Exxon site redevelopment

From the Daily Record:

Boundary shift looms in Madison, Florham Pk.

It may have taken years, but a blueprint is in place appeasing parties associated with redeveloping the giant Exxon property.

Hailing it as a historic approach to regional development, those involved in developing the Florham Park site said a tentative agreement among them would smooth a path to a significantly reshaped southeastern Morris County.

The agreement would involve a land trade between Madison and Florham Park, with Madison gaining 44 acres to use as open space. Developers would get to add 200,000 square feet of additional office space to the Exxon site, along with the 600,000 square feet originally proposed, plus 500 housing units and a hotel. Meanwhile, the New York Jets are on their way to building their training headquarters at the site.

“This is historic, truly historic,” Les Smith, an executive vice president at the Rockefeller Group Development Corporation, said on Friday.
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Negotiations are continuing over the price of a 53-acre tract on Ridgedale Avenue adjacent to Madison High School. This land includes about 5 acres known as “the Pit” that is used by the high school’s softball team. Rock-Florham leased that portion of the tract to the Madison Board of Education. The rest of the property, which is in Florham Park, was designated for 200,000 square feet of office space. If the sides involved can work out a price, Madison would annex this land and make it into passive or active open space.
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The 200,000 square feet of office space that was proposed for the 53 acres would instead be added to the 600,000 square feet proposed for the Exxon property. This would mean the housing component of the Exxon development plan would be shifted eastward, though the housing component is not expected to increase. K. Hovnanian remains the principal developers of the 500 units of age-restricted housing planned for the site.