Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Vincent LeBlon ruled Friday Charles Kushner, Jared Kushner's father, would testify in a Perth Amboy redevelopment case
NEW BRUNSWICK -- Jared Kushner will not be pulled away from his new duties in the Donald Trump administration to testify in a fraud lawsuit in New Jersey.
His father, though, the billionaire real-estate developer who spearheaded the $600 million redevelopment project along the Perth Amboy waterfront, will be subpoenaed during the trial in Middlesex County Superior Court. The trial is expected to start jury selection next week and could last at least six weeks.
Charles Kushner handed over his control of the New York-based development business Kushner Companies in 2005 following 18 felony convictions, including illegal campaign contributions and tax evasion.
Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Vincent LeBlon ruled Friday afternoon to squash the subpoena for Trump's son-in-law saying his connection to the project was loose. The judge said the only direct connection Jared Kushner had to the project was that he was only copied on emails discussing the project.
The attorney for the condo owners, Patrick Whalen, had argued in court this week for both Kushners to testify as LeBlon heard a litany of pretrial motions.
The first three days of the week were filled with closed-door meetings between the judge and attorneys. The only public part of the proceedings before Thursday was on Wednesday afternoon when the judge asked to speak privately with the condo owners who were in the courtroom.
Patrick J. Perrone, the lawyer representing the real estate development company, argued Thursday that the father and son developers had no unique knowledge of the case and could be represented by other employees.
Whalen presented the judge with multiple conversations between Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz, who has already been subpoenaed in the case and could not comment, and the elder-Kushner, including an alleged "heated" exchanged in 2011 when Kushner pulled Diaz aside to speak alone.
Kushner said he was "leaving this town and never coming back," according to the court documents. Diaz said she objected to the meeting without counsel.
He also introduced an email exchanged between Charles Kushner and a former condo owner in which she told him of the 2012 appraisal of her condo at $154,000 and that other similar units were selling between $100,000 and $130,000.
In response, Kushner apologized to her for "putting her in this terrible situation," the court documents say.
The owner-occupied units in the Admiral and Bayview buildings sold for $350,000 to $450,000 between 2004 and 2008.
Four settlements were reached with defendants throughout the week. The Kushner companies had already reached settlements with three of the condo owners for an undisclosed amount.
Thirty-three condo owners filed the suit in Middlesex County Superior Court in 2012, claiming they purchased their "luxury condos" from Kushner Companies that advertised the Perth Amboy waterfront as a soon-to-be sprawling, bustling waterside area, with a quick commute to New York. Sales associates pushed the properties telling potential owners they were "buying into a gold mine," according to the suit.
However, 13 years later only two building have been built. Under the original plan, Charles Kushner promised the owners up to 200,000-square feet of retail space, acres of parks, a marina, a hotel, a community center and gym, and 2,000 condos and townhomes across 17 buildings.
It also boasted of a high-speed ferry to New York City and jitney to Wall Street. It was unclear if the project received any incentives from the city at that time.
After the crash of the late-2000s, the Kushners' stalled project was revised by the company but the city council shot down the new plan. The development company sued the next month claiming local politics was holding up the project.
"We cannot build the buildings with original funding because they would not sell," said Perrone, citing experts who credited the housing market decline for creating an unprofitable project.
In an emailed statement, James Yolles, a spokesman for Kusher Companies, said, "Just as the economic downturn affected real estate projects across the country, it affected our initial plans for Perth Amboy. But Kushner Cos. remains fully committed to redeveloping its property in Perth Amboy."
Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig and on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.