From Bloomberg:
Corzine Spoils Manhattan View for New Jersey With Ferris Wheel
Don’t expect residents of Bergen County, New Jersey, to be first in line for a ride on the Ferris wheel going up in their backyards, the tallest in the U.S.
Neighbors complain that the project will obstruct their view of Manhattan’s skyline across the Hudson River, hurting property values. Lane Biviano, Rutherford borough’s attorney, is mustering public opposition to the Ferris wheel on a Web site listing beefs about its safety and aesthetics.
The ride will tower 287 feet (87 meters), eclipsing Dallas’s 212-foot Texas Star. It’s part of the $2 billion Xanadu sports and entertainment complex being built next to the Meadowlands racetrack, a project Governor Jon Corzine backs as a way to stimulate the state’s economy.
“We don’t want our town to be associated with some honky- tonk Ferris wheel,” said East Rutherford Mayor James Cassella, whose community includes the Xanadu site. “There’s a concern about our image.”
…
“I’m sure there were people who didn’t like the Eiffel Tower being built because they felt it would impede their view,” Kaplan said. “You can’t please everybody. We believe this will be of enormous beauty.”
JB,
Can you take a quick look at this listing to see if it was priced well below available comps (also wondering if it’s listed by the broker who likes to start low to create bidding). If you could throw up the listing history too.
GSMLS 2488995
Thanks
Wow. Let me jump on a 287 ft tall rotating terrorist bullseye built on swampland.
From The Record:
Housing planned for ex-paper mill site
The Garden State Paper mill (in Garfield, NJ), which shut down in 2001 after falling victim to the Enron collapse, is set to be torn down to make room for town houses.
Now the abandoned River Drive plant is set to be demolished to make room for a 13-acre housing complex that officials hope will bring in at least $1.5 million in new revenue.
The building, a cavernous structure of intricately designed steelwork, masonry and concrete, will take nearly a year to fully demolish.
The housing complex, which was approved by the Planning Board last year, comes after years of unsuccessful attempts by city officials to resurrect the old mill, Mayor Frank Calandriello said.
From The Record:
Signs of recession abound in North Jersey
A small Carlstadt marketing company lays off half its 10 employees as work dries up.
One of the four tractor-trailers at a trucking company sits idle in a Wayne lot for lack of business.
A Teaneck man, after narrowly avoiding an $800-a-month increase in his mortgage, takes more care with his family shopping, and in picking a new car.
They are small, telling signs of an economy on the edge.
While we’re not in a textbook recession — six straight months of negative growth — there are plenty of other statistics and anecdotal evidence that say tough times are here.
* The Federal Reserve reported Wednesday that the economy has weakened since the start of this year as shoppers turned even more cautious given the severe housing slump and painful credit crunch.
* The state lost 9,500 jobs in January, the most in a month since February 2003.
* At least 30 percent more New Jersey residents and businesses filed for bankruptcy in January 2008 than the previous January, with a 50 percent increase in Passaic and Bergen counties.
* New Jersey collected 6 percent less sales tax in December — the most recent month available — than a year earlier.
* Paramus-based Corporate Turnaround, which helps small troubled companies renegotiate with creditors to avoid bankruptcy, said the number of inquiries from New Jersey companies rose by 130 percent from November to January.
From The Record:
Rutherford proposes 7% tax hike
Property owners would see their municipal tax bills rise 7 percent if the Borough Council approves the annual budget introduced Tuesday.
From Reuters via Yahoo:
UBS shares sink on Alt-A writedown talk
Shares in Swiss bank UBS AG (UBSN.VX) fell on Thursday on speculation it had sold a huge portfolio of risky mortgages at a deep discount and planned to announce another massive writedown in the first quarter.
Analysts said they believed UBS had sold its Alt-A investments — U.S. mortgages ranked between prime and subprime — to U.S. bond manager Pimco for 70 cents to the dollar, taking a deep discount on a 26.6 billion Swiss franc ($25.7 billion) portfolio.
From MarketWatch:
Thornburg defaults on financing agreements
JP Morgan margin call triggers other defaults, mortgage lender says
Thornburg Mortgage Inc. said late Wednesday that it’s defaulted on several financing agreements, sparking a plunge in the mortgage lender’s shares.
Thornburg has been hit by a wave of margin calls recently after the market value of mortgage-securities it holds slumped in February.
J.P. Morgan Chase, one of its lenders, told the company on Feb. 28 that it had defaulted on a $320 million financing agreement after missing a $28 million margin call. J.P. Morgan now plans to exercise its rights under the agreement, Thornburg explained in a regulatory filing late Wednesday.
That default notice has triggered more defaults under all of Thornburg’s reverse repurchase agreements, a type of collateralized short-term borrowing, and its secured loan agreements, the company added.
From MarketWatch:
B. of A. says merger on despite Countrywide woes
Bank committed to sale regardless of lender’s rising delinquency rates
Bank of America Corp.’s acquisition of struggling mortgage company Countrywide Financial Corp. is proceeding as planned despite skyrocketing delinquency rates in the lender’s mortgage portfolio, the bank said Wednesday.
…
Countrywide said last week that 90-day delinquency rates in its $28.42 billion adjustable rate mortgage portfolio climbed more than 900% from a year earlier, up to 5.4% from 0.6% during the same period last year.
The lender also warned that 71% of its ARM borrowers are making only the minimum payment allowed — and that 80% of those loans had not required borrowers to verify their income prior to receiving funding.
…
Bank of America announced in January that it would acquire the rapidly devaluing thrift in a $4 billion deal to be completed in the third quarter of 2008.
The merger would make Bank of America the nation’s largest mortgage lender, with the potential to eventually originate or service more than a quarter of all mortgages in the United States.
From Bloomberg:
BOE May Keep Rate at 5.25% as Inflation Accelerates
The Bank of England will probably keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged today as accelerating inflation prevents policy makers from lowering borrowing costs to support economic growth.
I know long time Rutherford residents who sold their high property tax Victorian in Rutherford and bought a Victorian in E. Rutherford. Similar house, smaller lot, significantly less property taxes
East Rutherford has an “image”?
What is the design of the wheel like anyway? London Eye kind of idea? Of course, on the London Eye, you get a view of historic London, not sure what a view of Rutherford will do for anybody.
Comparing a ferris wheel to the Eiffel Tower? Wow.
#12: The Xanadu developers also referred to the building as the “Mona Lisa”
What is the design of the wheel like anyway?
Supposidly its a giant Pepsi logo. Yeah, just like the Eiffel tower.
Was the ferris wheel really just compared to the Eiffel tower?!
Sure it’s kind of like thinking an Aquarium will help turn around Camden.
Riding to the top to see a majestic view of one of the following:
To the east: NYC skyline
To the west: Route 17/3 interchange
To the north: Meadowlands
To the south: Newark Airport
How romantic.
Actually the design of the Eiffel tower was initially reviled in France. There were protests against it.
Plus, it is more iconic than actually attractive.
Might be kind of cool being at the top of the wheel and seeing the belly of a jumbo jet over your head as it comes in to land at Newark.
Looks like it’s time for a monorail.
Thanks for posting this article. Whenever I think that I couldn’t leave NJ, I think of Xanadu and I start practicing my NC drawl. This boondoggle will redefine waste and excess for generations to come.
#19 Awesome taken from the Simpsons?
#20 NC draws sound a lot like Brooklyn now.
#3 Rich: Townhouses in Garfield, in this environment? Who is going to buy them;assuming they can even qualify? In Garfield?