Kushners face heated trial over suburban Jersey mall project
WASHINGTON » Days after a seaside reception for his father-in-law’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 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.
The town’s attorneys say officials allowed ample time for debate before voting. And the attorneys for the Kushner Cos. say the mall was in “steady decay” and that those opposing the expansion want to block the company from building affordable housing for needy residents.
Other real estate deals Kushner has brokered in New Jersey are under attack, too, with residents also claiming local politicians are too accommodating to the powerful real estate family.
In Jersey City, the Kushners hadhopedfora30-yearlocaltax 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.