Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Demolition: Morning Star vs. General Motors

Back in January, I passed by the properties that are part of the Morning Star project being spearheaded by the Union County Improvement Authority.  I posted that demolition had finally begun.  The Mayor previously stated that demolition was to be undertaken in the Fall of 2010.  That didn't happen.

Yesterday, I drove by again.  Four months later, only two buildings have been demolished.    

In contrast, the demolition of the Linden General Motors plant, consisting of 100 acres, was accomplished in just six (6) months. 

Just saying ...


 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

who was in charge of the General Motors demolition? I assume private industry, not UCIA or Linden

NFS said...

Testa Corp. did the demolition for Duke Realty Corp., owner of the former GM property, on budget and ahead of schedule. Obviously, no government entity, including the UCIA & Linden, was involved.

Anonymous said...

Unfair comparison! Obviously, Testa Corp does NOT have many family and friends loaded on their payroll.

There are a lot of family/friends' mouths for UCIA and Linden City to feed....

Anonymous said...

they (UCIA) burned through all the money for the whole MorningStar project before they got to demolition- same as they did on S Wood- burned it on B.S. reports, lawyers, engineers, appraisors, then more, & more lawyers

Anonymous said...

The difference between the two is S Wood had a private developer with a $$ threshold and Morningstar is ...well Morningstar and they have continued to be blessed with additional funds from the city and UCIA.

NFS said...

@11:26 p.m. These contracts between the UCIA and developers are quasi-private developments. I will have to go back and read the Verge contract, but it's a joint effort between the developer and the UCIA. The UCIA (via the taxpayers) fronts a lot of the money to buy up the properties. I know that the South Wood Ave. properties were bought by the UCIA, and not by the developer. Both projects are by a private developer, Verge f/k/a Valvano and Morning Star.

In either case, both developers have either A) baggage or B) no money.

What we have is that taxpayers acting as loan agents. PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

Anonymous said...

wasn't their a 6th comment here ? last week..

NFS said...

@6:34. I am not certain if there was another comment. I know Blogger had some kind of technical difficulties a couple of days ago where some posts and even comments were deleted, but I don't think it affected this blog. To the best of my memory, I don't recall a sixth comment.