Developer gets stay on Asbury COs
BY NANCY SHIELDS COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU NOVEMBER 15, 2008
ASBURY PARK The city's new stores and restaurants are open this weekend and
most
days of the week, but attempts by the city and beachfront developer Madison
Marquette to
settle how they'll share waterfront revenues ended up in Superior Court Friday.
Madison Marquette appeared before Judge Patricia Del Bueno Cleary, who
restrained the
city from acting on expired temporary certificates of occupancy for the
boardwalk tenants
until a full hearing is held, probably in early December. The temporary COs
expire today.
The city has tied permanent COs for dozens of year-round venues to getting a
redeveloper's agreement between the two sides in place. It was to have been
finished by
last Memorial Day before Madison Marquette started rolling out the first of the
renovated
pavilions. Over the summer and fall, the city agreed to new deadlines, first
Sept. 15 and
then today.
"The real issue here is, we've been attempting to get a subsequent developer
agreement
for a year," City Manager Terence Reidy said Friday night.
Both sides indicated Friday that a divide between the two at this point focuses
on parking.
The city appears determined to gain financial self-sufficiency and needs to
make money
50 cents an hour with new parking meters.
When summer ended, Madison Marquette and boardwalk tenants asked that the city
not
enforce the paid parking in the winter. Madison Marquette also does not want
paid
parking in the evening hours next summer.
The city in October agreed to shut down parking for the winter but did so with
the
understanding Madison Marquette would offset some part of the city's loss.
"For 10 to 12 weeks, the city's allowed to charge for parking, and the entire
rest of the
year, we're not," Reidy said. "That allows Madison Marquette to control our
destiny."
In a letter to Madison on Thursday, Nov. 13, Reidy summed up that the city had
responded
a month earlier to the impact of the changing outside market conditions on
Madison
Marquette's ability to finish the agreement at that time.
And he indicated some form of agreement had been reached for Madison Marquette
to
give the city a payment for the lost parking revenue, for the city to give the
developer
some form of 30-year payment in lieu of taxes on new construction and for the
temporary
COs to stand for three more months until negotiations concluded.
Reidy said a subsequent proposal from Madison Marquette had made those areas of
agreement "elusive" and as of today, the temporary COs would be up, and the
company
would be leasing the pavilions illegally and would get daily fines.
Madison Marquette could still stop the city from acting by making a $75,000
payment for
the lost parking revenues, Reidy said in the letter. The city would still offer
the 30-year
payments in lieu of taxes on new pavilion constructions, and the temporary COs
would be
good until Feb. 15.
Gary Mottola, president of investments for Madison Marquette, turned that down
and said
Friday he went to court instead and obtained the injunction until a full
hearing is held.
"Basically, the judge separated the tenants' rights to utilize their space from
any issues
involving the developer and agreements between the developer and the city,"
said
Madison's attorney, Roger Roisman.
"It's the parking," said Deputy Mayor Jim Bruno. "We can't get past the
parking."
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