Oct 11, 7:46 AM (ET)
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) - The man who once put up a billboard message that called New Jersey "a horrible place to do business" says he's paying a price for speaking out. He figures it's about $6 million.
Real estate developer William Juliano's story involves an unopened Wal-Mart store in Cape May County, a huge billboard in Salem County and battles with Trenton bureaucrats in two state departments.
It begins in 1990, when the Mount Laurel-based developer bought a piece of land near the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which carries traffic between Delaware and New Jersey. He put up a hotel and a Cracker Barrel restaurant there.
When the state Department of Environmental Protection did not let him add a truck stop - saying that area was a sensitive wetland - he struck back.
Juliano owns a billboard on the property that is so big and prominent - it's one of the first things people see when they enter the state from points south - he calls it "the king of all billboards." In May 2005, he used the sign to post this arresting message for drivers as the entered the Garden State: "Welcome to New Jersey. A horrible place to do business. DEP nightmare state."
At the time, he was building a shopping center some 70 miles away in Rio Grande, a community in Cape May County.
After that billboard went up, he said, he started getting a cold shoulder from the state Department of Transportation about the Cape May project. Transportation officials say he's wrong about those claims.
By the time construction on the shopping center, which includes a dozen stores, was finished this March, he still did not have the department's permission to connect an access road with a major nearby thoroughfare.
So the stores have not opened. Even if he gets a quick approval, Juliano said, it might be March 2007 before the work can be done and the stores can open, meaning he might lose a year's worth of rent, or around $6 million.
He says the approvals have been delayed because state officials did not like his billboard.
"They don't have to like me, they don't have to like Wal-Mart," he said. "If I talk out against them, don't retaliate against me."
Juliano takes that notion that he's being punished for speaking out so seriously that he is asking the state Attorney General's office to investigate.
Transportation officials say the delays have nothing to do with his high-profile message.
"What this is based on is not a person," said Joe Fiordaliso, the chief of staff for the Department of Transportation. "It's based on a responsibility that the department has to ensure safety for motorists."
The problem, he said, is that Juliano did not submit proper plans for the work until earlier this month. Usually, Fiordaliso said, these sorts of road-related issues are resolved before developers begin building.
By the end of last week, Fiordaliso said, everything was finally in order and it was looked like all the approvals would be granted by the end of October.
State Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, tried to help smooth the process. He said he blames miscommunication, not a vendetta, for the long wait.
But that is not stopping Juliano from more protest.
Even with the approval apparently on it way, he's planning to put a new message on his Salem County billboard this week: "Free Speech Billboard: Gotta gripe with the State of New Jersey? Use this space free" and give a phone number.
"Hey, I'm burning a lot of bridges here," he explained. "But I have to do what's right."
Forgoing rent for the sign will cost him, too - about $10,000 per month, he said.
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