Kushners face heated trial over suburban Jersey mall project
WASHINGTON — Days after a seaside reception for his fatherin-law’s U.S. presidential campaign, Jared Kushner set out to pitch a deal to a small-town mayor: Kushner Cos. would transform an aging shopping mall into a live-work destination, bringing culture and commerce to a scraggy stretch of the Jersey Shore.
The mayor, a retired police officer, viewed it as a brilliant offer his town couldn’t refuse. But hundreds of Eatontown residents turned out in opposition, packing borough council meetings last year to protest the Monmouth Mall expansion as a giveaway to Kushner.
Kushner soon won approval to build 700 apartments atop his mall parking lot as part of a $300-million US expansion deal— an agreement that now is the subject of a heated lawsuit set for trial Monday.
Before joining the White House as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, Kushner was CEO of his family company and was widely credited with its expansion into Manhattan. But he was just as busy building political loyalties and securing municipal changes to benefit the business in his home state of New Jersey.
Plaintiffs in the mall suit are claiming town officials privately negotiated with the Kushners for half a year without telling the community, then rushed a vote on new zoning rules that benefited only Kushner’s company after the deal already had been rejected.
“People are mad. They’re mad at the mayor, and they’re mad at the backroom deals,” said plaintiff and longtime resident Sara Breslow.
Town lawyers say officials allowed ample time for debate before voting. The lawyer for Kushner Cos. said the mall was in “steady decay” and that those opposing the expansion want to block the firm from building affordable housing.
Other real-estate deals Kushner has brokered in New Jersey are under attack, too, with residents claiming local politicians are too accommodating to the powerful real estate family.
In Jersey City, the Kushners had hoped for a 30-year tax break for two residential towers, but residents took to the streets in February and the family recently withdrew its application.
Farther down the shore, in Perth Amboy, the status also is shaky. The Kushners have been pressing the city to approve a downsized version of a 22-building waterfront community the family promised years ago, but that is uncertain given resentment over stalled construction and a lawsuit from condo investors who feel misled.
In Eatontown, the Kushners are giving every sign that their Monmouth Mall development is secure. Residents said land surveyors started digging into neighbours’ front lawns despite the impending trial.
Four residents — three Democrats and one Republican — filed suit against Eatontown weeks before the presidential election seeking to void the council vote, claiming that borough officials’ decision to meet in a smaller room was “practically designed” to limit debate.
The suit accused officials of violating the public meetings act, along with breaking with procedure and land-use law by giving special zoning favours to a single developer, an illegal act called “spot zoning.”
Kushner Cos. signed onto the suit in December, taking the town’s side. U.SA. federal financial disclosure forms show Kushner still owned the mall in March, but a White House spokesman said Friday that he cut ties to the project in May.