By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
Is it time for a public accounting of the current status of negotiations between Princeton Borough and developer Nassau HKT over Phase 2 of the Tulane Street construction project?
At least one borough resident believes it is, and has urged the Borough Council to supply numbers and an update on the project. Members of the council support the idea of a public hearing on the matter but are divided about whether such a hearing should take place sooner rather than later.
”Frankly I think there should have been more transparency on this project over the life of the project,” said borough resident Mark Alexandridis. “The bid was awarded in the smoky room, the negotiations were done in the smoky room,” he said.
At the most recent Borough Council meeting, on April 22, Mr. Alexandridis, a former council candidate, urged the borough to brief the public on the matter as it has done in the past.
Mr. Alexandridis said he has followed the project closely over its seven-year history and has mapped out on his own where the project stands financially. He said that years of delay, design and construction lapses, and litigation, by his own calculations have cost the borough $3 million cumulatively over what it would have received if the sites had remained surface parking.
Mr. Alexandridis opposed mediation between the council and NHKT, saying council was simply seeking to absolve themselves of responsibility for any modifications to the original agreement not to the benefit of borough taxpayers. He said a public discussion over whether the borough should even proceed with Phase 2 needs to be held.
”Terminate this agreement today, then let’s sit down and say what are our objectives for this property based on what downtown looks like in 2008,” not in 2001 when the plan was originally negotiated, he said.
Mr. Alexandridis’ position mirrors that advocated by Councilman Roger Martindell in a letter published in Tuesday’s Packet. Mr. Martindell urged the borough not to undertake mediation with NHKT, to continue to call upon NHKT to honor in full a 2004 redevelopment agreement governing Phase 2, and to share information with the public.
”The sooner the better,” said Mr. Martindell, about the issue of when the public should be brought into the process. “I think the public should be a part of framing the issues,” he said, including the main question of whether Phase 2 should go forward or not under the present circumstances.
Councilman Andrew Koontz said he agreed with Mr. Alexandridis that it was time to have a public update on the financial status of the project, as has been presented by Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi in the past, although he felt mediation with NHKT was appropriate and should proceed.
Based on his understanding of where the discussions between the borough and NHKT stand, he believed there will be “a point in the near future when the public can be brought up to date where things stand,” Mr. Koontz said. “Of course, I’ve thought that before,” he added.
For the project as a whole, “the stuff that really mattered, mattered a lot to the public,” including the new library at the same site, remediation of nearby contamination as a result of the PSE&G substation, the construction of the Albert Hinds Plaza and the parking garage, “this is by and large all in place,” Mr. Koontz said.
Now it’s time for NHKT to “put a shovel in the ground” for Building C, the portion of the project the developer indicated it had the biggest economic stake in seeing through, Mr. Koontz said.
Mr. Koontz said recent negotiations with NHKT got to a point where they were going nowhere and it was deemed best to return to the text of the original agreement, which states that outstanding items should be handled through mediation. “That’s what we are doing,” he said.
”What I would like to see happen, and what is in the best interest of the taxpayer, is for this project to move forward, and to move forward as expeditiously as possible,” Mr. Koontz said.
Council President Margaret Karcher noted that it would be up to the mayor to decide when the NHKT negotiations should be discussed in public session. “My personal feeling is we still have work to do in closed session,” she said.
Councilwoman Barbara Trelstad said: “My sense is that at this very moment it would be inappropriate to bring it before public session because I think the negotiations are moving forward.” A public hearing “could muddy the waters so to speak,” she said.
Councilman David Goldfarb said the question of when to bring the public into the matter was “a difficult question.” He noted that the council has statutory authority to hold negotiations in private, and such negotiations are best done privately.
”This redevelopment never would have been done if everything had been done in public,” Mr. Goldfarb said. “We can’t have people looking over our shoulder every step of the way.”
Mr. Goldfarb said the West Windsor train station redevelopment where, in a public process, the project as a whole has been threatened by individual participants who do not like certain aspects of it, was a good example of the perils of ongoing public participation in a negotiation process.
Mr. Goldfarb said that the borough and NHKT do disagree at present, particularly on the ongoing matter of whether NHKT should pay the $360,000 in ground rent it owes under the redevelopment agreement which called for the commencement of $15,000 per month payments as of April 2006.
Acknowledging that “what’s happening here was not fully anticipated seven years ago,” and that “there has been a checkered history” to the project, Mr. Goldfarb called the points of contention issues “reasonable people disagree on,” given all that has passed. He said mediation was the best route to resolving the current differences, rather than litigation, which would likely involve time and expense and then wind up with a judge telling the parties to mediate anyway.
”When we reach an agreement we will share it with the public,” he said.
Council members Kevin Wilkes, and restaurateur and NHKT partner Jack Morrison, did not return calls seeking comment. Mayor Mildred Trotman’s Borough Hall office said she was unavailable for comment.
