A United States bankruptcy court judge has ruled in favor of a former landowner in a case that could place a hurdle in front of investors planning to fund a large plastics recycling facility in Millville, New Jersey.
In a June 2018 ruling, a U.S. bankruptcy court found the Millville city government does not have cause to take possession of 18 acres of land from a group that owns part of the former Wheaton Glass facility in Millville, according to an online article from the Vineland, New Jersey-based Daily Journal website.
In March 2018, the same newspaper reported that what it called a four-member investor group, operating as Millville Plastics, had signed a five-page memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the city of Millville that would lead to the following:
- selling the abandoned Wheaton Glass property to Millville Plastics for $50,000 pending additional negotiations in the second quarter of 2018;
- a commitment for the investors and the city to work together on “remediation, rehabilitation and/or demolition of existing improvements and construction of new improvements” and for Millville Plastics to create some 300 jobs;
- an understanding to prepare a “long-term payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT)” agreement on the property; and
- agreement by the city government and Millville Plastics (specifically one of the firm’s partners, Anthony DeSantis) to “end litigation in federal bankruptcy court involving the city and the property’s [prior] owner, GGI Properties LLC,” according to the Daily Journal.
The June 6 bankruptcy court ruling clouds as many as three of those MOU considerations. In the ruling, Judge Andrew B. Altenburg Jr. called the takeover of GGI’s land “constructively fraudulent,” according to the newspaper. The Daily Journal adds that the ruling could “upend years of city efforts to get paid and to put the iconic industrial property back in use.”
An attorney who represents Millville Plastics, reached by the newspaper, said the investors remain in discussion with the city of Millville and the GGI property group. In addition to the disputed property, the Millville Plastics investors already own a 27.5-acre piece of property that was part of the former glassmaking campus.
The Daily Journal indicates DeSantis and Millville Plastics initially attempted to buy GGI’s property directly from it, but the sides entered into a contract that was eventually canceled. That was before the city of Millville filed to take possession of the land based on property taxes owed.
When the MOU was announced in March 2018, DeSantis referred to making some $15 million to $20 million in investments to replicate in Millville a similar plastics recycling complex he says is up and running in the city of Santiago in the Dominican Republic.