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Monday, August 27, 2007

One more for the pile?

Trenton City newspapers have been on the receiving end of a stream of letters to the editor from city residents irate over the lawsuit threat of a city official aimed at Trenton resident Zach Chester.

All of the letters have one thing in common: they condemn the actions of Assistant Business Administrator and Redevelopment guru Dennis Gonzalez in threatening to sue Mr. Chester after Mr. Chester repeatedly called the city official's record on redevelopment projects into question.

Now it seems even one of the few bright spots of redevelopment during Mr. Gonzalez's reign - the Broad Street Bank - is also sputtering, with the Trentonian's L.A. Parker reporting Tuesday that the beautiful apartment building has yet to see any tenants moving in, despite numerous announced and delayed move-in dates.

Mr. Parker reports that Mayor Douglas H. Palmer will not budge on some portions of the deal between the city and developer Richard Libbey regarding a mandatory contingent of affordable apartments in the early 20th century landmark.

But Trenton City can ill afford to vex another developer and associated redevelopment project, with numerous other Gonzalez-heralded projects falling to the wayside in recent months.

Performa, Manex, Trenton Town Center, The Leewood Affair...

The list of Mr. Gonzalez's failed redevelopment projects goes on, and with the months-long delay in the Broad Street Bank project, one wonders when that developer will turn tail and the Bank's once promising future will be added to the Palmer/Gonzalez scrapheap.

2 comments:

investintrenton said...

I feel sorry for libbey for wasting so much money on a project that will either stay vacant or become a slum in no time.I could of told you 3 years ago that the Broad Street Bank project or any project in Trenton will fail. The Adams one building on west end ave could be added to the list of Trenton failures.Until the people of the City of Trenton recognize the extent of the sacrafice that a developer takes to invest their hard earned money in the city and instead of putting all kinds of unreasonable demands on those who may be the only hope the city, bend over backwards to accomadte them, Trenton will continue its steady decline. In todays declining real estate market no developer in his right mind woild risk investing in Trenton, you had your chance to improve and you squandered it.

Greg Forester said...

It's sad, but you are absolutely right. While they say you should try and negotiate to get a better deal for yourself, Trenton doesn't have much to negotiate with, and needs to help any developer it can so we can gain back some economic momentum. The "pissing contest" between Palmer and Libbey needs to end so people wanting to move into the building can do so.