Donald Trump told The Record he plans to push through a bigger EnCap project. If the state and local officials decline, Trump said the Meadowlands would be stuck with the current EnCap plan, which depends on large amounts of public money both through state loans and tax-sharing agreements with local towns.
State officials have made it clear that any changes to EnCap’s plan would need to go through the state entities that approved EnCap. The Trump Organization took on the role of project executive of the EnCap project in November.
The project began as a plan to clean up landfills in Rutherford and Lyndhurst and top them off with a golf course, but has expanded to include multi-story housing, a hotel, office and retail space. State officials say the remediation of the landfills takes precedence over any development on the land. Last week Bob Ceberio, executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC), went so far as to state he would not mind if development never came to the remediated landfills.
The NJMC, who signed the initial deal with EnCap in 2000, still reserves the right to void the EnCap agreement at any time. By voiding the EnCap agreement, the NJMC can call upon a $148 million "performance security." This bond, floated by EnCap through AIG Insurance, would allow the Meadowlands to clean up the landfill themselves without EnCap’s help. Ceberio did not state why the NJMC has not taken this approach.
Trump also suggested taxes in Rutherford would skyrocket and Rutherford Mayor John Hipp would be ousted from office if Hipp does not comply with Trump’s plan.
Hipp said Trump’s statements did not threaten him. "My primary interest is to get the Meadowlands cleaned up and I want to know how thorough that will be and how long it will take. After that we will address the kind of development that is consistent with the area and the people’s desires," said Hipp.
The Trump Organization has also taken the reigns of the Arlington Valley project in North Arlington. The project, which is separate from the EnCap project in Rutherford and Lyndhurst, has been in litigation since EnCap’s affiliate, Cherokee Porete, sued the borough for failing to take Porete Avenue businesses through eminent domain. A former administration agreed to condemn Porete Avenue businesses to make way for a housing project overlooking EnCap golf courses in neighboring towns, but a new administration opposed the deal.
Trump said he would consider dropping the suit if the project is pushed through, believing the new tax revenue generated by the project would sweeten the deal. North Arlington Councilman Steve Tanelli does not oppose negotiating with Trump, but believes Trump underestimates the public’s negative attitudes towards the project. "Mr. Trump does not realize the number of dead political bodies that have piled up in the wake of the EnCap debacle," he said.
"The people of North Arlington aren’t particularly looking for a white knight to come charging in to rescue them," he said. "They will be very suspicious of promises about tax revenue, because they have heard them all before and they were all lies."
