well New Jersey transits moved to a pricey new location appears to be a done deal according to reports by North jersey.com the rail agency signed the controversial lease with Onyx equities and will relocate just a couple blocks away to the two Gateway building in Newark criticism over the Deal started mounting in February that's when North jersey.com reporter Colleen Wilson reported the lease with Onyx was the most expensive option on the table and unveiled emails showing discussions over the move started a year before New Jersey Transit began the bidding process as she reports it all comes as the agency is facing a massive budget shortfall in the next two years Colleen Wilson joins me now Colleen it's good to have you back we just recently spoke about this when we were trying to get information about the move now it's signed what can you tell me about the lease because as you reported it's been tough to get information yeah I wish I had more to tell you about the contents of the lease we don't have have it yet I requested it I'm sure others have as well and the agency hasn't provided many answers to the questions that I've sent about the contents of the lease or at least you know some elements in detail so we're still waiting to hear more but what we do know is that it's 407 000 square feet which is more than what we had previously reported what has been previously told to lawmakers so yeah that's among the questions that we have I mean there are real estate uh packages and information out there that show you roughly the price per square foot so do we have even just back of the envelope math on what this potentially could cost sure yeah the the back of the envelope map that I've done based on reporting sources documents that we've obtained is it could be anywhere close to half a billion dollars over the course of 25 years but that's a rough estimate we really don't know we don't have a full understanding of the scope and a real estate lease a document of this side eyes and scope is not just you know square footage rent per square foot there's many other elements to it that can add or take away value yeah like what because I know you sent off you fired off a list of questions that you say so far have gone unanswered what were those right so sometimes they offer free rent for you know one year two years Etc uh there can be rent escalations in this case they were talking about two percent at one time uh annual rent increases and then also sometimes there are construction allowances offered to the tenant to make changes and and you know rework the space for the client or from for the person renting the space so you know what are those we know we have some idea of what some of the offers were on the table and I think that's another thing that leads into other questions we have and documents that should be made available is the real estate analysis that Transit did and that their their vendor Saddles did to analyze what the options were what you know what we're those expenses now our reporting my sources told me that those other options were you know 100 million dollars less than the Gateway option so trying to understand why they went with that option and why wasn't the option to just stay in the building where they're at which is a couple of blocks from here where we are into Gateway an option for them at all sure it should have been it was an option for them they they did an analysis of that it seemed to show you know over 100 million dollars maybe close to 120 million dollars worth of renovation work which is a far cry like I think I said the last time from uh the the scope of a new lease so from for a building that they own you know so yeah that was definitely an option on the table why they didn't go with that I know it's disruptive but at the same time you know we want more answers these are all things that should have been that are fairly simple and should be straightforward yeah okay talk to me quickly about the budget shortfall because without Fair hikes or some type of changes they there which is where New Jersey Transit gets a lot of its Revenue they're not going to be able to make up those gaps that you cited and that we've reported on so what are we looking at potentially down the road especially now that this new lease is in the mix right so the usual playbook for dealing with fiscal cliffs and fiscal crises at New Jersey Transit is like you said Fair hikes layoffs maybe some corporate consolidation and service service Cuts so that is not going to be enough I don't think to address the agency's needs and then as you said this lease adds conflict and probably scale to their operating budget so why why add that complication why add that expense uh that actually also leads to another question that I have that wasn't in that list but I have put to Transit before which is how much does it cost to maintain and operate the building that it's in uh you know are you is is there significant savings there or is it a bigger expense that's a good question that you know I think we need to have answered and I think lawmakers taxpayers commuters should be wondering Colleen Wilson has been following the New Jersey Transit lease and investigating into this move for North jersey.com Colleen thank you so much thanks for having me [Music]