Jersey City sues Coles Street Park developer: escrow cut from $700K to $150K, no state cleanup permit, work stalled since Feb. 2025

JERSEY CITY — Jersey City and the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency sued the developer of Coles Street Park on Tuesday, saying the park it built and handed over is unstable, its contaminated-soil cap has failed, and the state-required cleanup was never finished.

The complaint, City of Jersey City and Jersey City Redevelopment Agency v. Emerson Leasing Co. I, LLC, et al., docket HUD-L-004225-26, was filed in Superior Court in Hudson County at 3:16 p.m. Oct. 13. It names five companies: Emerson Leasing Co. I, LLC, the redeveloper; Coles Jersey Development Co., LLC; Coles Jersey Development Co. II, LLC; Coles Street Associates, LLC; and Statco Development Group, LLC, along with unnamed design professionals and contractors.

“Developers who fail to live up to their promises will be held accountable,” the city’s official X account posted at 4:43 p.m. “I am suing the developer who delivered an unsafe, unstable Coles Street Park in violation of his promises.”

Escrow cut from $700,000 to $150,000

Under a November 2020 park construction escrow agreement, Emerson was required to post $700,000 with a third-party escrow agent to cover building the park, the complaint says. A first amendment to the redevelopment agreement, authorized by the agency in April 2021, allowed that escrow to be reduced to $150,000.

The park was supposed to be finished and dedicated to the city by August 2021. The amendment pushed the deadline to October 2021, and Emerson missed that too, according to the suit. A 2023 amendment said the park still wasn’t complete because bollards had not been installed. The plaintiffs say they believe a later amendment was never signed and that the remaining park money is still with the escrow agent.

No state cleanup permit

The deed to the park was given to the city on Sept. 11, 2024. Under that deal, Emerson stayed responsible for the contaminated soil left under the park, including maintaining the cap, inspections and obtaining a state Remedial Action Permit, the complaint says. It says Emerson has never applied for that permit with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and has not obtained a final Response Action Outcome showing the cleanup is done.

The park’s surface began showing instability as early as June 2022, the suit says. In March 2026, the city learned that settling had “completely disturbed the engineering controls and left contaminated historic fill exposed to the surface environment and, potentially, Jersey City residents.”

On March 27, 2026, the developer’s own licensed site remediation professional told the city that “the environmental work at the park is at a standstill from February 2025 as there is no Responsible Party to take ownership of Coles Park and complete the remediation,” according to an email quoted in the complaint. The park was closed to the public.

Repairs to be bid out

The city and agency sent the defendants a notice letter on April 17, 2026, and got nothing back except acknowledgments of receipt from lawyers, the complaint says. The agency then hired Langan Engineering for a geotechnical investigation. Before that can happen, all surface features must be removed and the site regraded, and the agency is preparing to seek public bids for that work, the suit says.

The city said on X it is seeking to recoup the costs. The allegations have not been tested in court.