Expo Park among finalists for redeveloping New Jersey site.

ExpoPark, the Continental Arena re-development solution proposed by Hartz Mountain Industries and Forest City Ratner, was named one of three finalists remaining under consideration by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which controls the site.

ExpoPark includes more than 4.1 million SF of space, featuring:

* 900,000 SF of family entertainment uses including an indoor Formula 1-style racing center and supporting retail space;

* 500,000 SFconvention center developed in accordance with US Green Building Council standards;

* 2 million SF of prime office space in four buildings;

* 1,200 hotel rooms in three buildings.

"We are more enthusiastic than ever about the prospects for a convention center-based, mixed-use center that will be the basis for economic development here and also will provide all the family-entertainment this region can digest," says Emanuel Stem, president and COO of Hartz Mountain Industries. "We are eager to enter this phase of the process, when we can show how dynamic a convention center is in creating positive economic impacts for a promising region like the Meadowlands."

Hartz Mountain and Forest City Ratner commissioned a "WhitePaper" on the opportunities for a convention center in the region, which Hartz will use as the basis for its financial projections for that component ExpoPark.

"We have world-class transportation, we have world-class sports facilities, we have world-class businesses and the one piece that is missing is a a world-class convention center," says Stem.

Concurrent with its selection as a finalist, ExpoPark launched a grass-roots campaign titled "Don't Mega-Mall the Meadowlands," an education and public outreach program designed to initiate a public dialogue on the future of the Meadowlands and the local impacts of various proposals.

The Sports Authority has run a very thorough program through its Stakeholders Committee to solicit local input about the plans; but most people don't react to these things until the realize how it will ultimately affect them," says Stern. "Don't Mega-Mall the Meadowlands, is a theme that captures the interests of this region's local downtowns, of its retailers, and of the people who live here. There is nothing wrong with retail or family entertainment or office space if it is balanced wisely. Our program is about helping the stakeholders here recognize an appropriate scale for the proposed uses and understanding the nature of the components.

"Hartz Mountain has lived here for 35 years and we know one thing, there is no reason to use the best site in the state for a mega-mall: the retail business climate does not warrant it, the long-term interests of the region aren't served by it, and the lifestyle impacts simply won't permit it."

"Don't Mega-mall the Meadowlands" will include a door-to-door campaign to local business in the towns surrounding the Meadowlands to explain the impacts a Mega-mall would have on the region and their businesses. It will later expand to include household direct mail and other communications that will "hit everyone over the head with the difference between a new use that grows with new dollars and a re-constituted use that cannibalizes the existing business environment. One trickles down with good jobs and permanent benefits, and the other rains a corrosive effect on the region."