The passage of the historical landmark status and related resolutions paved the way for Housing Trust to buy the property from the bankruptcy trustee.
"This is a very good project and I am glad it will finally get started," said council member Viola Richardson, in whose ward Whitlock Cordage is located. "This will bring jobs and more prosperity to the area."
The council said at the April 30 meeting that they would look into the involvement of Harvey Shapiro in the Whitlock redevelopment project. Shapiro was the one who had given the property over to a bankruptcy trustee. He had acquired the property three years ago with the intention of creating an assisted senior living facility at the location. But he was subjected to a number of fines by the Jersey City Fire Department for allegedly violating safety codes. In addition, Councilman William Gaughan and Council President L. Harvey Smith stated that Shapiro had not paid property taxes on the Whitlock location. Last June, a fire gutted one building in the former-industrial complex located at 160 Lafayette Ave.
Shapiro went into bankruptcy as the Whitlock property was scheduled for the wrecking ball. However, quick action by groups like the Communipaw Neighborhood Association and Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy postponed demolition plans. Built before the Civil War, the Whitlock Cordage industrial complex produced rope and related materials. The facility was part of the Lafayette section of Jersey City, historically one of the oldest African-American communities in the country. Whitlock ceased functioning as a production facility in the 1960s. Shapiro was more recently acting as a consultant to the Housing Trust in acquiring the property.
"One of the issues we had with the historical designation was Harvey Shapiro," said Councilman E. Junior Maldonado. "But we have been told by Corporation Counsel Alex booth that we can take action with Mr. Shapiro."
Booth said the city could put a lien on money Shapiro would make from his involvement in the development project.
Wally Scruggs, managing partner in Housing Trust of America, said Shapiro would receive only a finder's fee for bringing the Whitlock property to the developers. When interviewed last month, Scruggs said Shapiro was part of the Whitlock Cordage development project in the capacity of an "as needed" consultant. On Wednesday night, Scruggs stated Shapiro was no longer a consultant and Shapiro's finder's fee was contingent on the overall success of the development project.
Jocelyn Brown, president of the Communipaw Neighborhood Association, was pleased with the historic designation.
"Thank you for giving Whitlock the historical designation," she said "The community will benefit very much."
Brown and other members of the Lafayette community hoped to save the Whitlock property from demolition, which the municipal historical designation will prevent. The bankruptcy trustee for Harvey Shapiro had originally planned to sell the property to developers who would have likely torn the buildings down. This was before Housing Trust showed an interest in developing the property.
With the awarding of the designation, Housing Trust of America will be able to get financing for the redevelopment. In a presentation made to the Jersey City Planning Board in April, representatives of Housing Trust outlined a plan where six of eight buildings in the complex would be converted into housing. The housing would be moderate-income, with a portion set aside for low-income artist housing. Included in the proposed Housing Trust plan would be a gym and an unspecified retail component for the development. Housing Trust said two of the buildings in the complex were beyond repair and would have to be torn down.
Brown has hailed the development plans as an economic boon to the community. Brown noted the project would hopefully provide jobs to local construction workers and stimulate business for local merchants. Brown said the redevelopment of Whitlock should be done with the redevelopment of nearby Lafayette Park. Brown said community designed plans for the park which near the entrance to Whitlock have already been submitted to the city.
EDC criticized
Also at Wednesday night's meeting, the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation took harsh criticism. Michael Yun, president of the Central Avenue Special Improvement District, informed the Council that his SID has been shorted on money the EDC was supposed to provide for the SID's operation.
A special improvement district is a collection of businessmen and merchants in a particular area who pool resources to make upgrades to their business area. The EDC oversees all the Jersey City SIDs and distributes money that the state provides as matching funds to the local SID's budgets.
According to Yun, The Central Avenue SID was approved for $1.1 million dollars by the EDC and the City Council cumulatively since 1993. However, Yun said the EDC set $1.07 million aside for the Central Avenue SID for the same period and that the CASID received only $928,061 in state funding from the EDC.
To make their point, 11 members of the CASID protested Wednesday in front of the offices of the EDC at 30 Montgomery St.
"We were there for about an hour with signs," said David Diaz, a member of the CASID. "We wanted to make our point. We want to get the money the state designated for us since 1993."
"We would like to have a new funding system for the SIDs which bypasses the EDC," said Yun. "There should also be a committee of the City Council to review EDC job performance."
Mark Munley, director of the city's Housing, Economic Development and Commerce Department which oversees the operation of the EDC, explained that the EDC only appropriates money from the state and not the entire CASID budget. Munley added that his department was in the process of looking into EDC operations in regards to the CASID and would have a report for the Council at the next meeting scheduled for May 28.
Eddie Trujillo, owner of Supreme Food Markets, also asked the council to look into operation of EDC regarding placement of a supermarket at the Martin Luther King Shopping Center. Trujillo stated that he had brought a better offer to the city for the location to open one of his stores, but was turned down in favor of Extra Markets.
As reported earlier, the council retained legal representation in order to investigate the designation of Extra Supermarkets to replace City Markets at the shopping center. Booth stated the mayor's office favored the designation of Extra Markets instead of Supreme Food Markets, an accusation that Stan Eason, the mayor's press secretary, denied as "ridiculous."
The council instructed Booth to draw a resolution fro the next meeting granting the council investigatory powers to look into the EDC's handling of the designation of a supermarket for the MLK Shopping Center.
As of Thursday, EDC director Gene Nelson did not return phone calls.
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