Landfill To Be Reborn as $12M Public Golf Course

KEARNY, NJ-The 450-acre site was to have been the second phase of EnCap Golf Holdings’ massive mixed-use project on former landfill sites in the Meadowlands region, but citing the need for a public golf course, officials of Hudson and Bergen counties have taken over the project in order to create a public golf course. The site is partly in this Hudson County community, and partly in North Arlington in Bergen County. The $12-million project will actually be developed by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.”This agreement will create the first public golf course in Hudson County,” says Thomas Degise, the Hudson County executive. “New recreational opportunities are very valuable for residents of the county.”The course will take at least six years to complete, in large part because the site needs to be remediated. Targeting a 2011 tee-off, county and commission officials also plan to build hiking trails, scenic overlooks and nature habitats into the site.As phase two of EnCap’s project, it was to have been a private golf course, until local officials deemed a public course the best use. Site remediation work on phase one of EnCap’s project began 18 months ago, a billion-dollar effort on landfills in nearby Rutherford and Lyndhurst. When built out, it will include two private golf courses on more than 280 acres, along with 350 hotel rooms, 100,000 sf of retail space, 150,000 sf of office space and nearly 1,800 residential units.As part of the agreement just announced, EnCap will pay the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission $47.5 million to finish the cleanup and develop the Kearny/North Arlington site.