Arbiter: Developer lacks funding for fort project

The National Park Service (NPS) announced Monday that the arbiter agreed upon by the park service and Rumson developer James Wassel has upheld the park service's cancellation of Wassel's 60-year lease to renovate and commercially develop at least 36 buildings at historic Fort Hancock.

The arbiter, Maurice Robinson & Associates, El Segundo, Calif., "determined that the financial commitments made by SHP [Sandy Hook Partners] are insufficient to meet the purposes of the lease," the park service said in a press release.

"Based on this determination, the NPS has notified Sandy Hook Partners President James S. Wassel that the lease is null and void," the release states.

The findings by the arbiter will end the 10-year process that began when Wassel's proposal for the rehabilitation of historic buildings at the fort was selected by the park service in 1999 from among 22 submitted for consideration.

Wassel's plans called for converting the buildings at the fort into offices, restaurants, overnight accommodations, conference centers, and educational and environmental facilities.

The developer was given a contract for the project in 2004, which was to go into effect when he had proved he had the financial ability to complete the first phase of the plan.

In August, after a series of extensions given to Wassel to supply that proof, the park service canceled the five-year-old lease and said the financial commitments made by Sandy Hook Partners "are insufficient to meet the purposes and requirements of the lease," making the lease null and void.

The canceled lease contained a provision that the developer could ask for arbitration if it was terminated.

After the cancellation, Wassel said the developer was "confident about the financing package we submitted and are anxious for an independent third party to review it."

Wassel's plan to commercialize the fort, which is located on Sandy Hook Bay in the Sandy Hook Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area, has met with strong opposition from critics including Save Sandy Hook (SSH), a grassroots group founded to stop the commercial development, and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., (D-6th District).

SSH attempted to overturn the lease in federal court but was unsuccessful.

James Coleman Jr., a principal in Save Sandy Hook, said Monday that although Wassel was denied the lease for 33 of the 36 historic buildings that were included in the 2004 lease, the developer still has a lease for three of the buildings at the fort. "He has no right to them," Coleman said.

He said Wassel was given the lease on the post chapel, the post theater and the former park service headquarters under a sublease in 2007, which was based on the 2004 lease, that was never valid because the developer had not proved he had the finances to carry out the project.

The park service did not advertise that it was offering another lease on the three properties at the fort as it should have if it was offering them as a separate package, Coleman said.

He said the NPS "rode roughshod over what's right" in the Fort Hancock leasing process.

Wassel is renting out the theater and chapel for weddings and other events and is using the former park headquarters for the SHP office. He did not respond to a call and e-mail requesting comment on the park service statement.

Peter O'Such, Fair Haven, who was a contracting officer for 29 years for the federal government, has maintained that the Wassel lease did not meet the criteria for federal procurement.

He said Monday that he was grateful that the lease had been canceled but questioned why the park service was allowing the three buildings to be kept under Wassel's control.

If the NPS had the right to put three of the 36 buildings under the new 2007 lease, he said, it could have put all 36.

The 2007 lease said it was authorized under the now-canceled 2004 lease.

In the press release, the park service said the separate lease for the three buildings

was "not affected by the decision with respect to the original lease."

The release also said the park service will review "all available options" for preserving Fort Hancock, including further development of Rutgers University and Brookdale Community College facilities at the site and entering into "another lease agreement with a private entity."

Pallone said Monday in a press release that "Today's decision by the arbitrator was yet another victory for Fort Hancock … ."

He said it was important that the state

and federal government move ahead with the restoration of the fort and join with local universities and other public entities in working "to ensure that any redevelopment plan does not include commercialization of our national park."

Rutgers and Brookdale have both expressed interest in expanding their existing facilities at Fort Hancock and have said they would wait to see what happened to the Wassel lease before moving ahead with their plans.

When it awarded the lease

to Wassel, the park service said the NPS did not have the funds to rehabilitate the buildings at the fort.