[AsburyPark] 2 stories A P P

[gtscarano212]

Asbury Park looks to renovations CITY TO BEGIN NEGOTIATIONS WITH DEVELOPER Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 02/2/06 BY NANCY SHIELDS COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU ASBURY PARK — Negotiations are expected to start by Monday between the city and Asbury Partners to begin permanent renovations to Convention Hall, Paramount Theatre, the Casino, the power plant and the boardwalk pavilions. But those talks will not drag on. The City Council Wednesday night specified that an agreement must be drafted within 14 days. "Our negotiating team is going to meet with them and work out something that will satisfy both of us, hopefully," Deputy Mayor Jim Bruno said after the meeting. "There are things they need, things we need. Everything will be up for discussion now." Although satisfied with Asbury Partner's progress in bringing in developers who are building hundreds of condominiums on the beachfront, council members united together in their dissatisfaction with Asbury Partners' own financial investment or ability to line up other investors to renovate the boardwalk buildings the developer now owns. A delay in getting new windows into Convention Hall and the breakdown of negotiations for Hoboken-based Metro Homes to renovate the Fifth Avenue (Howard Johnson) Pavilion were two of the issues bringing the disagreement between the city and developer to a head. The council in recent weeks demanded budgets and renovation schedules for all of the buildings. After Larry Fishman, Asbury Partners chief operating officer, delivered an information packet and spoke publicly to the council last Friday, officials said they would negotiate and not choose another option — declaring a default on the renovation portion of the plan. The resolution approved last night says the agreement will address "among other things, the priority of the buildings to be renovated, binding time frames for performance of each renovation . . . and consequences for any failure to perform." "They (council members) are unanimous, they're solid and absolutely committed to making sure the entire waterfront does get addressed, that there are measurable standards set for Asbury Partners, and that there be specific deadlines and consequences for not delivering," said City Manager Terence Reidy after the vote. "That's a huge shift." Fishman said after the vote: "We're prepared to sit down and discuss the city's important issues and what impact they'll have on the overall waterfront redevelopment, and we're prepared to do so in a friendly and courteous fashion." ON THE WEB: Visit our Web site, www.app.com, and look under Special Reports for a link to: Asbury Park Redevelopment for past stories on the efforts to rebuild the city.        ********************         N E X T        S T O R Y    ************************************   Developers have a say in Jersey Shore's future Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 02/2/06 BY GEORGE MOFFATT If anyone thinks developers aren't running New Jersey, they must be living on Mars. I was impressed when former Gov. James E. McGreevey limited development in the northwestern Highlands area to protect water supplies. I should have known better. At the same time, he was quietly negotiating to give developers their "fast track" approval bill because developers aren't paving over New Jersey fast enough. Fortunately, former Gov. Richard J. Codey acted like a real governor in temporarily blocking the bill. Whether Gov. Corzine is "real" remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Long Branch citizens are losing their homes because it seems the city's future hinges on taking their property so K. Hovnanian can build $700,000 condos. The Legislature could stop this misuse of eminent domain for private gain, but it has done nothing yet. In contrast, state Sen. Joseph M. Kyrillos Jr., R-Monmouth, weighed in on the future of Fort Monmouth with a bill that would dilute the say of three local mayors on the fort's Redevelopment Authority by expanding the governor's appointees. In explaining his uninvited interest — he doesn't represent the fort area and he didn't consult the mayors — Kyrillos argued, "There was a vacuum there." Of course, there was — the smaller, more representative committee left less room for developers to influence commercial reuse of the fort. Kyrillos first got on my radar screen when he praised the National Park Service's plan to turn Fort Hancock into a profit center by privatizing and commercializing 36 buildings — one-third of the fort — for 60 years. Then we have Jersey Shore Partners. Its president, Noreen Bodman, recently invoked hurricanes Rita and Katrina to scare taxpayers into supporting millions for "shore protection," a euphemism for repairing environmental and safety problems caused by developers who build too close to the water's edge. These "partners" tout tourism when pillaging the public trough, but they never propose increasing public beach access as part of the deal. Bodman also works for James Wassel, a local real estate speculator who the National Park Service picked as its Fort Hancock commercial "partner." This privatization deal could eliminate up to 1,813 beachfront parking spaces — a 36 percent cut in beach access — for corporate parking lots. And who would be stuck subsidizing this invasion of our park through tax write-offs and credits? Anyone see the pattern? Developers are unabashedly on the make. Neither our public nor private lands are safe. When developers, bureaucrats and politicians "partner" for "the public good," hide your wallets and property deeds. They're only safe on Mars. George Moffatt of Oceanport is a Monmouth County environmentalist.     SPONSORED LINKS Asbury park home Asbury park nj Asbury park hotel Asbury park foreclosure Asbury park real estate Asbury park YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS  Visit your group "AsburyPark" on the web.    To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]    Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.