Thursday, July 23, 2020

From great local journalism to hawking 'luxury' apartments

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: The first of 5 apartment buildings planned for 150 River St. in Hackensack -- where The Record and North Jersey Media Group were located -- is under construction, below. The roughly 20-acre building site is between River Street and the Hackensack River. The rendering is from JLL Capital Markets.


By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Generations of the Borg family prospered in Hackensack for roughly 110 years operating The Record and North Jersey Media Group.

Then, Stephen A. Borg pushed aside his father, Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, and took over as publisher in 2006.

By 2009, he had moved printing of The Record and Herald News to Rockaway, executed the largest downsizing in the once-great local daily newspaper's history, closed 150 River St. and decamped to Woodland Park.

The younger Borg also ended separate local news sections for Bergen and Passaic counties, and often news of Paterson, Wayne and other communities would dominate the single Local section.

That saved newsprint, but alienated Bergen readers and reduced circulation.

Sells out to Gannett

Then, in July 2016, he sold the family's publishing company to Gannett for nearly $40 million in cash, and laid plans to become an apartment developer, using 19.6 acres cleared of The Record's landmark headquarters and parking lots as his building site.

Now, the Borgs' Fourth Edition Inc., with a nearly $49 million construction loan and two partners, has begun work on the first of 5 buildings with a planned total of 654 units.

The first building of these so-called luxury apartments is sited roughly where The Record's executive offices were located, as well as circulation, advertising and the 4th-floor newsroom.

Think of this: 

Tenants of luxury apartments will be moving their bowels on the site of a great local daily newspaper Stephen Borg helped turn to shit.






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