PPG Industries, the Pennsylvania-based company responsible for cleaning up the massive chromium site on Garfield Avenue in Jersey City, has asked to be put in charge of redeveloping the 17-acre property once it?s done cleaning it up.
The company filed an application in April with the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency to be named the redeveloper of the site as part of Canal Crossings, the agency?s 111-acre plan for residential and commercial structures in the city?s southeastern end.
PPG owned and operated a chromium chemical production plant on the Garfield Avenue site from 1954 until it was shut down in 1963, and the company has been tasked with cleaning up the hazardous waste that had been contaminating the area?s soil since the plant opened in 1920.
That cleanup is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014, but PPG wants to develop portions of the site as they are cleaned, according to the application filed with the JCRA.
PPG spokesman Jeremy Neuhart confirmed the company is seeking to develop the 17-acre chromium site, plus an additional 10 acres that surround that site. If the company is awarded redevelopment rights, Neuhart said, it will seek an ?experienced development firm? to help create the mixed-use neighborhood the JCRA desires.
?PPG believes that the remediation that it is performing can be harmonized with the mixed-use development ... allowing both the cleanup and redevelopment to proceed ahead on a faster track,? he said.
JCRA Executive Director Bob Antonicello said PPG?s request to be named the redeveloper has been ?tabled indefinitely,? but he spoke highly of the plan when contacted by The Jersey Journal.JJ