Many Hurdles to Jump at the Fort: FMERA Sets Framework for Leases

At Wednesday's meeting of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority, the board approved new rules for leasing property at the soon-to-be closed Fort Monmouth. Though the board did not go into detail about the new rules, the approval marks one of the many hurdles the authority will have to jump through before it can secure paying tenants for the property.

The approved rules will now go into a 10-day veto period where they will be reviewed by the governer. After that there will be a 60-day public comment period when the rules will be available on FMERA's website.

Board members only received the proposed rules the day of the meeting, which Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo lamented.

"The rules are rather extensive," he said. "It would have been nice if we had them earlier."

FMERA Secretary Bruce Steadman apologized for the short notice but said there were potential prospective clients who were very interested in bidding on properties within the fort and he didn't want to risk losing them.

Michael Pane, who heads the real estate committee of FMERA, emphasized the importance of "staying ahead of the Army" as it moves to close the fort. These regulations, he said, are necessary in order to begin leasing and that they will ensure a "consistent procedure so that the process is fair and open."

"We need to establish a procedure for the dispensation of the properties," Pane said, adding that the first kind of transaction would be leasing. Rules for purchase are expected at a later date.

About potential leases, Oceanport Mayor Michael Mahon said that, "any proposal (to develop) has to be evaluated in light of it's impact on the municipality."

Pane agreed.

"This goes beyond dollars and cents," he said. "It's about job creation, it's about use, it's about the abilitiy to develop at such uses."

Following the meeting, Steadman said that he had received a lot of inquiries from potential tenants in a variety of industries, including hi-tech companies, security firms, telecom companies, product testing firms, medical facilities and office and residential developers.

But signing a lease is a long way off, Steadman said.

"At the earliest, we are 70 days away from any lease signing and I think it is illogical to think that we could even move that quickly," he said, adding that he thinks FMERA is at least three months away from signing its first lease. "Sale pieces are even further away," he said, because of pending environmental reports.

Steadman and FMERA run bus tours for potential leasees and buyers to view specific sites on the fort, but he said that getting security clearance for this is tricky because the Army is still running mission operations at the fort. He said he expects this work to be wrapped up by June or July and that he would begin more public tours then.