McGinley Square developer seeks 25-year abatement

Wednesday, March 28, 2007
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Roughly four blocks away, the Beacon - the $350 million project to transform the old Jersey City Medical Center into a high-priced condo complex - was granted a 30-year tax abatement from the city with "payments in lieu of taxes" well under the standard 16 percent of gross revenues.

So Frank Dominguez, principal of Pine Brook-based Imperial Properties and Development, believes he has a perfectly valid case for seeking a 25-year abatement from the city for a 39-unit condo project he's doing on Montgomery Street between Bergen Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard in the McGinley Square area.

The "payments in lieu of taxes," or PILOTs as they are called, would be 14 percent of gross annual revenue, negotiated up from 12 percent with city officials, according to Dominguez.

A first reading vote on the abatement is scheduled at tonight's City Council meeting. If the resolution passes it would be up for final adoption in two weeks.

"Right now, the administration of (Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy) is using tax abatements as a revenue shot," said Downtown Councilman Steve Fulop, who urged colleagues at Monday's caucus to vote against the abatement. "We use it to plug revenue gaps."

Administration officials at the meeting, including Business Administrator Brian O'Reilly and Corporation Counsel William Matsikoudis, defended the use of abatements, noting the city took in $80 million in PILOT payments this fiscal year.

Under conventional taxes, which have to be shared with public schools and county government, the city would have received about $20 million less, they said.

But Fulop countered that county government and schools are worth supporting, so the abatements amounted to "robbing Peter to pay Paul."

The council meets tonight at 6 at City Hall, 280 Grove