FROM THE STAR LEDGER (Newhouse Newspapers)
Thursday, January 25, 2007
BY KASI ADDISON
Star-Ledger Staff
Frustrated by the lack of progress on what was supposed to be a $160-million makeover of Bloomfield's downtown center, the town council has unanimously decided to remove Forest City Daly as the developer on the project.
The New York-based firm was hired in February 2004 to manage the massive redevelopment, which, according to the company's plans, would have brought a mix of residential and retail space to the 13.5-acre downtown area while also easing the district's long-standing parking shortage.
But the plan relied heavily on eminent domain, a practice that allows government bodies to take private property for public purposes, and the township hasn't been able to successfully acquire properties using the tool.
Instead, the project has been mired in legal problems that began when the first condemnation papers were filed two years ago. Business owners fighting the town's redevelopment have been in and out of court.
Bloomfield needs to move for ward, Mayor Raymond McCarthy said when explaining the council's actions. The group voted to terminate the contract with Forest City in a closed session at Monday's meeting and will ratify the decision at its Feb. 5 meeting.
"We realized that we were no closer to developing the downtown than we were five years ago," he said. "This was the time to part ways."
George Kruse, vice president of development for Forest City Residential, said he knew nothing of the decision when reached by phone yesterday afternoon.
"My jaw is on the ground," he said. "We have been negotiating with property owners, we have been relocating people, we have come up with a new plan. I'm shocked."
Kruse said he needed to find out more about his firm's termination as developer, but vowed, "We are not just going to walk away. We have invested over $6 million in the project, and it's a lot of money."
Though the firm promised a total transformation of the sleepy downtown, a four-block area off Bloomfield Avenue, in the last few months the plan had been substantially downgraded, McCarthy said.
Hampered by an inability to ac quire properties in the redevelopment zone, Forest City had all but abandoned plans to build the res taurants and shops outlined in the plan, town officials said. Instead the revised project was focused on a 65,000-square-foot Stop and Shop and a parking deck.
The company's most recent proposal would have placed a midrise apartment building on top of the deck, Councilwoman Patricia Ritchings said.
"Our priority wasn't to just residential and to get another supermarket open in this town," she said. "It was to bring in retail so residents would be able to shop in Bloomfield. That wasn't what the plan had become."
The issue came to a head last week after two property owners op posed to the use of eminent do main were removed from the plan and told their properties were no longer needed. Al Lardieri of 622 Bloomfield Ave. and Lewis Santus of 77-79 Washington St. were among five property owners who sued the township after their properties were declared blighted and included in the redevelopment area.
The move was further proof the project as advertised was falling apart, McCarthy said.
"It was like instead of the penthouse apartment you wanted you wound up with a studio apartment in the basement," he said. "We didn't want to settle for that."
It is unclear if there will be any financial liability as a result of the firm's termination but the town is moving forward and will look for a new developer, McCarthy said.