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Eastern Market Report
Eastern Briefs
Builder Named for New Jersey Golf Development
Weston Purchases Brownfield in Sturbridge, Mass.
Ground Broken on New York “Lifestyle” Center
New Connecticut DEP Commissioner
Builder Named for New Jersey Golf Development
EnCap Golf, a Cherokee Investment Partners company, has signed an agreement
with Jersey Meadows LLC, a wholly owned entity of Pulte Homes, Inc., to become
the residential redeveloper for the Meadowlands Golf Project.
Having broken ground in May, EnCap Golf has already started the remediation
and capping of four landfills in New Jersey’s Meadowlands District. The
landfills will be transformed into golf courses, open space and a pedestrian-friendly
village of shopping, upscale homes and hotels.
Phase 1 of the EnCap Golf project includes approximately 785 acres of landfills,
brownfields and wetlands in Bergen County. Of this land, 685 acres will be remediated
and permanently preserved as greenfields and open space. Actual development
will be limited to only 13 percent of the site. The value of construction for
each phase of the project is estimated at more than $1 billion.
Weston Purchases Brownfield in Sturbridge, Mass.
Weston Solutions, Inc. has purchased Sturbridge Industrial Business Park from
Corning NetOptix, Inc., a subsidiary of Corning, Inc. The 56-acre property located
in Sturbridge, Mass., was home to NetOptix until 2002. Weston will remediate
the property’s existing contamination, assume all long-term environmental
liability and participate in the property redevelopment.
“Corning was not interested in making additional investments to redevelop
the property because it extended beyond their core business offering,”
stated Patrick G. McCann, Weston president and CEO. “Because of the environmental
liabilities associated with the property, they had to retain capital reserves
on their books to account for the ongoing concern. Weston’s innovative
approach allows Corning to better use the capital that was needed for property
maintenance, environmental liability and associated insurance, while assuring
the revitalization of the property.”
According to Pete Ceribelli, a Weston senior vice president, “The park
is currently home to several other employers and is the town’s only zoned
location for general industrial use. We are planning on making an investment
in the park that will allow it to be redeveloped as an attractive mixed-use
project that will meet the needs of today’s growing businesses. The Weston
Real Estate Solutions team will work in close partnership with the surrounding
community to return the area to its best and most productive use.”
The Sturbridge Industrial Business Park is located within an hour of Boston
and Hartford and two hours from the Connecticut shoreline.
Ground Broken on New York “Lifestyle” Center
Atco Properties & Management recently broke ground on The Shops at Atlas
Park, New York’s first-ever lifestyle retail entertainment center, on
the Atlas Terminals site, an industrial property owned by The Hemmerdinger Family
for more than 85 years.
Located at the intersection of 80th Street and Cooper Avenue, the $100+ million
development will create a much-anticipated 400,000-square-foot retail and office
project in the Glendale section of Queens, New York.
The project will sit on a 12-acre tract of land surrounding the 2.5-acre heavily
landscaped Ellipse Park, a green space designed to create a casual, refreshing
meeting place in the midst of a densely inhabited urban environment.
The Shops at Atlas Park is one of the first sites to participate in New York
State’s new brownfield cleanup program. A&Co., LLC serves as the development
manager and design architect on behalf of the owner, Atco Properties & Management.
New Connecticut DEP Commissioner
Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell has appointed a Massachusetts administrator
as commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection. Gina McCarthy
replaces longtime DEP Commissioner Arthur Rocque Jr, who retired Oct. 1.
Since May 2003, McCarthy was deputy secretary for operations for the Massachusetts
Governor’s Office for Commonwealth Development, directing policy for state
agencies responsible for the environment, transportation, housing and energy.
Rocque, DEP commissioner for seven years, retired amid a federal corruption
investigation into whether DEP employees accepted free work at their homes in
exchange for steering state work to Earth Technology Inc.
The probe prompted Attorney General Richard Bluementhal to call for sweeping
changes to the way Connecticut issues state contracts. He is already requiring
that all new contracts be accompanied by a sworn affidavit revealing all gifts
from company officials to state employees.