$51M Port Authority Land Deal Is Off

BAYONNE, NJ-In September, the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority announced it had agreed to sell 126 acres of waterfront property within the former Military Ocean Terminal to the Port Authority of NY/NJ, which had planned to redevelop the site as an auto marine terminal. Now, that deal is off.

According to a statement released by the BLRA, the authority was forced to tear up the contract because it admitted that in its vote to approve the deal with the Port Authority it had not complied with state law on public meetings. Authority officials did not give the specifics of the snag in compliance.

The land, part of the larger 437-acre Military Ocean Terminal redevelopment, will still be sold, but only after the BLRA re-starts the process. That process is expected to have four bidders, including the Port Authority, along with Port America, Worldwide Group/Shaw Environmental and the Brooklyn, NY-based Fortis Group.

One stipulation for the pending sale remains intact: BLRA officials say that any redevelopment must not include a cargo container terminal. A car port is expected to be the final product, possibly along with mixed uses.

“This is an ideal use of the property,” says BLRA director Nancy Kist. “It will create thousands of jobs while complementing the mixed-use waterfront development that the city has envisioned for the peninsula.”