Jones Lang LaSalle
Team goal: Start work by June 1
04/07/2006
By GEORGE DANCO Editor
FLORHAM PARK – Working quickly toward their goal of starting construction by June 1, the New York Jets professional football team will present plans for a headquarters-training complex off Park Avenue in Florham Park at a special Planning Board meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 10, at Florham Park Borough Hall, 111 Ridgedale Ave.
"I suspect the Gale Company will have a full presentation to show the Planning Board," Mayor Frank D. Tinari said of the contract purchaser, with Rock-Florham LLC of New York City, of the 485-acre Exxon tract off Park Avenue in Florham Park.
The Jets and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) have selected the site for the team’s headquarters and training and practice facilities.
Along with the Jets complex, the Florham Park-based Gale Company and its partner have proposed construction of more than 500 units of "high-end" age-restricted homes on the site.
At the same time, the developers are ready to being construction of "phase one" of development allowed under the Planned Office Development (POD) zoning for the Exxon tract.
Phase One To Begin
Under the original POD zoning, 600,000 square feet of new office space would be permitted, to replace the vacant Exxon buildings on the tract, as well as allowing construction of a hotel and a day-care center. The Jets facility and housing would preclude any "phase two" development.
Plans call for the Jets facility to be constructed by the NJSEA on 20 acres of land it has agreed to purchase for the team as an inducement for its move to New Jersey. Because NJSEA is a state agency, the presentation before the board is only a courtesy review.
"The Planning Board wanted to have more details as they consider a recommendation on a ordinance on rezoning," the mayor said Tuesday, April 4.
A second reading and public hearing is scheduled for 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 25, at Borough Hall on an ordinance to modify the POD zoning adopted in 2000 for the tract, to allow for the Jets facility and the age-restricted homes on the land.
"The council will take steps to rezone the entire tract," Tinari explained. "From there, the Planning Board will rule on a subdivision, to pull the Jets’ acreage out separately, so that could move ahead."
June 1 Start Planned
According to the timetable established by the Jets organization in meetings with Florham Park officials and consultants in early March, before the borough was selected as the facility’s site, the Jets goal is "to have a shovel in the ground (for the headquarters-training facility) by June 1," Planning Board Chairman Samuel McNulty reported Monday, April 3.
"That (date) will be a challenge, at best," McNulty added of the eight-week interval. "Prior to our pitch (advocating Florham Park’s selection for the facility), we scheduled out a (construction) calendar in pencil."
Benefits
McNulty said he believes the plan for the Jets facility and the housing on the land will be a good one for Florham Park because it would:
• Close out development on the Exxon tract, preventing possible higher-density development;
• Limit traffic, not impact the local public schools and only minimally impact other public services;
• Be a significant economic benefit to the local government and area businesses; and
• Trigger a POD ordinance provision calling for more than 200 acres of open space on northern portion of the Exxon tract, between the Route 24 expressway and Columbia Turnpike, to be turned over to Florham Park.
McNulty said, in his opinion, the 2000 POD zoning ordinance for the Exxon tract "saved" the area from development of an additional one million square feet of offices.
"Plus, we get the Jets," McNulty said of the prestige of being the home community of the prominent sports franchise.
"We will be the only town in the entire state that has the headquarters of a professional football team," he noted.
The Planning Board chairman said the Jets will get the 20-acre development from the NJSEA, and will get an additional 40 acres of contiguous land on the tract set aside by the developers for the Jets’ future purchase and use.
"With as much as 60 acres for the Jets, that would only leave about 110 acres for the age-restricted housing," McNulty said. "That will limit the amount and help prevent density creep."
‘Upscale Housing’
McNutly said K. Hovnanian would be the builder of the housing, for buyers 55 and older, under the firm’s "very upscale Four Seasons at K. Hovnanian" active adult community development.
According to the builder’s website, K. Hovnanian, based in Red Bank, is the nation’s seventh largest builder of new homes. It operates in 17 states. The nearest "Four Seasons" development is in Parsippany, where the sale prices of the homes start at $503,000.
In the proposed Florham Park development, Hovnanian would add homes selling for much higher prices to accommodate possible sales to Jets players, according to McNulty.
"It has to work, and the Planning Board will make it work," McNulty said of the proposed development plan for the borough’s largest parcel of undeveloped land.
