?
Applied gets a giant plot next to a transit hub with amazing NYC views and the new Transit Yard project is it possible the Barry’s never really wanted to build the Monarch especially given the larger costs to create new bulkheads, pilings, clean up and meet FEMA’s new codes along the water.
Granted the Monarch is much smaller but the units would sell or rent for record breaking prices the profit would be much smaller as Ironstate builds one of the costliest towers in that area. Getting the rights to 200 plus units on prime land next to a train seems like a huge win for them especially since they should have never been allowed to even start the Monarch.
Make no mistake, I’m very happy the Mayor got this on the table and it may be the best deal now, but lookin back maybe the 60 units on Monroe was a better deal in hindsight.
Never trust JB and the boys, they’ll find a way to get NJ Transit to take the Muni garage on the rail yards buried beneath a 40 story tower.
No one should ever trust Ironstate about anything. Remember too that Hoboken developer JB was sent to prison for paying off a top Hudson County official get what he wanted as he built his empire that he turned over to his boys.
Can someone please help clarify something Im not totally understanding. Mayor doesn’t want any 11 story building uptown, though is ok with putting a 20 story Hilton Hotel Downtown on top of the postoffice?
Gotta keep those Maxwell Place and Hudson Tea residents happy; they write the biggest campaign checks.
Not as big as Frank Raia’s checks. Recently convicted of felony voter fraud Raia gave Mike DeFusco close to $10K when he ran for mayor.
Don’t trust ANY deal that Ravi two Jobs puts together… Imagine a new deal with the Barry’s?
Look at My zoning record in 2014. I was 5 for 5 in Voting in big development while On the zoning board of adjustment. DeFusco only managed to vote 3 out of 5. I am the developer candidate even against new comer Nick that is for sure….
https://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2017/07/defuscos-developer-luvin-zba-record.html
I live in the First Ward and WAS going to vote for Mr. Defusco… until I read that article “Defusco’s Developer Luvin zba Record.” Now I will NEVER vote for him! NEVER EVER. And I’m going to tell all my friends in the 5th ward to vote for Mr. Cohen, who is an honest man.
By the way, is it true that you created this photoshop? It’s SO racist and disgusting. Only a hood-wearing white supremacist would have created such offensive filth.
http://thelinkpaper.ca/?p=73124
Racist Website Photoshops Image Of Sikh-American Mayor To Show Him As Arab Dictator
You are an idiot. If you vote for Phil you are voting for big development. The same reason you don’t support Defusco. Your post makes no sense.
Also when I ran for Freeholder in 2015 and spent over $70k in defeat I said I wanted operational audits but I told Tom DeGise that was just to get elected. I will say anything to get elected but I don’t get elected. Romano crushed me.