An ambitious development that would have risen across from Jersey City Medical Center appears to be officially dead. A fresh lawsuit has been filed over unauthorized work and liens filed against the land.
The Jersey City Redevelopment Authority (JCRA) filed litigation late last month in Hudson County Superior Court over a redevelopment plan for 185 Monmouth Street. The entities behind the project, Grand Jersey Group LLC, 185 Monmouth Street LLC, and DNG Group I LLC, are named as defendants in the case.
Jersey Digs reported on the project last year shortly after it gained approval from the city’s Planning Board. According to records and reports from the Department of Environmental Protection, the plot where the project was set to rise spans just over five acres and was once used as an unregulated landfill until the 1980s.
Drawn up by Hoboken-based MHS Architecture, the project was to consist of two 27-story mixed-use towers, including a six-story base. It would have included 515 rental apartments, a 30,186-square-foot two-floor retail space, office space, and an extension of Monmouth Street.
However, the JCRA says in their lawsuit that while the developer defendants entered into an agreement in January last year to purchase the city-owned property for $29 million, they never closed the deal. This led the JCRA to allegedly send them a notice of default in September and pass a resolution terminating the redevelopment agreement on October 29.
According to the lawsuit, problems have continued to emerge at the property since the deal was canceled. The JCRA claims that the developers have refused to remove various equipment they are storing on the property and apparently stiffed some contractors who performed preliminary work on the project.
Specifically, the lawsuit claims that a company called MG Engineering filed a $427,000 lien against the property for engineering services they weren’t paid for. The JCRA says in the filing that they never authorized the developer to perform any engineering work on the land, as it never officially changed hands.
Nonetheless, the case claims that the developers informed the JCRA in a letter that they would allow companies who performed work on their now-failed project to file liens against the land. The largest one emerged from a company named DNG Group, who filed a $2.74 million lien against the property.
The JCRA, who still own the property, are asking the court to discharge all liens filed against the land related to the failed project and injunctive relief against any other future liens that could emerge. The termination of the redevelopment deal, combined with the lawsuit, appears to have permanently derailed the project despite its approval only eight months ago.