©Recorder Newspapers 2006
Team goal: Start work by June 1
04/07/2006
By GEORGE DANCO Editor
FLORHAM PARK – Working quickly toward their goal of starting construction by June 1, the New York Jets professional football team will present plans for a headquarters-training complex off Park Avenue in Florham Park at a special Planning Board meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 10, at Florham Park Borough Hall, 111 Ridgedale Ave.
"I suspect the Gale Company will have a full presentation to show the Planning Board," Mayor Frank D. Tinari said of the contract purchaser, with Rock-Florham LLC of New York City, of the 485-acre Exxon tract off Park Avenue in Florham Park.
The Jets and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) have selected the site for the team’s headquarters and training and practice facilities.
Along with the Jets complex, the Florham Park-based Gale Company and its partner have proposed construction of more than 500 units of "high-end" age-restricted homes on the site.
At the same time, the developers are ready to being construction of "phase one" of development allowed under the Planned Office Development (POD) zoning for the Exxon tract.
Phase One To Begin
Under the original POD zoning, 600,000 square feet of new office space would be permitted, to replace the vacant Exxon buildings on the tract, as well as allowing construction of a hotel and a day-care center. The Jets facility and housing would preclude any "phase two" development.
Plans call for the Jets facility to be constructed by the NJSEA on 20 acres of land it has agreed to purchase for the team as an inducement for its move to New Jersey. Because NJSEA is a state agency, the presentation before the board is only a courtesy review.
"The Planning Board wanted to have more details as they consider a recommendation on a ordinance on rezoning," the mayor said Tuesday, April 4.
A second reading and public hearing is scheduled for 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 25, at Borough Hall on an ordinance to modify the POD zoning adopted in 2000 for the tract, to allow for the Jets facility and the age-restricted homes on the land.
"The council will take steps to rezone the entire tract," Tinari explained. "From there, the Planning Board will rule on a subdivision, to pull the Jets’ acreage out separately, so that could move ahead."
June 1 Start Planned
According to the timetable established by the Jets organization in meetings with Florham Park officials and consultants in early March, before the borough was selected as the facility’s site, the Jets goal is "to have a shovel in the ground (for the headquarters-training facility) by June 1," Planning Board Chairman Samuel McNulty reported Monday, April 3.
"That (date) will be a challenge, at best," McNulty added of the eight-week interval. "Prior to our pitch (advocating Florham Park’s selection for the facility), we scheduled out a (construction) calendar in pencil."
Benefits
McNulty said he believes the plan for the Jets facility and the housing on the land will be a good one for Florham Park because it would:
• Close out development on the Exxon tract, preventing possible higher-density development;
• Limit traffic, not impact the local public schools and only minimally impact other public services;
• Be a significant economic benefit to the local government and area businesses; and
• Trigger a POD ordinance provision calling for more than 200 acres of open space on northern portion of the Exxon tract, between the Route 24 expressway and Columbia Turnpike, to be turned over to Florham Park.
McNulty said, in his opinion, the 2000 POD zoning ordinance for the Exxon tract "saved" the area from development of an additional one million square feet of offices.
"Plus, we get the Jets," McNulty said of the prestige of being the home community of the prominent sports franchise.
"We will be the only town in the entire state that has the headquarters of a professional football team," he noted.
The Planning Board chairman said the Jets will get the 20-acre development from the NJSEA, and will get an additional 40 acres of contiguous land on the tract set aside by the developers for the Jets’ future purchase and use.
"With as much as 60 acres for the Jets, that would only leave about 110 acres for the age-restricted housing," McNulty said. "That will limit the amount and help prevent density creep."
‘Upscale Housing’
McNutly said K. Hovnanian would be the builder of the housing, for buyers 55 and older, under the firm’s "very upscale Four Seasons at K. Hovnanian" active adult community development.
According to the builder’s website, K. Hovnanian, based in Red Bank, is the nation’s seventh largest builder of new homes. It operates in 17 states. The nearest "Four Seasons" development is in Parsippany, where the sale prices of the homes start at $503,000.
In the proposed Florham Park development, Hovnanian would add homes selling for much higher prices to accommodate possible sales to Jets players, according to McNulty.
"It has to work, and the Planning Board will make it work," McNulty said of the proposed development plan for the borough’s largest parcel of undeveloped land.
©Recorder Newspapers 2006
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 1:34 PM
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