87 Jacobus Ave secures extension of exclusive plan periods

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., Nov. 15 – 87 Jacobus Ave LLC secured an extension of its exclusive periods to file and solicit votes on a Chapter 11 plan, according to an order filed Wednesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

The court extended the exclusive plan filing period through Jan. 3 and the exclusive solicitation period through March 4.

The debtor said it has been working toward a resolution with the Environmental Protection Agency, New Jersey and the town of Kearny, N.J., but additional time is required for the parties to reach a global resolution.

The debtor said the resolution will likely be the cornerstone of the Chapter 11 plan.

As background, the debtor recently closed on its purchase of the property from an entity known as Farnow Inc. after executing a contract of sale with Farnow in May 2022.

Farnow had owned the property since the 1960s and used it to manufacture varnishes, alkyds and latexes for paint. As a result of environmental contamination, the property has been the subject of extensive environmental cleanup for almost 40 years.

The debtor’s goal in purchasing the property was to address all outstanding real estate tax obligations to the town of Kearny, as well as any obligations to the EPA, the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund (NJSCF) and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), all in the context of moving forward with the redevelopment of the property.

The debtor said that when it originally entered into its contract with Farnow in May 2022 for the purchase of the property, its efforts to move forward and close the transaction were stalled due to the inability of the EPA and NJDEP to provide necessary information of the amounts required to satisfy their alleged outstanding liens.

The debtor later faced a final tax sale foreclosure judgment by Kearny, prompting the Chapter 11 filing to obtain time to satisfy the tax obligations in full, determine the extent and validity of all encumbrances on the property and enable the debtor to move forward with redevelopment.

The Hudson, N.J.-based company filed bankruptcy on June 7 under Chapter 11 case number 23-14955.

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