The Florida billionaire who wants to extend his luxury Jersey City golf course into Liberty State Park says he is halting that effort, just two weeks after New Jersey’s three-month budget legislation offered him a chance to revive the controversial plan.
Paul Fireman, the former Reebok executive and owner of Liberty National Golf Course, said in a statement Wednesday morning that he is pulling the plug on the expansion plan so the park’s advocates can address what he called the “social justice problems connected to Liberty State Park.” Fireman allies have alleged recently that the park’s keepers have not done enough to make it accessible to the largely Black neighborhoods that sit just outside of the 1,200-acre urban oasis.
It’s not clear Fireman’s plan was going anywhere. A spokeswoman for Gov. Phil Murphy said the administration does not intend to solicit a bid for the park, which is overseen by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Fireman had made an aggressive push in recent weeks to win the support of Jersey City’s Black elected officials and to promote his argument that Liberty State Park is not run with the interests of the Black community in mind. His charitable foundation gave donations to several politically connected nonprofits, sources told NorthJersey.com, including one run by a Jersey City assemblywoman and another headed by a Hudson County freeholder. A Fireman spokesman did not respond to questions about his foundation’s recent donations.
The golf course expansion would have targeted a 22-acre peninsula on Liberty State Park’s southern end, a wildlife refuge and beach that is adjacent to Liberty National. Fireman wanted to move three of the golf course’s holes to that spot, known as the park’s Caven Point section, saying he would transform the area into “beautiful green space.” His critics have noted that moving some of the golf course there would provide dramatic backdrops of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty during televised tournaments.
Fireman first attempted to lease the parkland in 2018, but the Murphy administration turned him down in the face of opposition led in part by Sam Pesin, who runs the Friends of Liberty State Park conservancy group. Pesin’s father, Morris, is credited with the park’s creation in 1976.
“All supporters of a free park behind Lady Liberty will be very glad to read about Fireman giving up for now,” Pesin said in a statement. Fireman’s comments, Pesin said, continue “to push his self-serving false narrative about LSP. His only goal has been to privatize and destroy the LSP Caven Point natural area to relocate golf holes right by the bay for millionaires.”
Fireman’s Wednesday statement targets Pesin directly. Pesin for decades has organized opposition to most commercial development inside the park, most recently organizing opposition to Fireman’s golf course expansion and a separate plan for a marina inside the park. The park, which includes 600 acres of land and 600 acres of water on the Hudson River, should be a largely passive recreational space, Pesin has argued.
“Sam has done nothing to implement the grand vision for Liberty State Park,” Fireman said. “Pesin has reinforced a do-nothing policy and shut out minority communities from the decision-making process.”
Fireman’s recent charitable donations include $10,000 for Jersey City Assemblywoman Angela McKnight’s social services nonprofit, Angela Cares, and an unspecified amount for Team Walker, run by Hudson County Freeholder Jerry Walker. Both are popular figures in Jersey City’s Black community. Walker did not return a request for comment. McKnight said Fireman’s gift was one of many donations Angela Cares has received since the coronavirus outbreak began. She said she did not solicit it.
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Fireman, who Forbes says has a fortune that exceeds $1 billion, has been known to drop donations when he needs favors.
In 2015, he wanted the state to approve casino expansion outside of Atlantic City so he could build a casino in Jersey City. Then-Gov. Chris Christie, who had previously expressed opposition to the change, first said in 2014 that he would be open to changing his mind, then said in May 2015 that expanding casino gambling would be good for New Jersey. That month, Fireman donated $5,000 to Leadership Matters for America, which supported Christie’s presidential campaign. One month later, Fireman’s Winecup Gamble Ranch dropped $1 million into the coffers of America Leads, another super PAC supporting Christie. Fireman and his wife, Phyllis, gave a total of $5,200 to Christie’s campaign that September.
The casino never happened, though not because Christie didn’t try. Lawmakers asked voters for their approval in November 2016 and the public overwhelmingly voted against casino expansion.
“Gov. Christie and Paul Fireman have a long-standing friendship and his donation to the super PAC supporting Gov. Christie in 2016 had nothing to do with gaming in any way,” said Christie spokesperson Megan Fielder.
The Firemans did not donate money to any New Jersey politicians in 2017 or 2018, but started contributing again in late 2019. Paul Fireman gave $10,000 to the New Jersey State Democratic Committee that September and in October and November the couple gave a total of $36,400 to various candidates, with nearly three quarters going to Middlesex County Democrats.
A woman runs along a trail at Liberty State Park as the cherry blossoms bloom on Thursday, April 2, 2020, in Jersey City. Middlesex County is the home of Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, a Democrat who decides what bills to put up for a vote in that chamber. In 2019, the state Legislature was mulling the Liberty State Park Protection Act, which would have banned anyone from developing the Caven Point section of the park. In January 2020, the bill passed the senate 21-13. But Coughlin did not post the bill for a vote in the Assembly before the legislative session ended, which means it must go through committee again before another vote.
Asked at the time if there was a relation between the Firemans’ donations and the bill stalling in the Legislature, assembly spokesman Kevin McArdle called the question “offensive.”
“Legislation is posted when it is ready and after a thorough and thoughtful process,” McArdle said. “To imply anything else is reprehensible.”
Jersey City Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, a co-sponsor of the bill, said it must become law immediately, despite Fireman’s decision to halt plans to expand his golf course.
“There will always be another attempt to grab public parkland from this national treasure to privatize or commercialize until the Protection Act becomes law,” he said. “And what if they succeed under a governor who isn’t as protective of the environment as Phil Murphy?”
When the three-month New Jersey budget was signed into law on June 30, Mukherji issued a statement blasting the hastily added language that would have allowed Fireman to pursue his Liberty State Park lease plan. Jersey City’s other two state lawmakers, McKnight and state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham, did not issue their own statement.
McKnight said she remains supportive of the Liberty State Protection Act. Cunningham did not respond to a request for comment.
Staff writer Scott Fallon contributed to this article.
Terrence T. McDonald is a reporter for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. Email: mcdonaldt@northjersey.com Twitter: @terrencemcd
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