Army and Redevelopers to Split Fort Proceeds 50/50

Fort Monmouth redevelopers will split the sale and lease proceeds of Fort Monmouth with the property's owner, the US Army.

Officials from the called the deal "fair" on Monday when they announced an outline of the Memorandum of Agreement recently drafted between FMERA and

FMERA's Executive Director Bruce Steadman told Patch that it took some time to build the Army's trust in FMERA's efforts and the authority's ability to bring in good potential users for the site.

"I think when we started (negotiations) in September they were thinking more like 80/20," Steadman said.  

There are varied reasons the Army is not keeping 100 percent of the proceeds, to which it is entitled. FMERA estimates redevelopment costs for the aging propety to be $100 million over a period of 20 years of planned redevelopment.

"100 percent of every dollar that FMERA makes will be put back into the redevelopment of the property," Steadman said. Some of the of redevelopment include demolition, which may be good news for Oceanport Mayor Michael Mahon, who is looking to see the 400 block of WWII barracks come down, and Eatontown's Mayor Gerald Tarantolo, who is looking to demolish .

Steadman said these demolition costs could also be rolled into the sale of a property as a developer's expense.

According to the MOA, which is still being fine tuned, the property will be transfered in two phases. 

The first phase, which could begin as soon as the first quarter of 2012 and finish by Feb. 1, includes 563 acres:

• 490 acres in the Charles Wood sections of Eatontown and Tinton Falls
• 73 acres on the Main Post in Oceanport and Eatontown

Included in the initial phase are: the , , the clinic parcel, , and parcel's C, C1 and B. You can view the presentation here, which includes maps.

These properties would include 563 residential units and 1.7 million square feet of office and retail space. FMERA estimates that over a 20-year redevelopment period these properties would generate $138 million, which would be split equally between the Army and FMERA's redevelopment efforts.

The balance of the 1,126 acre property would be transfered in phase two.

If all goes as planned, FMERA's board will be able to approve the agreement at the next scheduled meeting on Dec. 21. Once the MOA and also the , of which the MOA is the Cliff Notes version, are accepted by the Department of Defense, property transfers can begin.

Steadman said that with each individual property, the plan is to take transfer of it in the morning and hand it over to the buyer or leasee in the afternoon.