From left, Newark City Council member Darrin Sharif, Council President Donald Payne, Deputy Mayor Adam Zipkin, Mayor Cory Booker, developer Ron Beit, investor Nicolas Berggruen, Gov. Chris Christie, Essex county Executive Joe Divincenzo and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein break ground at Teachers Village in downtown Newark

Manhattan-based RBH Group, and a cast of luminaries that ranged from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, broke ground today on the long-awaited Teachers Village, a $149 million retail, educational and residential development in downtown Newark. [more]

A rendering of the World Trade Center towers

An interim report released by the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says the entire agency needs an “overhaul,” Bloomberg News and the New York Post reported.

The auditors called the agency “a challenged and dysfunctional organization suffering from a lack of consistent leadership, a siloed underlying bureaucracy, poorly coordinated capital planning process, insufficient cost controls and a lack of transparent and effective oversight,” according to their report, which was released yesterday. The Port Authority was not able to produce any documents showing reasons for the cost overruns of approximately $4 billion, the Post said. [more]

175 Park Avenue in Madison, N.J.

Realogy, parent company to the Corcoran Group, Citi Habitats, Coldwell Banker and Sotheby’s International Realty, broke ground on its new Madison, N.J. headquarters at 175 Park Avenue with Governor Chris Christie and Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno in attendance, the Daily Record reported. The firm moved from nearby Parsippany, and was kept in the garden state with tax incentives. [more]

The state of New Jersey

The state of New Jersey has embarked on an ambitious new plan to promote economic growth, encourage residential development near mass transit and existing infrastructure and make its notoriously disorganized state agencies get along better with one another, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The plan, which Governor Chris Christie has been working on since 2010, will be subject to public hearings starting next month and should be implemented in early 2013. [more]

While Morgan Stanley had decided to take a $1.4 billion loss on its planned casino in Atlantic City, Revel, the state of New Jersey thought the resort merited rescuing, the New York Times reported. So, Governor Chris Christie stepped up with a $261 million tax credit and a pledge to invest in the lavish sea-side destination in the future. Alas, as with any taxpayer-funded intervention, there are critics. Gambling revenue is down in New Jersey, from $5.2 billion in 2006, to about $3.1 billion last year, the Times said. Revel’s supporters say the 6.3 million-square-foot resort will attract fresh clientele to Atlantic City. [more]

From left: Newmark Knight Frank Chairman Jeffrey Gural and the Meadowlands RacetrackNewmark Knight Frank Chairman Jeffrey Gural has signed a 30-year lease to operate the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey, according to the Associated Press. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has long sought a private operator for the track, so that taxpayers wouldn’t continue to subsidize what’s become a losing entity. This year, the track is projected to lose $11 million. The deal ensures a full slate of races at the track, beginning Jan. 6. [more]

Construction costs will likely delay the planned 2012 opening of the Sept. 11 museum at the World Trade Center, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Two months ago the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which owns the site, ceased to renew construction contracts for the $800 million project, slowing progress because it says the National September 11 Memorial & Museum foundation owes $156 million.

But the foundation believes it is owed more than $100 million because of delays. [more]

The surest sign of an upcoming suburban real estate rebound in the New York metropolitan area? A train station. According to Jeffrey Otteau, a New Jersey-based appraiser, commuter towns are rebounding fastest because jobs in the city are what’s driving demand for housing. “Towns that are Manhattan-centric are experiencing price increases today,” Otteau told WCBS 880. While New Jersey towns with direct train service to Midtown Manhattan saw median home prices shoot up by 6 percent last year, New Jersey overall saw only a 1 percent rise. [more]

New Jersey is overpaying halfway house operators and not policing them sufficiently, a state audit reported by the Wall Street Journal found. The Department of Corrections is charged with overseeing the facilities that house about 2,720 residents daily, and has a $64.6 million budget to pay for the program. But the audit found that the state overpaid halfway house operators more than $587,000 over six years, and $390 million of the $400 million in funds it has paid to the non-profit Education and Health Centers of America — which oversees about half of the homes in question — has been funneled to for-profit companies with identical CEOs. (The CEO, unnamed in the report, said the non-profit is a “holding company” that wouldn’t exist without the for-profit organization.) [more]

New Jersey will officially hand over the reins on both its Meadowlands and Monmouth Park horse tracks to private operators come June 1, Gov. Chris Christie announced last night. According to the Star-Ledger, New York real estate developer Morris Bailey, who co-owns Resorts Casino in Atlantic City, has won a five-year lease to Monmouth Park in Oceanport. Monmouth, which lost an estimated $6 million last year, is slated to open for the season this weekend, and Bailey is expected to begin negotiating with the state’s thoroughbred horsemen’s association today for fewer annual racing days. Meanwhile, Jeff Gural, the Newmark Knight Frank chairman and horse-racing enthusiast who had already been chosen to redevelop the Meadowlands Racetrack, was officially approved for the deal. Comments

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