During the 2008 presidential campaign, many New Jersey voters learned more about the state of Alaska than we ever thought we would during a national election. We learned that the Gravina Island Bridge, better known as the “Bridge to Nowhere,” was a proposed to replace the ferry that currently connects the town of Ketchikan to Gravina Island, an island which contains an airport as well as 50 residents, at a pre-construction estimated cost to taxpayers of $398 million. Of course, in New Jersey no matter where you build a bridge it will connect you to more than 50 residents, but that does not make us immune to “pie in the sky” redevelopment proposals that have little or no connection to the realities of the current needs of the community or the market as a whole.
Unless you have been living in a remote place like Gravina Island without television or Internet access for the last three years, you know that housing demand and prices have fallen more dramatically than many prognosticators dreamed possible. Developers have walked away from projects they had spent years and hundred of thousands, and in many cases millions, of dollars pursuing, and many of the commercial lenders that would have financed those projects have been teetering on the edge of collapse for the last year or longer. Now the recession has pushed many retailers to the brink, and vacancy rates in commercial properties seem to be rising daily. So given this backdrop, it might seem like the wrong time to focus on redevelopment. But the fact of the matter is that it may be the best time in recent memory to establish priorities for redevelopment. Any major project in this state usually takes several years from conception to the time building permits are issued, and since there is not much activity now, municipalities can be proactive in planning future development and setting priorities for the next 20 years rather than simply being reactive to developments that may be proposed.
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