"The site has laid fallow for more than 10 years, generating only basic tax revenues," says Nancy Kist, executive director of the BLRA. "Kaplan is proposing to add a significant ratable to the city's tax base, creating a community that will be a great place to live and work."

Texaco has owned the site for nearly a century, and Kaplan officials say they have an agreement with the company, now known as ChevronTexaco, to buy the land pending final approvals for the project. The "conditional developer" designation calls for a six-month window for Kaplan and the BLRA to iron out a formal redeveloper's agreement.

And the approval process Kaplan faces includes environmental OKs from the New Jersey DEP and the US Army Corps of Engineers, site plan approval by the city planning board and water/sewer extension permits from the local utilities authority. A portion of the site, which wraps around the base of the Bayonne Bridge in the city's Bergen Point section, needs environmental remediation, a process that Kaplan and ChevronTexaco say they have agreed to work on together.