OCEANPORT — The 70-slip marina at Fort Monmouth will be leased to a private operator, according to an official with the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA).
According to Bruce Steadman, executive director of FMERA, a request for proposals (RFP) will be issued in the coming months for a lease, with a commitment to buy the 4.3-acre marina site situated along Oceanport Creek.
“We wanted to have the marina open for the 2013 season,” Steadman said in an interview on Feb. 1, adding that the parcel can’t be sold until the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) completes an environmental assessment of the property.
“The RFP process will enable FMERA to lease the marina while the Army finalizes a Finding of Suitability to Transfer (FOST).
“Once we have received the environmental clearance and the deed from the Army, we will notify the tenant and the tenant would be obligated to buy.”
The agreement will require the leaseholder/ buyer to make repairs to the one-story structure at the marina, which sustained damage after 4 feet of water inundated the building, ruining the electrical system.
The docks along the marina also need minor repairs, he said.
“The only permanent damage was to the building. Structurally the building is fine but the electrical circuitry inside has been exposed to water so it will have to be tested and evaluated,” Steadman said.
“FMERA doesn’t own it and the Army is precluded from doing that kind of work under its caregiver agreement so the building will be sold as is.”
According to the Fort Monmouth Redevelopment and Reuse Plan, the marina can accommodate commercial development, such as a waterfront restaurant.
The plan calls for the marina to be improved and expanded to provide better public access to the water.
Because several parcels are being readied for purchase, Steadman could not give a time frame as to when the RFP would be issued.
Currently, the Army and FMERA are seeking offers to purchase (ROFTP) for Howard Commons housing and Parcel B, WWII-era office buildings in Eatontown, the historic officers’ housing in Oceanport and Parcels C and C1, which are vacant land, in Tinton Falls.
In addition, the Army is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to rehabilitate approximately 115 units of existing fort housing to be used as temporary housing for storm victims for the next 18 months.
Steadman said that with 1,126 acres of land to transfer to private owners, the process is moving fairly quickly and should be completed within the next eight to nine years.
“We have a high sense of urgency to return the property to active use, so that jobs will be created and ratables will be created for the three [host] boroughs. Especially now, given the devastating effects of the storm on the state and the regional economy, that sense of urgency is even higher,” Steadman said.
“We are very motivated to get the property out for a proposal process so that we can see how we can accomplish those goals of job creation and ratable creation.”
The Fort Monmouth redevelopment process reached its first milestone last week after FMERA closed on the sale of Parcel E — a 55-acre tract in Tinton Falls — to Comm- Vault, a data-software company, at a cost of $5.9 million.
CommVault plans to demolish military housing on the site and build 650,000 square feet of new high-tech office/research space and a parking garage that will serve as the company’s headquarters.
When fully built out, CommVault has indicated that it employ between 2,500 and 3,000 employees at the site.
“We are thrilled that an investment of that nature is going to be in Tinton Falls. This is going to show people that [the redevelopment] can happen and it will happen,” Steadman said.
“In many respects this is the starting line in a marathon which we hope to complete in eight or nine years.”