TRANSCRIPT of RECORDED REGULAR MEETING : : PROCEEDINGS : William V
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CITY OF UNION CITY HUDSON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY UNION CITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY : : TRANSCRIPT OF RECORDED REGULAR MEETING : : PROCEEDINGS : William V. Musto Cultural Center 420 15th Street Union City, New Jersey Tuesday, June 9, 2015 Commencing at 6:37 p.m. M E M B E R S P R E S E N T: VINCENT BONITO, COMMISSIONER EVA FESTA, COMMISSIONER WILMER IZQUIERDO, COMMISSIONER CARLOS VALLEJO, COMMISSIONER LUCIO FERNANDEZ, CHAIRMAN M E M B E R S A B S E N T: PAUL CASPER, COMMISSIONER RAFAEL NOVA, COMMISSIONER A L S O P R E S E N T: DOMINICK CANTATORE, ASSISTANT SECRETARY TO THE BOARD KENNEDY NG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, (Arrived at 6:40 p.m.) FLORIO & KENNY, LLP BY: DAVID J. YANOTCHKO, ESQ. Board Attorney 2 I N D E X PAGE CALL TO ORDER 3 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 3 ROLL CALL 4 AGENDA 1. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM THE MEETING OF APRIL 21, 2015 4 2. PRESENTATION REGARDING REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT PROPOSED FOR 22ND STREET AND SUMMIT AVENUE LOCATION BY PBG REALTY ASSOCIATES, LLC 6,8 3. APPROVAL AND RATIFICATION OF PRIOR PAYMENT OF CLAIMS 6 4. APPROVAL FOR THE PAYMENT OF BILLS AND PREPARATION OF CHECKS 8 5. REPORT ON STATUS OF PROJECTS 36 6. PUBLIC COMMENT 38 ADJOURNMENT 38 3 1 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Please take 2 notice that on Tuesday, June 9th, 2015, at 6:30 3 p.m., a Regular Meeting is scheduled for the 4 Union City Redevelopment Agency to be held at the 5 William V. Musto Cultural Center, located at 420 6 15th Street, Union City, New Jersey. 7 This meeting is being scheduled in place of 8 the Redevelopment Agency’s Regular Meeting of May 9 20, 2015, at 2:30 p.m., which was held -- to be 10 rescheduled. 11 Everyone please rise for the Pledge of 12 Allegiance. 13 14 (Whereupon, the Pledge of Allegiance was 15 said by all.) 16 17 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Adequate notice 18 of this meeting has been provided as follows: 19 Notice of this meeting setting forth the 20 time, the date, location and the agenda, to the 21 extent known, was forwarded to The Jersey 22 Journal, The Record, The Hudson Reporter, has 23 been posted on bulletin board in City Hall, has 24 been made available to the public in the office 25 of Municipal Clerk. 4 1 2 ROLL CALL: 3 4 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Roll call. 5 Commissioner Fernandez? 6 CHAIRMAN FERNANDEZ: Here. 7 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Commissioner 8 Izquierdo? 9 COMMISSIONER IZQUIERDO: Here. 10 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Commissioner 11 Nova? 12 Is absent. 13 Commissioner Festa? 14 COMMISSIONER FESTA: Here. 15 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Commissioner 16 Casper? 17 Is absent. 18 Commissioner Bonito? 19 COMMISSIONER BONITO: Here. 20 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Commissioner 21 Vallejo? 22 COMMISSIONER VALLEJO: Here. 23 24 1. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM THE MEETING OF 25 APRIL 21, 2015 5 1 2 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: First item on the 3 agenda is Approval of the Minutes from the 4 Meeting of April 21st, 2015. 5 COMMISSIONER BONITO: Motion. 6 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Made by 7 Commissioner Bonito. 8 COMMISSIONER VALLEJO: Second the motion. 9 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Second by 10 Commissioner Vallejo. 11 Roll call. 12 Commissioner Fernandez? 13 CHAIRMAN FERNANDEZ: Yes. 14 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Commissioner 15 Izquierdo? 16 COMMISSIONER IZQUIERDO: Abstain. 17 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Abstain. 18 Commissioner Nova is absent. 19 Commissioner Festa? 20 COMMISSIONER FESTA: Yes. 21 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Commissioner 22 Casper is absent. 23 Commissioner Bonito? 24 COMMISSIONER BONITO: Yes. 25 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Commissioner 6 1 Vallejo? 2 COMMISSIONER VALLEJO: Yes. 3 4 2. PRESENTATION REGARDING REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT 5 PROPOSED FOR 22ND STREET AND SUMMIT AVENUE 6 LOCATION BY PBG REALTY ASSOCIATES, LLC 7 8 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Item 2 is a 9 Presentation Regarding Redevelopment Project 10 Proposed for 22nd Street and Summit Avenue 11 Location by PBG Realty Association (sic), LLC. 12 CHAIRMAN FERNANDEZ: Chairman (sic), before 13 we do that, can we please jump to 3 and 4, get 14 those out of the way; then we’ll go back to 2, 15 please? 16 MR. YANOTCHKO: We could -- we could do 17 that, yeah. If we want to just go ahead quickly 18 with the -- the claims, it will probably take 19 about two minutes. 20 21 3. APPROVAL AND RATIFICATION OF PRIOR PAYMENT OF 22 CLAIMS 23 24 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Item 3. 