HOBOKEN – The Rockefeller family may be rich, but they don’t own land in Hoboken. They wanted to clarify that because recently, the Rockefeller Group, a development company in New York, has been mentioned in connection with a controversy involving Gov. Chris Christie, Mayor Dawn Zimmer, and three blocks of land in upper Hoboken (see our prior stories, linked after this one). So the family’s PR rep wrote on Wednesday to clarify their involvement.
(Also note: The Rockefeller Foundation, which gave some money to the town for a study last year, is also unrelated to the Rockefeller development group.)
The PR rep wrote:
”I am a public relations associate of the Rockefeller Family. We have been reading your fine articles about the Hoboken situation.
Since I suspect you may be writing about this issue again, I wanted to give you some background on behalf of members of the Rockefeller Family.
As the situation has developed in Hoboken over the past few weeks, the news media have regularly referred to the Rockefeller Group’s ownership of the real estate parcel in Hoboken. Understandably, much of the public has assumed (we have heard from a few of them) that the Rockefeller Group and the Rockefeller Family are one and the same. At one point in time that would have been correct. However, the Rockefeller Family sold the Rockefeller Group, owner of Rockefeller Center and other properties, to the Japanese company, Mitsubishi Estates Corporation, in 1989. There is currently no Rockefeller Family investment in, ownership of or involvement with the Rockefeller Group, and there has not been for almost 25 years.
We think it might be edifying for the public to be made aware of this fact in future stories.
Many thanks for your understanding, and congratulations on some fine work.”
So now you know.
Got comments? Email editorial@Hudsonreporter.com or read our past stories, linked below.