Thu 8 May 2008
From the Star Ledger:
Meadowlands agency scraps EnCap project
After years of delays, cost overruns and diminished expectations, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission yesterday killed an ambitious $1 billion project to build golf courses, a hotel and thousands of homes atop capped garbage dumps in Bergen County.
The commission’s members, contending developer EnCap Golf Holdings showed it cannot successfully finish the project, said they will seek to collect a $148 million performance bond meant to guarantee the cleanup of landfills in Rutherford and Lyndhurst.
The ultimate fate of the land — some 785 acres — has not been decided.
“EnCap is over,” commission Chairman Joseph Doria said after the board’s 4-0 vote in Lyndhurst. “We, I think, have given EnCap and all its entities the opportunity to perform. They have not been able to perform.”
In January, the commission granted EnCap the latest of several extensions to shore up its financing and to address environmental problems at the work site. The Meadowlands Commission’s vote yesterday morning to sever its relationship with EnCap came two days before the company’s latest deadline tomorrow.
New Jersey taxpayers stand to lose $51 million — the amount loaned to EnCap without repayment guarantees — as a result of the project’s failure.
Last night, in a brief meeting with reporters, Gov. Jon Corzine said the state would seek to recover its investment.
“First of all, we have to finish the remediation and hopefully be able to get to a conclusion that will allow us to get all of the money back,” Corzine said. “But there are legal agreements that are in place, so it’s not as easy as just saying we want to get our money back. We have to complete the remediation. We have to figure out what the long-run uses are going to be.”
…
Donald Trump, who took over management of the project on behalf of EnCap in November, called the commission’s decision “very unfair” and predicted a lengthy legal fight to come.“This job will sit in court for years,” Trump said. “Lawsuits are being drawn up already. It’s a very sad ending to something that could have been great.”
He added: “This is why New Jersey doesn’t work.”
May 8th, 2008 at 6:15 am
From the Record:
Commission to Encap: You’re fired
After months of dickering with Donald Trump, the state killed the EnCap project Wednesday, raising the specter of lengthy litigation that could cloud the fate of the Meadowlands for years to come.
The decision came at 10:15 Wednesday morning when the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission voted unanimously to end its nine-year relationship with EnCap Golf Holdings, the Florida-based developer that wanted to build golf courses and a luxury condo village atop four old landfills.
Within an hour, an angry Trump had ordered his work crews off the EnCap site and was calling reporters to complain that the Corzine administration had misled him and would now be responsible for “the historic boondoggle this project will become.”
“If they had left Donald Trump in charge of this project it would have been finished on time, at budget and in a way everyone would be proud of,” Trump said. “The state has no ability to finish this job. New Jersey taxpayers will end up paying hundreds of millions they didn’t have to. And lawyers will be fighting this thing out for years and years.”
But officials with the Meadowlands Commission said Trump, in the end, proved to be an unconvincing suitor who failed to commit the hard cash needed to finish the complex and costly landfill closure.
“We asked for a financial plan to show where the money would be coming from to get this job done, and we never got a clear presentation,” said Joseph Doria, who chairs the commission and also heads the state Department of Community Affairs. “The reality is that they have not lived up to their contract.”
May 8th, 2008 at 7:45 am
“New Jersey taxpayers stand to lose $51 million”
Just another day at the office.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Hey, in NJ, you gotta spend money to lose money.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Both New Jersey and Donald Trump are broke. Is anyone surprised by this outcome?
May 9th, 2008 at 1:21 am
“We asked for a financial plan to show where the money would be coming from to get this job done, and we never got a clear presentation,”
Ok. I fully admit to being a neophyte at this stuff. But shouldn’t this question have been asked and answered (satisfactorily!) at the outset of project? Why is this only coming up now?
May 9th, 2008 at 1:21 am
“We asked for a financial plan to show where the money would be coming from to get this job done, and we never got a clear presentation,”
Ok. I fully admit to being a neophyte at this stuff. But shouldn’t this question have been asked and answered (satisfactorily!) at the outset of project? Why is this only coming up now?
May 9th, 2008 at 1:21 am
“We asked for a financial plan to show where the money would be coming from to get this job done, and we never got a clear presentation,”
Ok. I fully admit to being a neophyte at this stuff. But shouldn’t this question have been asked and answered (satisfactorily!) at the outset of project? Why is this only coming up now?
May 20th, 2008 at 3:26 am
I don’t know they had on me. by themselves even musician,