The Bayonne City Council on Sept. 23 unanimously voted to give $23 million to Cammaron Group towards the construction of $120 million big box mall on Route 440. Although labeled a loan, future taxes generated from the mall project will repay the loan, and will be diverted from city coffers where they might have been used to pay police and fire salaries, repave roads, or purchase police cars. Because the City Council also agreed to act as co-signer to the loan, if the mall fails to generate enough in taxes to pay the debt, taxpayers would repay the loan anyway.
This is the second time in two years that the project has received a gift of money. Last year, the Bayonne Urban Enterprise Zone agreed to “loan” the project $2.5 million, which would be paid back not by the developer, but by future sales tax revenues which otherwise would have gone to make improvem ents to the Broadway shopping district.
Critics of the mall project also say that the mall construction – especially the inclusion of a Wal-Mart store in the mall – will further deteriorate the existing business district, forcing the closing of businesses that cannot compete with Wal-Mart’s lower prices.
Joe Bauman, the bonding attorney for the $23 million redevelopment package, said the developer needed the additional revenue from the city or would not be able to build the mall at all.