Yes, make them pay their fare share of taxes!!!

So we can get the camera that we need on Rutgers Avenue, or any other block requesting one,

OR, for even MORE police to cover for the holidays,

AND FOR,

More police dogs,

AND FOR,

Jobs for the youth, so they won't end up in gangs selling drugs and killing each other.

OR

For programs to educate the youth on the downfalls of persuing a life of crime.

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I wonder if the room rates will drop with the "improved' view of a nearby tower wall.

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No this will be built in the doubletree parking lot. Towers will flank the hotel.

The Pep Boys is where the Metropolitan was proposed (different project)

Which lot will this go up? Are they tearing down Pet Boys?

WHY is this city still giving tax abatements to developers on the waterfront when it does nothing but line the pockets of said developers...Downtown is going to S@%* ....and is becoming almost unlivable......
The public schools will one day be back in control of the city and the sometimes miserable condition of many schools are only to get worse...Where will the money come from to build new schools or make necessary repairs to older facilities...????? The streets are riddled with potholes and trash.....
But lets give tax abatements to developers for housing that is out of most long time residents reach $$$$.....
Something is dreadfully wrong here....
I have to give Yvonne Balcer a for her long running dedication to this cause of fighting abatements on the waterfront...

Two 47-story towers closer to reality

Developers ask City Council for more advantageous tax deal

Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer 05/24/2008

Two 47-story buildings on Washington Boulevard near the Doubletree Hotel are closer to reality now that the city has approved a sweeter tax deal for the developers, who were unsatisfied with the city's previous deal.

At the council's meeting on May 14, the council voted 7-1 to amend the existing tax abatements for the pair of towers, to be built in a joint venture by two development companies.

Developers in Jersey City often seek to avoid regular fluctuating property taxes by making a separate tax deal with the city. The city benefits by getting that money straight into its coffers rather than sharing it with the county and schools. The city also uses these agreements as an incentive for developers to build.

However, some residents say that these deals force other taxpayers to contribute more to school and county taxes.

Rejected once, approved on second try

The developers of the Monaco North and Monaco South buildings epitomize the old adage, "If you don't succeed, try, try again."

Representatives for Roseland Property Company and Garden State Development (whose principal investors include longtime developer Peter Mangin and former U.S. Congressman Frank Guarini), the joint developers of the project, first came to the City Council in January looking to change their existing abatement deal with the city, citing the increasing cost of construction.

The developers would save $6 million in taxes from the deal.

The new abatements would be for 15 years rather than 20 years, and the annual service charge (a charge levied by the city against residential property exempted from conventional taxation) would be lessened from 14 to 12 percent of the annual gross revenue for the rentals.

The developers also wanted to slightly change the number of rental units in the buildings, to save construction costs. The number of rentals in Monaco North would decrease from 264 to 243, and the number of parking spaces would decrease from 203 to 187. Changes for Monaco South include a slight increase from 277 to 281 units and an increase in the number of parking spaces from 213 to 223.

In January, the council rejected the deal by a 6-3 vote because the city would lose $6 million in taxes.

But that was January, and now in May, the Monaco North and Monaco South developers wanted to try again with a new proposal.

In the new deal, they will pay the abatement for both buildings over a 10-year period with the service charge at 10 percent. The reconfiguring of the building units and parking spaces for both buildings still go into effect with this new abatement deal.

Not everyone was impressed by this new agreement.

Voting against the abatements for both projects was City Councilman Steven Fulop.

Fulop said while he understood why developers were pursuing shorter-term abatements, he also thought it was "counterproductive" for developers to hold up projects until they got the best abatement deal.

At the council meeting, longtime downtown resident Yvonne Balcer, an opponent of abatements, voiced her disapproval with this abatement deal, saying that "[Government] should not be giving consideration to the developer at all."

Both Business Administrator Brian O'Reilly and Council President Mariano Vega defended the abatements, saying this would help the developer get the project into the ground and that the developer has to build the project within three years as part of the new deal.

No official date has been set on when construction will begin.

Abating the abatements

At a council meeting last August, the city moved toward a new abatement policy in which developers of rental housing have the choice of three tax abatement levels: a 10-year term paying 10 percent gross annual revenue to the city; a 15-year term paying 12 percent, and a 20-year term paying 14 percent.

The reason city government pursued this new policy was because developers were opting for five-year abatements that allowed them to pay conventional taxes in increments over a short period of time, rather than making direct payments to the city under the long-term abatements.

Developers were pursuing the five-year abatement because they felt they were paying too much money under the city's current 28 percent tax assessment ratio when compared to paying conventional taxes. A property selling for $1 million was taxed as if it had a value of approximately $280,000, officials said.

Also, developers cite the economy and the rising cost of construction as the reason to pursue short-term abatements.

Comments on this story can be sent to rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.