Speculation about the fate of property that formerly housed the Aratusa boat-restaurant ended last week with the formal announcement that a hotel would be constructed on the 3.1 acre site near the northern end of Meadowlands Parkway. Bob De Ruggiero, president of his Union City-based real estate firm, announced the sale for construction of a hotel.
DeRuggiero would not disclose the price of the sale.
Rumors of a purchase had been circulating for months as part of a general belief that the western edge of Secaucus was about to see a revival of development. Along with talk about the Aratusa property, people also claimed other vacant pieces of land in that area would soon see development. Lincoln Properties – a nationally known developer of townhouses – had looked to develop the Shiptank property that borders the Aratusa property, and just south along Meadowlands Parkway, plans are underway to develop the Hess property for a hotel there.
“I get calls all the time expressing interest in the Shiptank property,” said Mayor Dennis Elwell during a telephone interview last week.
The Aratusa property was sold by owners J&M, L.P. to D.T. Allan Contracting of Oakland, N.J. which intends to build a 138-room Extended Stay America Hotel on that site.
“We listed the property and represented the family to D.T. Allen,” said De Ruggiero during a telephone interview. “In turn, D.T. Allen got the developer and the HMDC approvals.”
Extended Stay America, Inc. is considered by industry experts to be the fastest-growing company-owned and operated hotel chain in U.S. history. It recently was named one of America’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies by Fortune magazine for the second year in a row. Currently, Extended Stay America, Inc. operates 385 extended-stay lodging hotels in 38 states, including 92 StudioPLUS Deluxe Studios, 254 Extended StayAmerica Efficiency Studios and 39 Crossland Economy Studios facilities.
The hotel located on the Aratusa property will be five stories high with 63,000 square feet. As required for approval under rules set by the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission, the project will have a river recreation aspect, including a 15-slip marina and a walkway along the river with a public access and launch ramp for boats.
Echoes of a hotel tax
Besides providing a new place for visitors to stay, the new structure may influence town and state policy.
“This hotel will bring the number of hotel rooms in Secaucus over 2,000,” said Town Administrator Anthony Iacono. “This means we’re going to push to have a hotel tax.”
Right now, Secaucus cannot charge a hotel tax under state law. By state law, any city that is rated a “first class” city or a “second class” city within which an international airport is located may establish a hotel tax of no more than 6 percent on charges for occupation of the rooms in the hotel. Classes of cities are determined by density of population, with the most populated cities considered first class. Jersey City is the only town in Hudson County that currently has that distinction. But to date, it has not opted to institute a hotel tax.
“We only have a population of 15,000 people,” Iacono said. “We’re looking to amend an existing proposal that would allow for [cities like Secaucus] with more than 2,000 hotel rooms to get a hotel tax.”
Under legislation introduced in the early 1980s and reintroduced several times since by Assemblyman Anthony Impreveduto (D-32nd Dist.), any other municipality could adopt an ordinance imposing a hotel room tax of no more than 2 percent on hotels having more than 100 guest rooms. The monies derived from this tax would have to be used by the municipalities to maintain and improve police, fire and emergency services.
The measure has been stalled by the Republican majority in Trenton, Iacono said.
“The Republicans – who campaign on keeping taxes low – don’t want to vote to approve another tax,” Iacono said. George Brommer, in his campaign for the council last year, used the hotel tax as one of his campaign issues, following up a move by Councilman John Bueckner who pressed the tax in 1999.
“Even if we only set the rate at 2 percent, the town would get about $2 million a year in additional revenue,” Brommer said. Iacono said the town will likely seek to hire a professional lobbyist with strong Republican ties to help pursue the hotel tax for Secaucus.
The boat that docked there
The Aratusa was original constructed for the Maine Central Railroad in 1913, part of the Rangely class of ships. She did coastal passenger trade out of Portland, Maine, and took the elite and famous to their summer places off the coast of Maine. The 185-foot long craft had a 1,200 horsepower, single crew engine and seemed destined to disaster. During her initial test trials, she struck and uncharted ledge, and while the craft sustained only minor damage, it seemed a premonition of what she could expect.
In 1925, the railroad sold the ship to the Hudson River Day Line, at which time it was renamed Chauncey M. Depew after the U.S. Senator from New York, for its run to Indian Point as the fleet’s luxury yacht.
In 1940, with the war looming over the Atlantic coast, the ship was drafted for service by the U.S. Navy for World War II as a transport for men and supplies between New York City and Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook, New Jersey.
After the war, the ship was sold to Benjamin B. Willis of Washington, D.C. and used as an excursion and transfer boat in Bermuda, serving as a port ferry and cruise ship.
She returned to the United States in 1970 and was sold to private interests. On her way up the coast to what was supposed to be her retirement in 1971, she was nearly lost on the breakwater in the Chesapeake Bay as a storm came up suddenly. For three years, she lay on her side, half-submerged in mud.
She was rescued as salvage by a man named David Cory. Under U.S. law, anyone can lay claim to an abandoned ship. Cory had a vision of transforming the ship into an elegant restaurant, and he leased land in Secaucus on the banks of the Hackensack River.
The ship was renamed the Aratusa supper club, and it operated from 1977 to 1987. In 1987, she was struck by another vessel. Witnesses on the scene at the time claim diners eating in the Aratusa hardly noticed the hit, and had to be escorted off the vessel when it became clear she had begun to sink. The hull had cracked, making the ship uninhabitable, and she would no longer rise and fall with the tide.
For the latter part of the 1980s, people driving over the Hackensack River Bridge could see the odd site along the banks just off Meadowlands Parkway. Over the next few years, the boat began to decline – sinking slowly into the mud, until it became a concern of local officials.
At one point in late 1988, a group from Maine, the Rangely Foundation, expressed interest in purchasing the boat, raising it, and moving to Maine where it was slated to become part of the Rangely Museum. The group, however, needed to get the U.S. Department of the Interior to declare the boat a national monument so they could seek funding for the project.
The owner, David Cory, did not have the funds to raise the ship or repair it, but managed to fence in the property – at the town’s request.
While the ship was not considered a navigational hazard, officials feared it might become one if it began to break up. The 75-year old ship was eventually demolished.
Since then, the land that once served as parking lot has remained vacant, the object of some speculation over the years, but also the victim of a sagging economy in the late 1980s and early 1990s.