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Local developer Pat Fasano is caught between a municipal rock and a corporate hard place.

The 15-year developer has sought for two years to construct a Dollar Tree store along Main Street at Fourth Avenue, where the Getty gas station once operated.

And while preliminary site plan approval was granted June 1 for the 9,400-square foot store, Fasano seeks the City Council’s approval to enter into a tax abatement program known as Payment in lieu of Taxes [PILOT] in order to move the project forward.

“The dollar tree model allows them to pay 18,000 in taxes for the first five years,” Fasano [shown at right] said during Wednesday night’s City Council meeting. “If it doesn’t fit that model they don’t build a store, they don’t sign a lease.”

The Dollar Tree, which bought competitor Family Dollar in 2014, operates over 13,000 stores nationwide with an annual sales of $18 billion, according to their website.

In this case, Fasano seeks an estimated $55,478.86 tax bill for the first five years of the project. This equates to a $20,564.52 reduction but a loss of $40,179.30 in municipal taxes if the project does not move forward.

But at least two City Council members have said they will not approve a PILOT unless a developer agrees to hire a certain percentage of its workforce from within city limits and/or offer training needed to fill those job being created by development.

By the end of the Fasano’s proposed lease with Dollar Tree, the municipality would receive an estimated $384,241.54 in taxes, as opposed to the $86,850.60 it would receive if the project is not built; a $297,390.94 difference. The municipal loss over 22 years remains $20,564.52 if the project moved forward without the abatement.

Council members want Fasano to stipulate as part of his lease agreement with Dollar Tree that they will hire a certain percentage of Asbury Park residents.

“With the five year tax abatement there is a certain savings in your pocket,” Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn said. “If you are creating 29 jobs nobody is saying you need to hire 29 residents from Asbury Park but we want job fairs and we want the ability to hire say 10 percent…I know you see the need in Asbury Park to hire local so I’m not sure why this is an obstacle to hire a percentage that is reasonable.”

But Fasano says that is a matter that is out of his control.

He maintains that the corporation has its own extensive in-house program and are committed to hiring local employees but to put such a mandate on a lease agreement may end the delicate negotiations he’s currently traversing.

Councilman Joe Woerner said he’d put a call into the national Fortune 500 corporation to solidify the City Council’s position.

“We’re done – I’m done with hearing 29 jobs and then [there are] 29 jobs for people who are not from our community,” Woerner said. “All I asked for is a good faith effort to begin the discussion—to try to get some jobs lined up for the community. And then nothing happened.”

Fasano told him the corporation has a different department that deals with hiring and that he has no contacts there since his business dealing have been with the real estate development side of the national chain’s corporate offices.

“I’m a little confused by how you can demand that a property owner that is leasing to a corporation can dictate what the corporation does in its hiring schemes,” said resident Werner Baumgartner.

Fasano, who amended his site plan to include a parking lot and off street delivery area based on Planning Board recommendations, said this could mean the end of his development in the city since he’d have to let his waiting local crew move onto to other jobs.

“If they don’t approve this then the Dollar Tree is not going to be built,” Fasano said. “I think the demographics in Asbury Park would like a Dollar Tree store where their price point is one dollar.”

Fasano applied for the tax abatement in March. He agreed to raise the property’s $1.05 million assessment by $50,000 in order to “get the maximum amount of money for the city of Asbury Park,” he said.

“When I bought the property from Getty I thought it would be great deal to get the Dollar Tree,” Fasano said. “And then when I went through the Planning Board the first time they said come back when you figure out the parking. I spent a lot of money with my engineer and redesign the streets then I went on the hook to buy another property. I’m going to spend half a million dollars to build a parking lot that’s not factored into Dollar Tree store project. I’m building the parking lot at my expense and I’m willing to do that to get this job done.”

The $2.9 million project includes a total redevelopment of the Main Street block between Third and Fourth avenues. Fasano, who bought the neighboring bakery, plans to raze that building to make way for 21-space parking lot. He will refurbish the current mattress store and grocery store at the Third Avenue corner and build four apartments above it.

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