Trinity Hall Girls High School To Move to Former Fort Monmouth Property

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By John Burton

OCEANPORT – Trinity Hall private girls school will have a new home, located on the former Fort Monmouth property.

The Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) at its Wednesday evening meeting voted unanimously (with one abstention) to accept the school’s $2 million bid for the former Child Development Center, a childcare facility, located off of Hope Road, in Tinton Falls.

Trinity Hall is a private girls school that offers a Catholic religion-based, college preparatory high school education, currently operating out of Croydon Hall, a facility located in the Leonardo section of Middletown and owned by Middletown.

Trinity Hall was the highest bidder of the three submitted, though the final selling price was $200,000 less than the authority had initially sought the location. Tinton Falls had requested the facility for a future childcare/school, but has since dropped those plans, according to the memorandum of agreement.

The other bidders were the Yeshiva School and CommVault, a computer software company that has a 55-acre campus with a 275,000-square foot headquarters located nearby in Tinton Falls on former fort property.

The amount of their bids was not disclosed.

The new campus will be located on Corregidor Road, close to the Garden State Parkway and Routes 35 and 36. Courtesy Google Maps
The new campus will be located on Corregidor Road, close to the Garden State Parkway and Routes 35 and 36. Courtesy Google Maps

According to agreement, in addition to paying $2 million for the approximately 20,000 square-foot structure built in 1996 and 7.4-acre property situated on Corregidor Road off of Hope Road, the school agrees to do $500,000 worth of renovations and upgrades to the site.

The school said it would incorporate its current 22 full time position in its new location as well as being obligated for creating an additional 100 full time positions at the school within 48 months of closing on the property or pay a penalty of $1,500 per job, with a cap of $183,000.

Closing is expected with in 30 days of satisfaction of the selling terms and renovation work is expected to begin within 45 days of the closing and completed in roughly 24 months.

If the school doesn’t commence or complete construction within that period, FMERA has the right to buy the property back for the selling price, plus the cost of any improvements the school does, according to the agreement.

The school is expected to relocate its students and staff to this site in 2016, the agreement stated.

Mary Sciarrillo, Trinity Hall head of school, was in attendance Wednesday evening but declined to comment about the school’s future plans.

“I was quite impressed with Trinity Hall,” Tinton Falls Mayor Gerald M. Turning Sr., who is a voting member of FMERA, said in welcoming the school to his community. “I was quite impressed with what they want to do.”

What remains unclear at this juncture is the school’s plans for an approximately 64-acre property on Middletown’s Chapel Hill Road, that school officials had hoped to construct a permanent campus. That plan had become the source of controversy as area neighbors battled, both in the courts and in front of the Middletown Planning Board, to prevent the construction.

School representatives have repeatedly declined requests for comment or did not respond to discuss the plans.

FMERA, which comes under the auspices of the state Economic Development Authority, is working on a long range redevelopment plan for Fort Monmouth U.S. Army installation the Pentagon and Congress closed in 2011.

Related stories:

Trinity Hall Bids on Former Fort Monmouth Property (Oct. 16, 2015)

Trinity Hall Plays Well, But Loses To Middletown South (Sept. 17, 2015)

2015 Fall Open Houses (Sept. 10, 2015)

Trinity Hall to Proceed; Litigation May Continue (July 9, 2015)

State Limits Trinity Hall Lease; Township Disagrees (May 15, 2015)

Trinity Hall Lease Extended Without State Approvals (April 24, 2015)

Trinity Hall Pleased with Planning Board Reversal (Nov. 11, 2014)