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BREAKING NEWS-END EXTENSIONS

October 5th, 2008 : ASBURY PARK PRESS by EDOTORS

why has National Park Service given six deadline extensions...?

October 5, 2008

End extensions at Sandy Hook

The recent federal court ruling upholding the lease granted developer James Wassel to restore dozens of historic buildings for commercial purposes at Fort Hancock apparently has brought the legal challenge to the plan to an end.

But two of the questions that have dogged Wassel for nine years — does he have the financial backing to carry out his plan and why has the National Park Service given him six deadline extensions to prove it? — remain unanswered.

Wassel, of Sandy Hook Partners, has maintained no one would commit to financing until the threat of litigation had been lifted. Now that the group that filed the lawsuit, Save Sandy Hook, has indicated it is unlikely to appeal the circuit court ruling, Wassel has 90 days to prove he can finance the project. If he is unable to do so, his latest extension should be his last and the search for a new redeveloper should begin.

While there are questions about whether the clock started ticking Sept. 26, the day the circuit court rejected the appeal, or will begin ticking in late December, when Save Sandy Hook's right to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court expires, Wassel will have a tough time obtaining funding in the current economic climate. Even in brighter days, there were serious doubts about whether he had backers waiting in the wings.

Regardless, his plan to convert many of Fort Hancock's buildings into bed-and-breakfast accommodations, banquet facilities, conference centers and other uses that would have been off-limits to the general public never should have been approved. The claims in the lawsuit that the lease violated federal environmental, historic and park service laws are valid. As with many failed legal attempts to fight the federal government, it was due more to legal technicalities than to lack of merit on the substantive points.

Since Wassel beat out 18 other bidders on the redevelopment rights to Fort Hancock back in 1999 and subsequently signed a 60-year lease with the park service in 2004, he has been granted six extensions to secure funding. The park service has required developers at other national parks to prove financing before they were given a green light to begin planning. Wassel was not only given a pass at the outset of this debacle, he has been treated with kid gloves ever since.

It has been 15 months since the Department of Interior's inspector general agreed to a request by Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., to investigate why Wassel received so many extensions without presenting any proof of his ability to finance the project. It's time to wrap up that investigation and report the findings to the public.

With the economy in the doldrums and the credit market stretched tighter than a drum, it's doubtful Wassel will be able to move forward with his plan any time soon. If he can't, requests for new proposals should be solicited. And this time plans should be required to provide for full public enjoyment of the buildings and grounds.

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http://www.app.com/article/20081005/OPINION01/810050349/1029/OPINION

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New challenges for fort project

Wassel would have 90 days from the filing deadline — less than 10 weeks from now — to demonstrate he had financing lined up