Palisades Financial to finance Sandy Hook redevelopment.

In its long-running quest to secure Fort Hancock's future, Sandy Hook Partners has found a finance partner in Palisades Financial, a Fort Lee, New Jersey-based investment banking and advisory firm that will provide financing to see the Sandy Hook, New Jersey-based project through its completion.

Sandy Hook Partners will use the financial influx to redevelop thirty-six buildings, totaling approximately 300,000 square feet, into "The Fort at Sandy Hook," a learning campus for marine/environmental research and education, cultural arts and heritage, corporate learning and training, fitness health and wellness facilities, and hospitality and meeting services. "Our major objective is to create a year-round community of education, research, recreation, cultural arts and hospitality focused on the appreciation of history and the local environment," said Sandy Hook Partners principal James Wassel, who won the right to rehabilitate the property though a bidding process for a 60-year lease.

William "Billy" Procida, CEO of Palisades Financial, added, "Together, Sandy Hook Partners and Palisades Financial will rehabilitate Fort Hancock into a campus that can actually be used by the public, rather than have it continue to sit and deteriorate. The vision and mission of this project is to preserve this treasured historic national park while simultaneously enhancing into a unique, multi-use project with an incomparable setting in which to conduct business, hold an event, attend educational opportunities, or to simply enjoy the incredible setting."

"The National Park Service is very pleased that the project to preserve the landmark buildings of Fort Hancock is moving forward," said superintendent Richard Wells. "We are certain that the rehabilitated buildings will become a huge asset to the community, the county and the state."

With this financing, Sandy Hook Partners has eliminated one of the last remaining hurdles to make this project a reality, particularly after Federal District Court Judge Mary Cooper recently dismissed an on-going lawsuit against the National Park Service and Sandy Hook Partners.

Her ruling was based on the "plaintiffs inability to show (or demonstrate) how they would be directly harmed by the rehabilitation and adaptive use of landmark buildings at Fort Hancock."