Take a developed property the size of New York City’s Central Park with 5 million sq ft of building area, program in new construction or renovation over 20 years and across three dozen parcels for 1,600 housing units, 300,000 sq ft of civic or government space, 500,000 sq ft for retail and 2 million sq ft of offices, and you have a pretty ambitious undertaking. The $2-billion effort to redevelop Fort Monmouth, a decommissioned former U.S. Army base in the thick of New Jersey’s suburban sprawl, is all kinds of ambitious.
The 1,126-acre site, split into two large sections and spread across three municipalities, is a buzz saw of construction activity, with various projects completed, another dozen in the works and several more set for new development. About 70% of structures on the former base are set for demolition, and nearly 80% of the property is sold, under contract, in negotiations or set for RFP bidding.
The massive effort is taking shape under the oversight of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA), a state agency with representation from the towns of Oceanport, Eatontown and Tinton Falls and county, state and federal authorities— all tasked to turn over the properties to private developers and in it now for the long haul, says John Coffey, mayor of Oceanport. He won local notice early on for opposing the redevelopment, got elected in 2015 as a write-in candidate and has since embraced the projects that will transform his town.
NEXT-CENTURY APPEAL
他说：“当这一切都完成后，Oceanport看起来不会像30年前一样。”“从现在起30年后，这是好事还是坏事的决定。但是现在，我们已经找到了一种在如何向前发展的方法。”科菲说，在他的镇上重塑了430英亩的前基地，没有在公园里散步，具有复杂的州和联邦任务以及独特的当地需求。
“这是一个长slog, a laborious process,” he says. “There still might be development snafus. FMERA will be with us for the next decade at least.”
该计划吸引了各种各样的私人开发商 - 从当地居民开始对自己的城镇进行投资的投资到诸如萨默塞特开发公司（Somerset Development）等大型球员，这是一家具有国家范围的新泽西州公司，今年将在Lodging地区打破地面，15英亩的包裹，有144个市场率的联排别墅，36个负担得起的单元和一个海滨长廊。
“Despite the ongoing pandemic, we anticipate 2021 will see renewed acceleration and positive momentum across all new and ongoing projects,” said Bruce Steadman, FMERA executive director, in a statement on the Somerset project. “We look forward to the forthcoming addition of Somerset’s new residential community in Oceanport as well as the rehabilitation of one the fort’s many historic assets for reuse.”
Activity this spring also includes FMERA’s request for offers to purchase an 82-acre parcel in Eatontown that has 1 million sq ft of buildings set for demolition. The site is considered a main gateway into the former base, with FMERA calling for a mixed-use neighborhood village-style development.
Trip Brooks说，参与这三个城镇的转型的机会是一个独特的机会，但是复杂的过程面临着挑战，他正在开发公园阁楼活动空间并在多结构Barker Circle重建中合作。他说：“国家机构控制了分区并设定了基本规则，但您仍然去镇上计划批准。”“他们设置的盒子使它更具可预测性。但是最后，您必须完成该项目 - 如果您不这样做，他们可以将其收回。”
EARLY LEGACY
蒙茅斯堡（Fort Monmouth）在一个多世纪前开始运营，并成为技术的重要军事中心，包括1938年第一架飞机雷达系统（下图）的发明，这是第二次世界大战期间盟军胜利的关键。
巨大的范围
前蒙茅斯堡（Fort Monmouth）建于1917年，是一个早期的军队创新中心，拥有丰富的历史，其中包括雷达，蜂窝技术和卫星通信的原始发展。最初是在2005年的联邦基地关闭中选出的，终于在2011年退役，其余功能转移到了马里兰州。但是，重新开发花了数年的时间开始，因为FMERA在2014年和2016年从陆军收购了土地。在当地，州和联邦一级进行了几轮谈判，导致蒙茅斯堡的再利用和重建计划，现在实际上已成为现场总体规划。
该计划不仅设想了重要的新住房，还设想了广泛的商业发展，包括关注技术，传播，医疗保健和国防部以及高等教育，娱乐，娱乐和艺术。
Some projects got out of the gate more quickly, and a few—such as the four-story Russell Hall building that now houses a cloud computing company, the East Gate and Liberty Walk residential projects from RPM Development, Patriot Square’s townhomes and Anthem Place’s single-family homes—are complete, with about 1,000 residents already on site. Oceanport moved its borough hall and police station onto 13.3 acres of the base earlier this year.
