Netflix production facility could come to Fort Monmouth – not everyone is on board

Redevelopment officials could soon announce if Netflix has won the right to set up a sprawling production complex in Monmouth County.

News 12 Staff

Sep 27, 2022, 11:22 PM

Updated 740 days ago

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Redevelopment officials could soon announce if Netflix has won the right to set up a sprawling production complex in Monmouth County. The streaming giant is among four bidders for 292 acres of the closed Fort Monmouth.
If proponents, including Gov. Phil Murphy, have their way, the gates of the fort will become the gates of a major Hollywood production facility. No timeframe has been set.
“I think it is one of those things I’ll believe when I see it,” says Marisa Santoro, of Tinton Falls.
“I think it would be great and I think it would give us more business,” says Patricia O’Donnell, of Eatontown.
The land is valued at over $55 million. It has publicly been in focus for Netflix for nearly a year. The Murphy administration has been courting Netflix with promises, including tax breaks, since 2019.
But there is an underground effort to kill the deal. “No 2 Netflix” is an online, anonymous group that says it wants more transparency about what Netflix and the three other bidders would put on the site. They also want to know if the jobs that would be created are temporary jobs like construction work, or something more permanent.
The group says in a statement, “Netflix would result in the primary section of the fort turned into an industrial warehouse space with no public access. We want people to be aware that a studio would negatively impact the quality of life and the redevelopment of the fort..."
But others do want to see the property developed.
“The fort's been vacant for a really long time. It'd be really cool to get some more attraction to the Tinton Falls area, and just utilize that space rather than it just being a vacant attraction,” says Santoro.
Nearby residents appeared unconcerned that Netflix's planned "state of the art production facility" could create more traffic on already busy Route 35.
“It’s a lot of space that they can use, so I think it’d be really cool,” Santoro says.
News 12 New Jersey offered someone with “No 2 Netflix” a chance to speak about the situation. They declined, saying that they get hate email and Twitter messages from opponents who accuse them of being like the people in 2019 who scared off Amazon from building a second headquarters in New York.
The group says it has received 47 requests for “No 2 Netflix” lawn signs.