N.Y.-N.J. port: Room enough for boxes and beamers

Last week the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it had approved a 10-year, five-month lease with BMW of North America LLC that will give the company an additional 10 acres of land at the Port Authority Auto Marine Terminal in Jersey City to expand its existing vehicle processing center.

The port authority said the deal was necessary after it acquired in March 119 acres from Northeast Auto Terminal (NEAT) on the eastern end of the Port Jersey peninsula where Global Container Terminal is located. The port authority plans to develop the former auto terminal into a container facility, dubbed Terminal X.

After the port authority acquired the NEAT property, BMW needed a processor and a location to unload their vehicles. This agreement assures BMW that they will have the area to unload vehicles from the ship and make up for storage space lost in the NEAT deal.

The port authority reached a deal last year to acquire for $50 million a nearby 153-acre parcel of land in Bayonne for development into a roll-on/roll-off terminal, from the city's redevelopment agency. But the city later did an about-face and sold the property to Ports America for $90 million. The port authority and Bayonne are now battling over the property, and in July, a court ruled in Bayonne's favor. The port authority has appealed the case and recently the court agreed to expedite the appeal.

The port authority said it was speculative to ask if BMW would have been relocated to the MOTBY site if it had acquired it.

It said the BMW facility would not interfere with plans to develop the new container facility.