But many more projects are only now hitting their stride. Major ongoing efforts include developing the base’s former Squier Hall administration building into a 350-student satellite campus for New Jersey City University; the 26-acre, 260,000-sq-ft Baseline project from Denholtz Properties and OPort Partners that will add six new buildings and an adaptive reuse of the former base commissary; and the Alley, the redevelopment of an old bowling center, which broke ground last month.
Upcoming projects include Barker Circle, a retail, office, arts and residential community within a historic district; transforming the 32-acre Myers Center site into a new medical complex for RWJ Barnabas Health that will include a hospital, research facility and medical offices; the high-tech, 100,000-sq-ft McAfee Complex intended to anchor a 45-acre green tech campus; and Somerset’s Lodging Area.
COMPLEX PROCESS
Fort Monmouth is not a typical base redevelopment as no two are alike, says Jeffrey Finkle, president and CEO of the International Economic Development Council, which monitors repurposing of major federal properties. But the New Jersey site is clearly on the more active side of the spectrum, with desirable land and strong developer interest, compared with bases in rural areas or with extensive cleanup required, he says. “A base in New Jersey is a little bit like land in Southern California,” he says. “There are people chasing it.”
Similarly, redevelopment coordination among entities is not a universal feature but has precedence in areas where there is ample development interest, Finkle says. “There are some developers that have longstanding engagements pursuing projects on former bases,” he adds. That layered approach has required a dedicated and concentrated effort to move forward, says Ken Gold, director of acquisitions and development at Somerset Development. “It was very complicated,” he says. “But our team worked hard and got the approval.”
The process has resulted in most properties in Oceanport at least programmed for current or future development, Coffey says. The biggest piece left is an 80-acre site that will probably have residential housing, part of 740 units that could increase the town’s population by one-third, he says. “We’ve come to a place where we understand that development is important and that it’s not going to look like anything in Oceanport,” he says. “We’ve been able to work through our differences.”
Oceanport还包含圆,占地20英亩的巴克project, which is still in negotiations for final approval but should break ground later this year, Brooks says. The seven buildings include the former base firehouse, a former theater later transformed into a museum and five old barracks structures. The firehouse is likely to become a restaurant space, the old theater will have an office or arts use, one former barracks will be an office and the remaining four barracks will be rehabilitated to house rental apartments, he says.
HOLDING UP WELL
The steel and concrete barracks are in particularly good shape structurally, Brooks says. “They were built in the 1920s and ’30s, but you walk around and it’s like they were built yesterday,” he says.
Brooks also is lead developer on the former 16,000-sq-ft dance hall, which is under renovation to become an events space and is set to open early next year. It has required partial demolition, reconstruction of nearly all flooring and roofs and other rehabilitation work, but some features will remain, including a unique main area framed by 40 ft to 60 ft trusswork and a mezzanine, he says.
“Buildings on the fort are interesting, with things that local inspectors didn’t necessarily see, so some of the stuff that the army built makes you say ‘wow,’” he says. “The truss system and wood columns are a spectacular feature.”
Somerset’s plans for the Lodging Area are set to start this year, after the developer won the site bid in 2017, negotiated contracts in 2018 and then saw the final approvals and original start date pushed back by delays caused last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gold says.
主要功能是与该物业的一条小溪一起建造的2.5到3层的联排别墅，大多数通过滨海滨海的滨水区进入。这些单元将设有高天花板，后方的两车库和私人甲板。戈德说，目标是今年夏天打破地面。
“There is significant demolition and sitework to be done,” he says. “We’re knocking down five existing buildings and installing all new utilities. But the first units should be ready in the first or second quarter of 2022.”
