The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will be developing a new 119-acre container facility next to Global Marine Terminal on the Jersey City/Bayonne border - only about a quarter mile from the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, on the other side of the channel.
How this will affect the legal battle between the P.A. and Bayonne over the P.A.'s efforts to acquire about 90 upland acres of the Maritime District at the Peninsula, to develop as an auto marine terminal, remains to be seen.
Interim Bayonne Mayor Terrence Malloy said: "Rumors concerning some kind of deal involving the Port Authority and NEAT (Northeast Auto Marine Terminal) had been circulating for several months and I note with interest that the P.A. offered more money to buy out NEAT's lease than it offered last year ($50.5 million) to the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority to buy land in the Maritime District."
News of the P.A. deal came out of a news conference called by Gov. Jon Corzine and P.A. officials to announce a 4 percent growth in cargo handled by the Port of New York and New Jersey last year.
The P.A., which owns the land, said it's paying $60 million to buy out the remaining 11 years of NEAT's lease. NEAT occupies 44 acres at the east end of the Greenville Yards in Jersey City and 75 acres at the eastern end of the Port Jersey Peninsula along Port Jersey Terminal Boulevard.
P.A. spokesman Steve Coleman said that under the buyout agreement, NEAT has to vacate the site by November to make way for the new facility, which "will handle up to 500,000 containers a year," thereby increasing the port's shipping container capacity by 10 percent. The P.A. said it moved more than 4 million containers last year.
Large container vessels making their way into the port will benefit from the ongoing project to deepen the Port Jersey channel to 50 feet.
The P.A. didn't say how many new jobs the new container port would generate, but Anthony Falcicchio, president of Bayonne Local 1588, International Longshoremen's Association, said he believed it could account for 250 to 300 new ILA-covered positions.
But, in the meantime, Falcicchio said, "I'm concerned about the future of 80 of our members who work for NEAT and the possibility of absorbing them elsewhere in the work force." He said the P.A. had pledged "to work with us to relocate those workers. We're hoping that the new container port will provide enough jobs to absorb them."
While some observers have speculated that the P.A. might tap Global Terminal or PortsAmerica - its rival for the Maritime District property - to run the new container facility, Coleman said: "There's been no decision on who's going to operate or maintain the new facility."
How this will affect the legal battle between the P.A. and Bayonne over the P.A.'s efforts to acquire about 90 upland acres of the Maritime District at the Peninsula, to develop as an auto marine terminal, remains to be seen.
Interim Bayonne Mayor Terrence Malloy said: "Rumors concerning some kind of deal involving the Port Authority and NEAT (Northeast Auto Marine Terminal) had been circulating for several months and I note with interest that the P.A. offered more money to buy out NEAT's lease than it offered last year ($50.5 million) to the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority to buy land in the Maritime District."
News of the P.A. deal came out of a news conference called by Gov. Jon Corzine and P.A. officials to announce a 4 percent growth in cargo handled by the Port of New York and New Jersey last year.
The P.A., which owns the land, said it's paying $60 million to buy out the remaining 11 years of NEAT's lease. NEAT occupies 44 acres at the east end of the Greenville Yards in Jersey City and 75 acres at the eastern end of the Port Jersey Peninsula along Port Jersey Terminal Boulevard.
P.A. spokesman Steve Coleman said that under the buyout agreement, NEAT has to vacate the site by November to make way for the new facility, which "will handle up to 500,000 containers a year," thereby increasing the port's shipping container capacity by 10 percent. The P.A. said it moved more than 4 million containers last year.
Large container vessels making their way into the port will benefit from the ongoing project to deepen the Port Jersey channel to 50 feet.
The P.A. didn't say how many new jobs the new container port would generate, but Anthony Falcicchio, president of Bayonne Local 1588, International Longshoremen's Association, said he believed it could account for 250 to 300 new ILA-covered positions.
But, in the meantime, Falcicchio said, "I'm concerned about the future of 80 of our members who work for NEAT and the possibility of absorbing them elsewhere in the work force." He said the P.A. had pledged "to work with us to relocate those workers. We're hoping that the new container port will provide enough jobs to absorb them."
While some observers have speculated that the P.A. might tap Global Terminal or PortsAmerica - its rival for the Maritime District property - to run the new container facility, Coleman said: "There's been no decision on who's going to operate or maintain the new facility."
