Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop is threatening to shut down building plans for two luxury rental towers in his city that were planned by Kushner Companies. And Kushner Companies is threatening a lawsuit.
While the Jersey City government says Kushner Companies missed a deadline to begin construction and defaulted on a $40,000 municipal fee, Kushner Companies says the city is playing politics, slighting the company because of Jared Kushner’s role in President Trump’s administration, the Associated Press reported.
The breakdown in negotiations over the 66-story towers at 1 Journal Square is latest blow for the company’s project. The Real Deal reported in January that Kushner Companies had abandoned a $150 million construction fundraising drive through the EB-5 visa program.
Despite this, Kushner announced in January that the project was “shovel-ready.”
But in February, as talks broke down, Kushner attorneys wrote a letter to the city threatening to take “necessary action to protect” its interests in the project.
WeWork backed out as the project’s anchor commercial tenant last summer. As a consequence, the development lost a $6.5 million tax credit. Kushner Companies later withdrew an application for a 30-year property tax break when Fulop publicly spoke in opposition to the development. [Crain’s] — Will Parker