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| Developer Alan Nau wants to build a $120 million sports complex on 194 acres of land in Jackson Township near Prospertown Lake with or without the support of Gov. Murphy’s soccer team. (Photo: Doug Hood ) |
Michael L. Diamond reports for the Atlantic City Press:
A developer is pushing ahead with his plan to build a $120 million sports complex on nearly 200 acres in Jackson township, even though a potentially high-profile tenant withdrew support.
Alan Nau said he still wants to build a 6,000-seat soccer stadium that was to be home to Sky Blue FC, the professional women’s soccer team whose majority owner is Gov. Phil Murphy.
“It will have no impact at all,” Nau said of Sky Blue’s decision. “The stadium was being built anyhow for our championship games.”
Nau is scheduled to seek approval of the project, called Trophy Park, from the Jackson Planning Board on Monday night.
He is waiting on approval from the township.
(Photo: Doug Hood )
Trophy Park is his latest project. In addition to the soccer stadium, it would include:
- 16 baseball fields
- A 400,000-square-foot indoor arena with a total of 18 NBA-size basketball courts on two floors
- Two hotels with 98 rooms each, and
- Housing for teams
He scrambled to replace investors who were scared off when environmentalists opposed a solar farm proposed by Six Flags Great Adventure. He went back to the drawing board after Jackson officials last year banned the construction of dormitories. And he lined up partnerships with youth sports organizations to help bring tournaments to the site.
He also reached out to Sky Blue, the Murphy-owned soccer team that has been under fire of late, not only for its record last year of 1-17-5, but also for shoddy conditions that reportedly left its players with low morale.
Once Upon a Metro, a website, reported that the team was playing its home games at Yurcak Field at Rutgers University in Piscataway, a 5,000-seat stadium that featured a cramped locker room with no air conditioning and no showers.
Nau said he never spoke to Murphy, but he reached out to Sky Blue officials after reading about the team’s conditions.
“It’s not like we’re going to build this place and expect them to come,” Nau said. “I’m booked. Every sport is there, and they are signed up to be there because they need this place.”
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If approved, Trophy Park would join another giant sports complex. Adventure Sports & Entertainment broke ground in June on a $21 million, 150-acre project near Interstate 195 and Monmouth Road. It is expected to open by 2020.
That project’s centerpiece is an 89-foot-high, 117,000-square-foot sports bubble. And its developer has said Hilton Garden Inn hotel plans to build a 134-room hotel.
Nau said he wasn’t concerned about the competition, noting that Adventure Sports includes attractions like laser tag and rock-climbing walls that could complement his business plan.
He said he had private investors lined up and was close to an agreement to purchase Trophy Park’s property from its current owner, Six Flags Great Adventure.
It seemed like Nau had Sky Blue’s blessing, too.
In an email Thursday morning, Sky Blue President Tony Novo said: “Though we support (the project), Sky Blue FC is not an owner of the Trophy Park project, nor do we have any formal agreement of any sort with the proposed application.”
“To the extent that there is a complex built by any developer that suits our facility needs, we would be interested, as we have been of Trophy Park and a number of other proposed developments. We are strongly committed to ensuring Sky Blue FC players and fans have access to first-class facilities befitting their needs.”
By then, though, the New Jersey Sierra Club flagged the project and announced its opposition. The group said it would abut Prospertown Lake and a state wildlife refuge.
“This is one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in New Jersey,” Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said.
It posed a political problem for Murphy, who has lined up with environmental causes. By the end of the day on Thursday, Sky Blue had withdrawn its support.
Nau said he was prepared for opposition, but he found nothing in state or municipal regulations that would prevent him from building there.
“I have always been environmentally correct about everything,” Nau said. “We have gone through everything to make sure we have done everything the best possible way.”
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