Jersey City council members engaged in heated debate Wednesday during an hours-long meeting about a new proposal to bring Centre Pompidou to Jersey City.
The council voted 6-3 to approve an ordinance granting a 30-year tax abatement for the KRE Group to develop an outpost of the French art museum and put nearly $2 million into the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. This proposal follows the withdrawal by the state of funding for the project.
Mayor Steve Fulop, a candidate for governor, says the tax abatement was needed to develop the project.
“I get the controversy around it, but sometimes I think people need to look at the bigger picture,” Fulop said during the opening of a new library Thursday. “Government can’t do this stuff by itself. We don’t have the resources to do it, so we look for public-private partnerships.”
If plans for the museum fall through, the city would still control what some describe as a valuable piece of real estate in Journal Square.
“We’re getting community space in the heart of Jersey City,” said Councilwoman Amy DeGise, who voted in favor of the tax abatement. “Property that we were never going to be able to afford or look at again.”
The no votes came from councilmen Richard Boggiano, Frank Gilmore and James Solomon.
“There’s no need to for us to rush into this, right?” Solomon said during Wednesday’s meeting. “If we need a public space in Journal Square, there are dozens of buildings going up in the square, dozens of opportunities for us to do that.”
