This old article is part of the history of the HUB.

NDC getting $250G to quit Hub partnership

Friday, June 20, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

It's splitsville for the partnership formed 15 years ago to run the Hub shopping plaza on Martin Luther King Drive in Jersey City and develop housing around it.

The City Council is expected to approve a settlement agreement next week that dissolves the joint venture partnership between the city's Economic Development Corporation and the Martin Luther King Jr. Neighborhood Development Corporation, a community organization.

Officials at the two agencies stopped speaking to each other years ago and have accused each other of welching on various commitments - including turning over rent money and conducting financial audits.

The entire matter ended up in court last year, where state Superior Court Judge Thomas Olivieri ordered the dysfunctional union dissolved.

NDC officials argued - successfully as it turns out - they couldn't be shoved out the door without compensation.

As per the settlement agreement, the JCRA will pay the NDC $250,000.

This money represents in part how much the NDC stood to make if it was allowed to develop the long-delayed Thomas Jackson Estates housing project as a member of the joint venture partnership, said JCRA Executive Director Robert Antonicello.

The payment clears the way for a new entity to take charge at the Hub, officials said.

The new partnership includes Pennsylvania-based Brandywine Construction and Development Services and Universal Companies, and the JCRA, which owns 70 percent of the project.

Brandywine and Universal have assumed payments for the $7 million federal loan that launched the Hub and will reimburse the JCRA for the $250,000 paid to the NDC, officials said.