Full Notification

Below is an update Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla provided to the Hoboken City Council this afternoon on the Monarch settlement:

April 7, 2021

Dear City Councilmembers,

I hope you’re doing well. I write to ask for your support tonight on an important vote before the City Council that will allow the Monarch settlement, which includes the transfer of the both waterfront Monarch, and the 8^th and Monroe properties to the City, to clear an important hurdle.

I first thank you for your initial support for the Monarch settlement that was approved in February 2021 which set the framework for the acquisition of both properties, as well as the addition of 15,000 square feet of commercial space at the site of the current municipal garage on Observer Highway. As you know, as a part of this settlement, the City would be obligated to move the municipal garage to another area of the City.

Following the adoption of this settlement, and after meeting with various constituencies, my administration pledged to explore locations in the North End for the permanent location of the municipal garage, a commitment I made with Councilman Phil Cohen to residents of the 5th Ward. This was a position that was, at the time, widely supported by the City Council. In fact, the City Council adopted and voted in favor of a resolution urging my administration to do just that. Fortunately, after several weeks of diligently exploring options, we came to understand that Bijou Properties is willing to build the municipal garage on its property in the North End if terms were agreed to in a redevelopment agreement. 

To be clear, it is not as simple as picking a location, and convincing a property owner to incorporate a municipal garage on their property. Understandably, not all property owners want a municipal garage incorporated into their future development. After weeks of due diligence, my administration determined the only property owner we know of, willing to build a garage on our timeline and engage on the topic was Bijou Properties. 

Not only is the developer willing to engage, but it is also a developer the City has had a track record of working in good faith with on different projects, including the recent collaboration to temporarily facilitate COVID-19 testing to Riverside Medical Group on this very property. Furthermore, this property is, in my opinion, an ideal location for a municipal garage, located in an area without any directly adjacent residential properties, and next to a sewerage authority.

Should the City finalize an agreement with Bijou Properties to relocate the garage, it removes one major hurdle to moving forward with a redevelopment agreement at the current municipal garage site, which would effectuate the transfer of both the waterfront Monarch Properties and the land at 8th and Monroe to the City. And it would fulfill the promise we all made to ensure no municipal garage is built in the middle of a residential neighborhood, an important point I’ve again heard from many residents of Northwest Hoboken over the past week. 

These facts all withstanding, what is on the agenda at tonight’s meeting is simply an agreement to designate Bijou Properties the conditional redeveloper of the property they already own, to move forward with official negotiations with the City to build the municipal garage in their North End property. There is no building structure, garage or anything else being finalized with the vote that is on the agenda tonight – it is only to designate Bijou Properties as the conditional redeveloper.

As you likely know, one result of building the municipal garage on 16th and Clinton on the property owned by Bijou Properties within the North End Redevelopment Plan, is the elimination of one portion spanning the length of one block of the linear park that is called for in the North End Redevelopment Plan. However, my view of acquiring 1.4 acres of public land at 8th and Monroe for a new park as a land swap in the Monarch Project, as well as preserving our uptown waterfront, substantially outweighs the downside of losing one portion of a linear park that hasn’t even been built yet. 

Nonetheless, I understand that there has been recent objection to this basic procedural vote, with the hope that a better option exists in the North End to host a municipal garage. To my knowledge, no one has approached the City with this offer, or identified a suitable location that would work on the City’s time frame.  

Any attempt to delay the vote designating Bijou Properties as the conditional redeveloper, without having a realistic alternative to present, would have the effect of stalling the project and jeopardizing the acquisition of the Monarch property and land at 8th and Monroe for a public park. This is a risk we simply cannot afford to take.

Given these realities, I respectfully ask for your support tonight on the vote designating Bijou Properties as the conditional redeveloper of their property in the North End.

Thank you for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

Ravi S. Bhalla

Mayor