Hoboken and Academy Bus square off over southwest property

HOBOKEN — The administration of Mayor Dawn Zimmer and officials of the Academy Bus company are wrestling over the price of an acre of parking lot in the city’s flood-prone southwest corner.
As reported by NJ.com, Zimmer wants to acquire one acre of the property for a park and drainage project, but Academy, a major local employer and taxpayer, has fixed a price tag of $13 million on the land, triple what the city thinks it’s worth.
The city may use its power of eminent domain to acquire the parcel to double the size of the planned Southwest Park.
Since Hurricane Sandy inundated Hoboken in 2012, flood prevention and mitigation have been priorities for the Zimmer administration. The proposed two-acre Southwest Park project between Observer Highway and Paterson Avenue would include an underground retention basin to drain flood water from the streets of the 4th Ward and pump it into the Hudson.
The city maintains the acre it wants from Academy is worth about $4.5 million, which is the price it paid for a one-acre lot adjacent to the Academy property after mediation following eminent domain condemnation.
Academy also offered the city an alternate deal, NJ.com said, asking for a change in the site’s industrial and retail zoning that would allow whoever owned the property to develop apartments or condominiums on part of the site.
The letter from Academy reminded Zimmer that Academy employs 440 workers in the city, and pays $500,000 a year in property tax, with the implication that might change if an amicable deal can’t be reached.
On Wednesday, Zimmer’s office responded with a statement expressing disappointment that the letter from Academy president Frank Tedesco letter had been obtained by the media, and noting that the lot had been identified as potential parkland in the city’s 2004 Master Plan.
The statement hinted that seizing of the property through the city’s right of eminent domain in exchange for its appraised market value was a possibility if a deal could not be reached.
“The City is fully committed to acquiring this property,” the statement was quoted as saying, “and we hope these negotiations succeed and that Academy’s precipitous actions are not intended to be an ultimatum to the City and its citizens.”