Jersey City to auction off property seized via eminent domain
“The Jersey City City Council last Wednesday approved a move that will allow the city to sell a building it owns on East Linden Avenue at a public auction next month.
The council voted 7-1 to authorize the sale, over the objections of Ward C Councilman Rich Boggiano. Boggiano wants the property, which was seized via eminent domain in 2011, sold back to its original owner or used to house a city police academy.
“It’s a moral issue, to return it to the person who had it,” Boggiano told The Jersey Journal.
The city expects to get $4 million for the building, located at 15 E. Linden Ave.
Formerly the site of Liberty Storage, the property nearly ended up in the hands of a Fulop donor until the city settled a lawsuit with the building’s previous owner, John Mondry.
Under former Mayor Jerramiah Healy, the city seized 15 E. Linden Ave. in 2011 along with about 20 acres of nearby land, almost all of it owned by Mondry. The city, which paid $23.7 million for the land, intended to use some of the property to build a new Department of Public Works complex and hold onto the rest of it for possible future municipal use.”
McDonnald, Terrence. NJ.com 4 June 2014.