Huge Walmart is coming to Hackensack

A Walmart Supercenter -- like this one in China -- is planned for land in Hackensack, where great journalism was practiced for decades. The store will sell hundreds of items, including  diapers -- appropriate considering all the shit coming from the editors running the newsroom in an office building overlooking Route 80 in Woodland Park.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is moving ahead with plans to build a huge Hackensack store on land owned by North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.

NJMG owns about 20 acres along River Street, where its flagship daily was published for many years before President Stephen A. Borg abandoned the city.

The land will be leased to Wal-Mart, not sold, according to a usually reliable source.

The world's biggest retailer has already started to submit documents to the city for approval of the plan, the source said.

The Hackensack store will be a Walmart Supercenter, like the one in Secaucus. That store is open 24 hours. 

Main Street merchants were hurt when The Record moved hundreds of employees out of its landmark building at 150 River St.

Now, they vehemently oppose Wal-Mart's plan.

A master blends sports hype with news

Image by kevindooley via Flickr

A brain scan of Editor Francis Scandale found a large amount of wood.

Look at that earth-shaking front page.


Staff Writer Jean Rimbach took almost as long to get her latest double-dipping "expose" onto Page 1 of The Record today as Derek Jeter did to get 3,000 hits.


Jeter may be the first player on the Yankees to achieve the milestone, but 27 others did it before him, according to The New York Times.


So, Editor Francis Scandale, is this really such a big deal that you'd order most of  A-1 for the story and photo, plus a mind-numbing three sidebars and a commemorative page? 


I'm throwing up my breakfast all over that page.


Master of hype


In more than a decade as editor, Scandale has shown himself to be a master at avoiding issues of importance to North Jersey readers, while he peddles a blend of sports myth-making and business as front-page news.


At heart, he's a jock who somehow found himself in charge of a once-great suburban daily, where he's more comfortable slapping other editors on the ass than patting them on the back.


Also on Page 1, a brief about Lodi quotes "Luna," with no first name or title.


Copping out again


I'm not sure how many months Rimbach spent "investigating" cop-cum-CEO Frank DelVecchio, but he's identified as "deputy chief" in the A-1 headline, as "Fairview police chief" in the lead paragraph and then as "deputy chief" again in the third paragraph.


Confusing. I scanned the entire story and also couldn't find anything on how much Fairview pays him for his public job.


Rimbach, a favorite of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, has gotten away with murder in terms of her productivity, compared to other reporters.


And even after spending months on a story, she often leaves holes, unanswered questions and, as in this story, she and Sykes can't get it ready for publication before the alleged conflict has ended.


Readers may recall that also was the case with the Rimbach-led investigation of lawman Michael Mordaga by several reporters. 


Sykes allowed the probe to drag on for nearly three years, squandered an  estimated $500,000 in staff salaries and only managed to publish a single story even jock Scandale didn't think was good enough for Page 1.


Here is a link to December 2009 Eye on The Record post about the Mordaga story:


Way too little, way too late


Lost columnist


On the front of Sykes' Local section, Road Warrior John Cichowski wastes an entire column on a body shop owner who can't find addresses, when all he had to say was, "Hey, Bill and everyone else with this problem, get a GPS."


Sykes leads the section with a wealthy Alpine jeweler who presumably blew millions on his fighter-pilot fantasy, only to crash his military jet in West Milford on Saturday.


Thousands of North Jersey residents who have been awakened by his noisy plane cheered. Look at that L-1 photo of a hook-and-ladder, ambulances and whatever. I hope all those first responders send a big bill to Vatche Agihayan, 46, for all the trouble he's caused.


Forest and trees


On L-3, a story on coyotes by Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado doesn't mention that Borg's Woods, a nature preserve, once was the backyard where Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg frolicked when he was growing up in a big, white house at Summit and Fairmount avenues.


Borg tried to sell the 14-plus acres to a townhouse developer before the county stepped in and purchased the old-growth forest in the late 1980s.


Now, the Borg family's plan to sell about 20 acres on River Street in Hackensack to Wal-Mart Stores for $15 million to $20 million is being cheered by city business interests.

Is Walmart coming to Hackensack?

Image via Wikipedia

A 2005 protest in Utah tried to block a Walmart store.

Walmart has agreed to pay at least $15 million for about 20 acres of land on River Street in Hackensack, where the old headquarters of The Record and North Jersey Media Group await the wrecking ball, according to an anonymous source.

If Walmart builds a store there, it will join two other big-box retailers along the street, Costco Wholesale and Target, as well as Pep Boys. 

The land where Target built a store was sold for $10 million, the source said today, adding the Walmart deal could be worth as much as $20 million.

The deal is said to have been brokered by Jon F. Hanson, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's close friend. They co-own a personal jet.

A Walmart store on the land would be a change of use and require site-plan approval, a city building official said on Monday. He said nothing has been filed. 

The Bergen Evening Record Corp. is listed in tax records as owning three parcels of land at 150 River St., 80 River St. and 76 Bridge St., including the Heritage Restaurant. 

It's not known if the The New Jersey Naval Museum at 78 River St. and the submarine U.S.S. Ling are part of the property.

Bill Wertz, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said in an e-mail the company hasn't signed an agreement to buy the River Street parcels. 

"Yes, we are interested in Hackensack, along with other communities" in New Jersey, Wertz said, adding that for competitive reasons, the company doesn't comment on rumors or discuss its plans "until we are ready to make a decision."

He said 20 acres -- the approximate size of the NJMG property -- is adequate for a Walmart store.

Walmart and the land-owning Borg family have something in common: a disdain for unions. Both Walmart and NJMG managers are known for treating workers poorly, though the retailer does it on a much larger scale.

Walmart may have low prices, but many consumers refuse to shop there because it mistreats employees. 

The landmark building on River Street has been emptied in recent months, with its contents hauled away in dumpsters. Its demolition is now rumored in city business circles.

Will there be any sign of more than 110 years of journalism tradition after the land is cleared and a huge store is built there? Only Publisher Stephen A. Borg can answer that.

See previous post on Tuesday's paper