GlobeSt.com UPDATE: MetroStars Get $40M Bond for Stadium

Sean Ryan is associate editor of Real Estate New Jersey .HARRISON, NJ-A $40 million bond issued by the town of Harrison will purchase and remediate the former Spiegel Trucking property, clearing the way for a MetroStars arena. The arena is the centerpiece of a 250-acre redevelopment along Harrison’s Passaic River waterfront. The $40 million is the town’s contribution to the arena. Last month local, state and team officials reached an agreement for the new stadium

This is the first bond of this size that the town has offered. “Harrison is not that big a town. It’s only got 15,000 residents,” says a spokesman for the Harrison Redevelopment Agency. Harrison will get the money back, however. “The MetroStars will use that money to purchase the property, and then they will pay the town back.”

Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns the MetroStars, will put up $15 million and take out $60 million in bonds as its share of the project. “It’s going to be approximately 25,000 seats,” the spokesman tells GlobeSt.com. “It could go down a bit, but that’s what I’ve been hearing. They’ll be using it as an entertainment venue as well. There’s no way they’d make money off of just a soccer season.”