Major Downtown Redevelopment Project Killed By Court Ruling

"A New Jersey judge effectively killed an ambitious downtown redevelopment project in Newark yesterday, ruling that the city's decision to condemn 14 acres of property on behalf of a private developer was ill-conceived and wrong. The project, the Mulberry Street Redevelopment Project, a proposed collection of 2,000 market-rate apartments and stores in the shadow of the city's new hockey arena, would have been the largest development initiative here in decades.

In her decision, Judge Marie P. Simonelli of Superior Court said the administration of Mayor Sharpe James misused the state's rules on condemnation when it declared 62 parcels "an area in need of redevelopment." She said the row houses, mechanics' shops and parking lots, while somewhat tattered, were not "blighted" and suggested that the decision to condemn the property was politically motivated."