Jones Lang LaSalle


Jets fever fires up Florham Park
Officials roll out the green carpet to welcome team to its new home
BY NAVID IQBAL
DAILY RECORD

FLORHAM PARK -- A mob backed Wayne Chrebet against a New York Jets van and hounded him for autographs. The popular wide receiver, who retired at the end of last season, disappeared into a crowd of young boys, girls and older fans who wielded everything from fliers, to notebooks, to jerseys, to footballs for him to sign.

For at least 20 minutes at the welcoming party for the professional football team Wednesday afternoon Chrebet signed whatever came his way.

The Jets chose Florham Park over about 40 other North Jersey towns to move their headquarters and practice facility. Billed as "Jets Fest," the event Wednesday was a chance for borough officials, officials from the team and the New Jersey Sports Exposition Authority to congratulate each other, while fans had fun.

For Joey Signorelli of Morris Plains, it was a chance to get a closer look at the team he said he's been a fan of ever since Joe Namath was quarterback.

"I like it," Signorelli said of the Jets decision to move from Hofstra University in Long Island to the ExxonMobil site off of Park Avenue. "We'll watch them practice."

While Namath wasn't at the event, it was attended by most of the team's 2006 draft picks, Chrebet, Jets owner Woody Johnson and team president Jay Cross and New Jersey Sports Exposition Authority Chairman Carl Goldberg.

"This is an amazing crowd,"Johnson said at about 4:30 in the afternoon after being introduced by the event's emcee, Thomas M. Hadley, who recently retired as a borough councilman. "This has been a long, I guess, journey. We'll be in Florham Park for a long time."

The most boisterous of the crowd were the many school-aged children wearing green and white Jets memorabilia. A police officer twice asked the large group to move back that had gathered at a gazebo where the VIP guests and the borough officials stood. Once the crowd had moved back, Florham Park cheerleaders waved yellow and black pompoms and chanted, "J-E-T-S! Jets! Jets! Jets!"

Mayor in uniform

"We think it's going to be a great partnership for years to come," Mayor Frank D. Tinari said before reading an official borough proclamation, which was presented as a plaque to Johnson. Tinari's patented bowtie was striped green, white and black. He wore a Jets baseball cap and later donned a custom Jets uniform with his name on the back, which was given to him by Johnson.

NJSEA spokesman Goldberg told the crowd that this was his return to Florham Park, where he started his real estate career 30 years ago. He said that because of the partnership between the borough, the Jets and the NJSEA, "Every time you read in the paper about Florham Park, it'll say the home of the Jets."

Goldberg said that that borough's planning board would be able to view plans of what the Jets intend to do on the 20-acres of the more than 420-acre ExxonMobil site on which they will build their practice facility.

More development, including a hotel, a childcare facility, and age-restricted housing, can also be built at the ExxonMobil site now that the borough council approved zoning changes in the area.

Arrival dates

Goldberg said construction for the new facility could begin as early as December and the team would move in by the summer of 2007.

However, Jets President Jay Cross said later that a realistic timetable for when the practice field and headquarters would be usable for the team is June 2008.

Cross said among the factors that led the team and the NJSEA to select Florham Park: a great community, with varying types of housing; a 20-minute commute to East Rutherford, where a new, shared stadium for the Jets and rival New York Giants will be built.

After Johnson praised the "city" council and made other introductions, the draft picks all left the gazebo and were immediately set upon by hungry autograph-seekers. Even Johnson signed autographs.

Besides Chrebet, the biggest crowd had gathered around first-round draft pick, offensive tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson. Two Morris County Park Police officers stood nearby.
"If you work hard, you could be like me," Ferguson, of Freeport, N.Y. told a youngster whose height reached to his knee.
'Take my card'

Among the crowd was a real estate agent, dressed in a suit and tie. He approached draft pick Brad Smith, a Youngstown, Ohio native, and gave him a card in case Smith ever looked for a house in the area. Cross said some Jets employees have already been around looking for housing.

If the number of people wearing Jets colors was any indication, then most of the public at the event were there simply to get a closer look at their favorite football team.

Denise Adesso of Florham Park wore a Jets uniform and got autographs from several draft picks and Chrebet.

"We're just excited that they moved up here," she said. "We'll probably be there every week checking out their practices."

Ahmed Chater took a half day off from work Wednesday. He wanted to get autographs, too, especially from Ferguson and one of his all-time favorite players, Chrebet.

"Unfortunately the line around them was really long," he said.

The ExxonMobil site is now managed by the Gale-Rockefeller group. The NJSEA, which operates the Meadowlands, will pay $20 million to purchase the 20 acres in Florham Park. That amount of money would come off the tax rolls, but the borough would be getting payment in lieu of taxes of about $150,000 annually for 10 years. The team and the sports authority also plan to offer $50,000 annually to support and maintain the borough's recreational facilities.