Princeton Borough expects response from downtown developer

Council hopes to wrap up negotiations next week

By Nick Noreln
Special Writer
   The Princeton Borough Council expects a response from downtown developer Nassau HKT to its proposal to wrap up Phase 1 negotiations some time next week, but council members are split on whether Nassau HKT’s latest pitch will result in the best deal for the borough.
   Borough Administrator Bob Bruschi said Tuesday that Nassau HKT is expected to respond to the borough’s recent proposal “on or about Aug. 20.”
   During the public comment session that followed, borough resident Mark Alexandridis asked if there are “any proposals in the document that improve the terms and conditions to the borough over what we originally agreed.”
   Although he didn’t go into detail, Councilman David Goldfarb characterized the proposals as “tradeoffs.”
   ”The (original) agreement fails to address every issue related to the project,” he said. “Neither party is content to rely on the agreement as it is written.”
   Councilman Roger Martindell gave a different answer.
   ”In my view, the terms that are being presented to the other side are markedly less advantageous to the borough than was originally negotiated. Not a little bit — markedly,” he said. “There will be a lot to digest if and when we reach an agreement. But it won’t be anything like the original agreement.”
   However, most of Mr. Martindell’s fellow council members disagreed that the new proposal would result in less beneficial circumstances for the borough.
   ”We wouldn’t be doing it if it were detrimental,” said Councilwoman Wendy Benchley.
   But Mr. Alexandridis’ requests for more details about the terms of the proposal met resistance.
   ”Until we have an agreement, every answer that we give you is based on incomplete settlement,” Mr. Goldfarb said.
   In addition, Mr. Alexandridas raised concerns that the two scheduled public meetings to review the potential proposal will provide an “unreasonable” amount of time to digest it.
   However, Ms. Benchley said the number of meetings could potentially be increased.
   ”Maybe we’ll have three,” she said.