The Jersey City Independent "

Although the $15 million land deal that would have brought Jersey City the tri-state area’s first proton therapy cancer treatment center is now off the table, and the 2011 budget hearing scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed for another two weeks, the Healy administration insists everything is under control, with business administrator Jack Kelly assuring the public that the city’s “Plan B” will fill the $15 million hole without a property tax increase.

The $15 million sale of land behind the Jersey City Medical Center to Tessler Development in order to pave the way for the region’s first-ever proton therapy cancer treatment center is off the table, the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA) announced this afternoon. As we reported earlier today, the land sale was apparently contingent on [...]

Jersey City may soon be home to a proton therapy cancer treatment center — one of only a handful in the country — pending City Council approval of a $15 million land deal for the property behind the Jersey City Medical Center. The property in question has been the subject of debate and controversy since [...]

Jersey City got a minor boost to its budget last week when it sold eight unneeded properties for a total of $210,000. Here’s a list of the buyers and the properties, which were sold at a public auction on Wednesday, June 8: The biggest transaction was Mecca Realty Properties’ purchase of 717 Grand Street, which [...]

Jersey City took another step this week towards the sale of the Jersey City Police Department (JCPD) headquarters on Erie Street, approving an ordinance to adopt the 8 Erie Street Redevelopment Plan to guide the development the JCPD building and an adjacent surface parking lot.

Looks like there will not be a parking deck constructed on 1st Street after all, according to city planners, who last night told the City Council that a deck would be cost prohibitive and unfeasible, as well as antithetical to Jersey City’s broader planning goals. Planning Division director Bob Cotter, speaking at Monday’s council caucus [...]

As Jersey City tries to sell the historic JCPD headquarters on Erie Street, a neighborhood group contends the deal is being done far too hastily and in a less-than-transparent manner, an allegation the Healy administration and the agency likely to oversee the redevelopment both flatly reject. The group’s claim that the estimated sale price is “alarmingly low” also raises questions about whether the property should be designated in need of redevelopment.

- Hudson County’s Empty Rental: The County of Hudson is continuing to pay $120,000 per month to rent a Journal Square building that the county vacated nearly two years ago. By the time the lease expires this summer, the county will have paid $2.9 million to rent eight stories of unused offices. – Charter School [...]

The City Council last night voted to approve a public auction for 30 tracts of vacant land and four vacant buildings early next month. If all the 34 properties were to be sold only at the minimum bid, the city would bring nearly three-quarters of a million dollars into its coffers. Properties up for auction [...]

Although the municipal budget has been at the center of much council brouhaha lately, the hottest issue at this week’s meeting was the council’s consideration of the labor contracts with the city’s police and fire unions. A brief flareup between former mayor Gerry McCann and Ward E councilman Steven Fulop, perennial rivals, added to the atmosphere of tension in the room.