D.R. Horton & Trammell Crow Residential half-billion dollar proposal features
1,769 units of age-restricted and age-targeted housing in park-like setting.

Bayonne, April 7, 2006 — The Board of Commissioners of the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority (BLRA) unanimously approved a resolution at its regular meeting last night to conditionally designate D.R. Horton/Trammell Crow Residential as developers of the Bayonne Bay District at The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor (the former Military Ocean Terminal).

The resolution authorizes BLRA Executive Director Nancy Kist to negotiate a final redeveloper agreement with D.R. Horton/Trammel Crow Residential.

The designation follows a comprehensive eight-month evaluation of ten proposals that were received on July 29, 2005.

The winning proposal includes 1,769 units of age-restricted and age-targeted for-sale and rental housing organized around a sweeping waterfront park and walkway that will be open and accessible to all Bayonne residents.

Bayonne Bay is comprised of 32.7 acres of prime waterfront property located along the southern side of The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor.

“The D.R. Horton/Trammell Crow proposal pairs two of the nation’s leading real estate companies,” said Howard Fitch, Chairman of the BLRA Board of Commissioners. “They met all our criteria in terms of experience, financial strength and willingness to build and market age-restricted housing.”

D.R. Horton, the number one homebuilder in America, constructs and sells high quality single-family and multi-family homes through operating divisions in 26 states and 77 metropolitan markets of the United States. Trammell Crow Residential is the nation’s premier multi-family real estate firm operating in more than 50 cities nationwide. With combined assets of $14 billion, the two firms have sold and rented 190,000 homes in the last five years.

“This proposal reflects our redevelopment plan’s vision for a mixture of waterfront and urban living in a park-like setting,” said BLRA Commissioner and City Council member Maria Karczewski.

The BLRA conducted public information sessions on August 29 and 30 at the Bayonne City Council Chambers where each of the ten respondents introduced their project team and described key elements of their proposal, including site concepts and phasing. The presentations were open to the public and media and were broadcast on the local government access channel.

The 10 firms or joint ventures who submitted proposals (in alphabetical order) are (1) Bayonne Bay Developers, LLC, Woodbridge, NJ; (2) Beechwood Organization, Jericho, NY and Standard Pacific Homes, Irvine, CA; (3) Boraie Development, LLC, New Brunswick, NJ; (4) D.R. Horton, Inc., Freehold, NJ and Trammell Crow Residential, Morristown, NJ; (5) Fox Pointe, Inc., Rockaway, NJ; (6) Pulte Homes/Del Webb, Jersey City, NJ; (7) Roseland Properties, Short Hills, NJ and Lennar Corporation, Miami, FL; (8) Somerset Development, LLC, Lakewood, NJ and Ryan Homes, Farmingdale, NJ; (9) Taylor Development Group, Staten Island, NY; and (10) Toll Brothers City Living, Hoboken, NJ.

“We received high quality proposals from many of the nation’s leading real estate developers. This clearly demonstrates the value and marketability of The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor,” said Nancy Kist, Executive Director of the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority.

Coming less than a month after the BLRA approved plans for development of Harbor Station North, the Bayonne Bay proposal “signals the fact that development of The Peninsula is in full swing,” said BLRA Commissioner and City Council President Vincent Lo Re, Jr.

“Once again,” said Bayonne Mayor Joseph V. Doria, Jr. “we have achieved our original objectives — improving quality of life by extending our community onto the Peninsula, creating jobs, and creating new tax ratables that will provide tax relief to all of Bayonne’s homeowners.”

The developers estimate that the total Bayonne Bay development will be valued in excess of a half billion dollars.

Since the U.S. Army transferred complete ownership of the former military base in 2002, the BLRA has raised more than $50 million in government grants and interim lease payments to make infrastructure improvements needed to attract development. These improvements include new bulkheads along the base’s south side and environmental remediation that was completed this year, ahead of schedule.

Other projects include the installation of a new sewer system and planning for a new electrical grid and new roads.

The opening of the Cape Liberty Cruise Port two years ago — the first tangible step in the transformation of the 430-acre site — resulted in 51 cruise ship calls in its first season and created 300 jobs. Since then the Cruise Port has grown to become the third-ranking passenger port on the East Coast (after New York and Miami).



 

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