Cliffside Park Exercises Eminent Domain
From the Record/Herald:
Cliffside taking 12 properties
By PETER J. SAMPSON
The borough has condemned a dozen properties in a downtown redevelopment area slated for new shops, restaurants and high-rise apartments and is gearing up to take a Fairview parcel for its new public works facility.
Exercising its power of eminent domain, the borough filed a "declaration of taking" to assume ownership of the properties that will be razed to make way for the $40 million redevelopment project, said Borough Attorney Christos Diktas.
Eleven of the properties are commercial buildings on Anderson and Grant avenues, some with tenants living above the stores. One is a single-family home on Glen Street.
Before a judge signed the condemnation order, the borough had to deposit $6 million with the Superior Court to compensate the owners. Despite vocal opposition in the past, none of the owners objected in court to the move, Diktas said.
...
The project is a joint venture of the borough, which owns about half the land in the redevelopment area, and Towne Centre C.P., LLC, a partnership headed by Fred Daibes and James Demetrakis.
The plans call for a 220-unit apartment tower above shops, sidewalk cafes and restaurants that would open up to an expansive public plaza. The site, along Lawton, Anderson and Grant avenues, would include underground parking.
8 Comments:
This is a town run by Gerry Calabrese Sr. - mayor of over 30 yrs -This is his fiefdom.
Or by the way his soon Calabrese Jr. runs Century 21 Calabrese - and they (in other words THE FAMILY -aka COSA NOSTRA) owns a LOT of property there. They are big time developers of medium high (4-5 stories) (20-30 units) condo complexes.
Need I say more.....
I live in Cliffside Park. The Anderson ave Project has been on the drawing boards for a long time. I have mixed feeling about the project. The commercial district need a boost as it has fallen on hard times and loosing business to flashier and newer shops in nearby Edgewater. However, the location of project just happens to be in the “nicer” section of the town. The south end of town is borderline blight, that section should be revitalized first. Lots of old buildings in disrepair, the owners no longer live in town but are landlords whose only motive is to maximize income with no interest in improving anything. The mayor has been in office since early seventies I think only Castro has a longer tenure. Cronyism and favoritism run deep in this town. Lots of old houses are being torn down to make room for two family duplexes each going for 600k- 700k plus (bubble at its peak!).
I just don't get it. I live in Cliffside Park and still cannot believe that this project can put all those people out of business.
Isn't Eminent Domain used to expand a highway or something like that. This seems a frivolous reason to put all those businesses out.
It's obvious that some peopel will make a hundred million dollar killing on this.
It's interesting that the victms are now rolling over. Gee, might they be afraid of something?
300 comdos at 350k a peice is, lot's of cash
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40K SQ Ft of commercial space, whuts that worth?
who is town centre llC?
Who are their friends and family?
Why would the town just give away rights to make a hundred million bucks to strangers?
Very fishy eh? Where's the FBI? Out hunting for illegle imnigrunts?
I am one of the property owners who got kicked out of our building woth only a few days notice. the pittance i was to receive is held up in court for going on five monts and my income is going to the eown. where is the justice. i now have to go into my savings to survive
the reason no one was in court to object to the taking of our property was because we only had a short notice , like days.
we are not objecting to the taking. it is the price they want to give us which is below the value the town put on the buildings. like they want to give us three hundred thousand for a five hundred thousand building. the fight is over the compensation not the taking.also they haven't paid us for the building and have stopped our income five monts ago..that's what the fight is about.
Peter. the redevelopement area is not in down town. it is uptown as you can get.
Cliffside park is the most corrupted town in bergen county.It has a political party that been in town for over 35 years, where is the democracy?. We all understand that this project will cost most off the businesses a loss, But who really cares. I know One of the business owners who been kicked out, and he told me that the town paid him not even half of what his business worth. When he tried to complain, they told him "go to COURT", but what could he do after the judgement was granted.So he had to take the money and shut uP. that really shows us what kind of political people we have in this town. ITS ALL PERSONAL PROFITS, THEY DO NOT CARE WEATHER THE TOWN GAINS MONEY OR NOT. THE ONLY THING THEY CARE ABOUT IS: HOW MUCH MONEY WENT TO THEIR PERSONAL SAVING ACCOUNTS. (RAY)
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