FROM THE JERSEY JOURNAL (Newhouse Newspapers)
Saturday, August 19, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Amid accusations of financial mismanagement, Jersey City has ended its relationship with the partnership charged with managing "the Hub" shopping center on Martin Luther King Drive and developing the surrounding 26-acre area.
In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the City Council ended the agreement with Martin Luther King Urban Renewal Joint Venture Partnership on the grounds that the partnership has not made payments since 2002 on the $13.3 million in loans that started the project in 2000. Further, the council said the non-profit partnership has not provided the city with an audit since 2001.
Commercial tenants at the Hub are now being told to send September rent checks directly to the city Division of Real Estate, said Robert Antonicello, executive director of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency.
Antonicello, along with other city officials, including Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson, scouted two Pennsylvania-based companies they said are likely to be selected to replace the joint venture partnership.
The joint venture partnership is comprised of the Martin Luther King Drive Neighborhood Development Corp. and the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation.
Mayor Jerramiah Healy said, "We are keeping an eye towards continuing the MLK Hub program, however we want to remove the financial burden that has been unjustly put upon the city by the NDC's mismanagement of funds."
Omar Barbour, executive director of the NDC, said a just-completed audit proves funds haven't been mismanaged.
Barbour traced the partnership's fiscal woes to a lease agreement signed in 2003 with Extra Supermarket that paid $30,000 a month less than the previous tenant.