25 Approval and Ratification of Prior Payments 7 1 of Claim. 2 COMMISSIONER FESTA: Make a motion. 3 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Motion by 4 Commissioner Festa. 5 COMMISSIONER VALLEJO: Second the motion. 6 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Second by 7 Commissioner Vallejo. 8 Roll call. 9 Commissioner Fernandez? 10 CHAIRMAN FERNANDEZ: Yes. 11 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Commissioner 12 Izquierdo? 13 COMMISSIONER IZQUIERDO: Yes. 14 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Commissioner 15 Nova? 16 Is absent. 17 Commissioner Festa? 18 COMMISSIONER FESTA: Yes. 19 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Commissioner 20 Casper is absent. 21 Commissioner Bonito? 22 COMMISSIONER BONITO: Yes. 23 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Commissioner 24 Vallejo? 25 COMMISSIONER VALLEJO: Yes. 8 1 2 4. APPROVAL FOR THE PAYMENT OF BILLS AND 3 PREPARATION OF CHECKS 4 5 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Item 4, we’re 6 going to remove that, because we don’t have any 7 checks. 8 So, we’ll jump to 5. 9 MR. YANOTCHKO: Actually, you should 10 probably -- 11 CHAIRMAN FERNANDEZ: No, let’s go back now 12 to -- 13 MR. YANOTCHKO: -- go back to 2 at this 14 point -- 15 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: We’re going to 2? 16 MR. YANOTCHKO: -- for our presentation. 17 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Okay. You got 18 it. 19 MR. YANOTCHKO: Yes. 20 21 2. PRESENTATION REGARDING REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT 22 PROPOSED FOR 22ND STREET AND SUMMIT AVENUE 23 LOCATION BY PBG REALTY ASSOCIATES, LLC 24 25 MR. RHATICAN: Thank you. 9 1 Good evening and thanks for your time. 2 My name is James Rhatican. I’m a lawyer 3 with the Chiesa, Shahinian and Giantomasi firm. 4 I’m here on behalf of the applicant, PBG Realty 5 Associates. 6 We are proud to -- well, I guess, first 7 order of business is I have a check for your 8 counsel -- the administrative fee that was to be 9 paid under the fourth amendment to the 10 redevelopment agreement and so that was obviously 11 a precondition of -- of anything. 12 So, we want -- 13 CHAIRMAN FERNANDEZ: Please -- City Clerk, 14 please acknowledge that we received that payment 15 please on the record. 16 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Okay, a check was 17 received -- 18 MR. YANOTCHKO: Pursuant to the agreement. 19 CHAIRMAN FERNANDEZ: Can you read the 20 number on -- into the record please? 21 And the amount please. 22 THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY: A check was 23 received for $25,000.00. 24 25 (Whereupon, Kennedy Ng arrived at 6:40 10 1 p.m.) 2 3 MR. YANOTCHKO: That is -- that is 4 consistent with the fourth amendment to the 5 redevelopment agreement. 6 MR. RHATICAN: Thank you. 7 So, more substantively of course we’re here 8 for a presentation on this redevelopment project 9 that has been many years in the making and we -- 10 we really appreciate your patience and your 11 indulgences. 12 It’s -- it’s a project that was first 13 conceived really about a decade ago. PBG Realty 14 was designated as redeveloper for this particular 15 site. There was a redevelopment agreement signed 16 in 2006; there have been some amendments, 17 including the most recent one, the fourth 18 amendment. 19 And for a variety reasons, including the 20 state of economy going back a number of years, 21 the project really never took off. And it’s been 22 revised in some respects and you’ll hear a little 23 bit of testimony about that. 24 Most recently, as I said, we have this -- 25 what we call the fourth amendment to the 11 1 redevelopment agreement, by which the redeveloper 2 voluntarily agreed to reduce the scale and the 3 scope of the project. We understood that there 4 were some concerns on the part of the 5 Administration and we wanted to be sure, as good 6 neighbors in the community, to address those 7 concerns. 8 So, I think you’ll see, as the project is 9 presented, that it’s consistent with some of the 10 other larger projects in the area. And really, 11 most importantly for this body, the Redevelopment 12 Agency, it’s perfectly consistent with the 13 redevelopment plan. 14 In fact, as I said, it’s a little below 15 what would be permitted by the redevelopment 16 plan. And it’s likewise perfectly consistent 17 with the redevelopment agreement. 18 So, I do have Mr. Jerry Gippetti, who is 19 the principal of PBG Realty. He’ll -- he’ll -- I 20 just want him to say a couple words. This site 21 has been in his family; had a business operating 22 at this site in town for many, many years. 23 Jerry, why don’t you tell us a little bit 24 about -- 25 MR. GIPPETTI: Yeah. 12 1 MR. RHATICAN: -- yourself. 2 MR. GIPPETTI: Good evening. Thank you 3 very much. Pleasure. 4 My name is Jerry Gippetti. And I’ve been 5 the owner of the site since 1980, in which I ran 6 my textile business. We had about 12 employees 7 from town. And we shipped and received textiles. 8 We didn’t do any manufacturing to them, nor did 9 we do anything to them other than warehouse.