A 44-acre property in Perth Amboy once home to a company that made asbestos roofing shingles will be cleaned up and redeveloped.
The Perth Amboy Redevelopment Agency signed an agreement with Denver-based Viridian Partners, which will spend $110 million to clean up the contaminated site located between the Route 35 Victory Bridge, Smith Street and Riverside Drive, according to a news release. It’s known as the Gateway property because it’s at the entrance to Perth Amboy.
About 18 of the 44 acres will be cleaned up and handed over to the city.
The agreement calls for nine acres adjacent to the Smith Street business corridor to be remediated and made “pad ready’ for the city at no cost. The area will be developed privately through a redevelopment agreement as determined by redevelopment agency.
“PARA is planning to develop a (request for proposals) which will establish a vision for the property and will give potential developers guidelines to submit their concepts,” said Tashi Vazquez, executive director of the authority.
Another nine acres, which includes natural areas surrounding Sonnaman’s Creek, will be remediated and used for passive recreation with trails leading to a gazebo that will overlook the Raritan River.
The rest of the property will be site of a state-of-the-art, one-story, 471,000-square-foot, Class A warehouse. Trucks entering and exiting the warehouse will have to use Riverview Drive via Smith Street to minimize traffic in nearby business and residential areas, according to the news release. Natural screens, including berms and buffer landscaping, will be built to minimize the impact of the warehouse.
“We’re eager to take advantage of the commercial possibilities of this large swath of developable property and maximize its ideal proximity to Route 440 and other major highways,” Perth Amboy Mayor Helmin J. Caba said. “Working closely with PARA and the developer, we are moving forward with a three-pronged strategy.
“The developer is paying to remediate the land, create a public park, and turn nine acres of valuable land into buildable property as part of our overall downtown redevelopment initiatives.”
The redevelopment agency and Viridian Partners have been discussing plans for the blighted property since 2014. Viridian was selected for the project because of its experience with remediating contaminated properties in Middlesex County and converting large industrial sites into tax-generating uses, city officials said.
This site, once redeveloped, is expected to generate 400 jobs and $1 million in local tax revenue for the city.
About 75% of Viridian’s development projects are located between Burlington and Union counties. It specializes in environmentally distressed properties near the New Jersey Turnpike and other highways. The rest of its projects are in Florida, California and Pennsylvania.
“What excites us about the Gateway project is its phenomenal proximity to highways. It is a perfect fit for our model of remediating complex properties,” said Michael Cahn, a principal with Viridian Partners, noting there is also a landfill on the site the remediation project will address. “We are eager to move forward with Mayor Caba and PARA, breathing new life into the entire neighborhood and directly addressing a blighted eyesore awaiting redevelopment for decades.”
The agreement between the redevelopment agency and Viridian requires them to break ground no later than spring 2025. Cahn estimates the clean up will take one year and the construction of the warehouse and development of the nine acres of open space will take another year.
“The city has been discussing the possibilities at Gateway for years. Now is the time for action,” Vazquez said.
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Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com.
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