Case Studies

Since being named Special Counsel in 2002 and Waterfront Redevelopment Counsel in 2008, McManimon and Scotland, L.L.C. has worked with the development and lending community to increase private investment throughout the City of Asbury Park. Completed projects include a renovated department store that now houses 63 rental units and 10,000 square feet of retail and a series of smaller buildings in the City’s bustling Central Business District. In 2010, the City executed a redevelopment agreement with Madison Asbury Retail, L.L.C. formalizing Madison Marquette’s role as a redeveloper of the City’s famed Boardwalk, Convention Hall and Stone Pony nightclub. Under this agreement, three of the Boardwalk Pavilions were renovated into first class retail and restaurant/night club space and the Stone Pony opened an expanded and state-of-the-art outdoor stage. Renovation and reconstruction of the remaining buildings will be covered in subsequent redevelopment agreements. The City also worked with the redeveloper to coordinate on-street and off-street parking and a schedule of a series of entertainment events throughout the year to draw visitors in all seasons. The results have been positive, with an added benefit: the City’s revenues from beach and parking fees increased from $35,000 in 2003 to over $900,000 in the first nine months of 2010.

As the economic cycle resets, the City remains committed to its redevelopment initiatives and will continue to work with existing and new developers to rebuild its historic waterfront.

We worked with a developer to rehabilitate an abandoned department store into over 11,000 square feet of retail space and 63 rental units. We were able to use an innovative formula under the Long Term Tax Exemption Law that guaranties the City 10% of a minimum rent roll for the rental units to help pay for certain costs of the project. For more information on this project, please contact Thomas J. Hastie, Member.

McManimon & Scotland, L.L.C. serves as lead redevelopment counsel in connection with the Westminster redevelopment project in the Wesley Lake Section of the City of Asbury Park. As lead redevelopment counsel, the firm will effectuate the phased development of several hundred for-sale residential units, as well as mixed-use development. For more information on this project, please contact Glenn F. Scotland, Member.

From 2006 through 2009, our firm worked with the Town of Harrison, the County of Hudson and the Hudson County Improvement Authority to assist the Town in implementing its redevelopment plan. This project involved the initial phase of a multi phased neighborhood in which a private developer was facing a series of site specific challenges during a time when conventional financing was contracting. The challenges included unanticipated costs associated with environmental remediation, utility relocation and infrastructure to service the multi-phase project which needed to be financed before the initial phase was commenced. Using two series of bonds secured by payments in lieu of taxes and special assessments, respectively, nearly $13 million in public subsidy was made available to the initial phase of the project. This level of public commitment required a coordinated security package be created to protect the interests of the Town without impacting the ability of the developers to obtain conventional financing. The result was the opening of a 275 unit building in September, 2011, with new revenues flowing to the Town and new residents inhabiting the first privately financed and owned project within the Town’s redevelopment area since 2004. In 2012, it is anticipated that the developers will begin phase II and Phase III of their project.