Dear Editor:
On June 1, the Hoboken Reporter featured an article, “Signed, sealed and soon to be delivered,” which claimed that agreements naming the developers for Block B of the Southern Waterfront redevelopment area were signed at a public ceremony on May 27.
An accompanying photo shows the Chairman of the Port Authority (surrounded by the Mayor of Hoboken, a city attorney and two developers) signing “the agreement to designate the developers for a new hotel and office building.”
Since early June, I have been trying to obtain the documents that were publicly signed on May 27 and have learned that the ceremony was just a mock signing and publicity stunt during the municipal election campaign season.
It is now more than one month since the public “signing” and the documents have yet to be signed by the Mayor of Hoboken. The Chairman of the Port Authority never signed the documents; an underling signed them on June 19, more than three weeks after the ceremony.
While your newspaper reported who signed the agreements, what the agreements were, where and when the signing took place, this information was no more enlightening than the city’s incorrect press release about the ceremony. If your paper had asked for copies of the signed document, your paper would have found its story. It would also have learned that these complicated agreements modify other, long-standing agreements for properties that are not on Block B, requiring separate actions by the Hoboken City Council.
Before you print some Letters to the Editor in the Hoboken Reporter, you require that letter writers document the assertions in our letters. Perhaps, this requirement should become a standard for the news articles you print. And, perhaps, you could broaden your inquiry to let people know what is actually going on here.
Annette Illing
Editor’s note: According to City Business Administrator Robert Drasheff, the ceremony held on May 27 was a symbolic signing to officially announce that the city, Port Authority, SJP and Applied were entering into an exclusivity agreement to develop Block B on the Southern Waterfront. Mayor David Roberts finally signed the exclusivity agreement documents last week. The other parties had signed in late June. Drasheff said that Roberts waited so long to sign the document because he had to wait for Port Authority officials to sign. The documents are now available in the city clerk’s office for viewing by the public.