Fort Monmouth was a installation of the Department of the Army in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, and the site of Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth, a major upcoming Netflix film production campus, alongside a variety of other redevelopment. The site is surrounded by the communities of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, New Jersey. It is about from the Atlantic Ocean and about a drive south of Manhattan.
Location and background The fort is about a ten-minute drive from Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park and from Long Branch Beach on the Jersey Shore. The post covered nearly of land, from the Shrewsbury River on the east, to Route 35 on the west; this area was referred to as 'Main Post.' A separate area (Camp Charles Wood) to the west included post housing, a golf course, and additional office and laboratory facilities.
A rail line, owned by Conrail, ran through Camp Charles Wood and out to Naval Weapons Station Earle. The post was like a small town, including a Post Exchange, health clinic, gas station and other amenities. From the September 11 attacks in 2001 to 2017, the post was not open to the public to drive through and was closed to all but authorized personnel. The main road through the fort was reopened to the public in 2017.
The post was home to several units of the U.S. Army Materiel Command and offices of the Army Acquisition Executive that research and manage Command and Control, Communications, Computing, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance capabilities and related technology, as well as an interservice organization designed to coordinate C4ISR, an academic preparatory school, an explosive ordnance disposal unit, a garrison services unit, an Army health clinic, and a Veterans Administration health clinic. Other agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Security Agency, had presences on the post.
The post was selected for closure by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 2005. Most Army functions and personnel were required to be moved to Army facilities in Maryland—such as Aberdeen Proving Ground—and Ohio by 2011. The post officially closed on September 15, 2011. However, it was temporarily reopened in December 2012 for the evacuation of the borough of Paulsboro's residents following a freight train derailment on November 30, 2012.
Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth
In October 2022, Netflix signed to build a major "state-of-the-art" production complex, Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth, on a nearly 300-acre portion of the former army installation, known as Mega Parcel. The state has seen an influx of film production and soundstage construction in light of New Jersey's newly expanded film production tax credit program. As of March 2024, Netflix had moved into site plan development.
The Netflix contract was facilitated by the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority, the board that oversees redevelopment of the fort. The property was purchased for $55 million, with a projected investment of $850 million into construction. It is estimated to generate an estimated 1500 permanent jobs for the area.
On December 21, 2022, Governor Murphy described Netflix's purchase of the Mega Parcel as a "transformative investment” for New Jersey. Eatontown's mayor Anthony Talerico commented on the potential economic growth the project will bring to the surrounding area. Oceanport's mayor Jay Coffey praised the project and cited "social revitalization" that Netflix would bring to Fort Monmouth. Public opinion from Oceanport and Eatontown residents was largely positive. It is projected that this production campus will accrue an estimated maximum of $4.6 billion in revenue over the next 20 years.
The proposed redevelopment project will be located adjacent to major public transportation outlets such as NJ Transit lines, the Garden State Parkway, and Route 35. Estimations for the size of the planned campus are between 180,000 and 480,000 square feet. The development will contain 12 sound stages, various production buildings, and office buildings. Governor Phil Murphy wrote Netflix a letter to petition them to purchase land in New Jersey over the original property in Georgia due to Georgia's controversial changes in voter laws.
On February 21, 2024, the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority unanimously approved an amendment to create zoning for the project, allowing Netflix to move ahead with its plans for the complex.
Other developers on location As of the end of 2023, three separate businesses (a microbrewery, a speciality foods business, and a "massive" entertainment venue offering fine dining, live music, virtual golf and other sports and sports viewing) had all opened at the former Fort Monmouth Commissary which had formerly provided food and grocery offerings to thousands of military personnel on the base. Fort Monmouth will also be the site of redevelopment by RWJ Barnabas Health in New Jersey. In December 2022, a deal was finalized for the purchase of the former Myer Center for $8 million. RWJ Barnabas Health plans to replace the building with an extension of their medical campus. The new construction plans entail an ambulatory care pavilion as well as a cancer center.
Other retail, housing, dining, and a hotel are planned as well.https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/11/realestate/oceanport-nj-netflix.html New York Times. October 2023. Oceanport, N.J.: A Small Community With ‘Water Access Everywhere’
The site is also home to Nicol NJ, a 20,000-square-foot racket-sports facility for padel, squash, and pickleball, owned and operated by Jessica Winstanely and her husband Peter Nicol, the former World number-one-ranked squash player.
History
For more information, see the official U.S. Army CECOM Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC) / Fort Monmouth Historical Office website or Fort Monmouth Timeline (Microsoft Word document)
Original use As the original site of Monmouth Park, the land featured one of the premier racetracks in the United States. A larger, expanded track designed by David D. Withers opened on July 4, 1890, featuring a one-and-one-half mile oval track centered on what later became the installation's Greely Field, a 700 by 210 foot steel grandstand accommodating 10,000 spectators — reputedly the largest in the world at the time — and a luxury hotel fronting Parkers Creek. The complex encompassed 640 acres, nearly all of what would become Fort Monmouth's Main Post, and was touted as the largest racetrack complex in the world. The track attracted the celebrated figures of the Gilded Age, including financier and philanthropist Diamond Jim Brady, actress Lillie Langtry, opera singer Lillian Russell, oil tycoon John Warne "Bet a Million" Gates, tobacco magnate Pierre Lorillard IV, poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, boxer James J. Corbett, and members of the Drexel family of Philadelphia bankers.
Beginnings The installation began with the lease of a defunct Monmouth Park Racecourse (later re-opened at another site in 1946) by the Army for a training site for officers. The location near Eatontown, with rail sidings out of Hoboken and proximity to the port of Little Silver, was ideal. Known temporarily as Camp Little Silver, it was renamed Camp Alfred Vail shortly after in September 1917. The Chief Signal Officer authorized the purchase of Camp Vail in 1919. The Signal Corps School relocated to Camp Vail from Fort Leavenworth that year. The Signal Corps Board followed in 1924. In August 1925 the installation was granted permanent status and was renamed Fort Monmouth. It was named in honor of the soldiers of the American Revolutionary War who died in the Battle of Monmouth; aptly, it is also located in Monmouth County. The first permanent building was built in 1928. Other structures were built to house units the Army consolidated at Fort Monmouth.
In 1928 the first radio-equipped meteorological balloon reached the upper atmosphere, a forerunner of weather sounding techniques universally used today. In 1938 the U.S. Army's first radio-based aircraft detection and ranging system (later called radar) was developed on post. A production model of this equipment detected the oncoming Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor, but the warning it provided was discounted. In 1946 celestial communication was proved feasible, when the radar developed by the Project Diana team was used to bounce radio signals off the moon.
During the late 20th century Fort Monmouth was home to the US Army Chaplain Center and School (USACHCS). Enlisted soldiers, non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and officers training to become Chaplain Assistants and Chaplains were trained at Fort Monmouth.
World War II Additional property was purchased in 1941 for Camp Coles near Red Bank, Camp Charles Wood in Tinton Falls, and Camp Evans in Wall Township. At its peak during World War II, Fort Monmouth measured , and had billeting space for 1,559 officers and 19,786 enlisted personnel. The Eastern Signal Corps Training Center consisted of the Eastern Signal Corps Schools (enlisted, officer candidate, and officers) and the Replacement Training Center at Camp Charles Wood. The Signal Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS), the major activity on the main post, graduated 21,033 new Signal Corps second lieutenants between 1941 and 1946.
More communications units, including the Pigeon Breeding and Training Center, were consolidated into Fort Monmouth after the war ended. The pigeon service was discontinued in 1957; the birds were either sold at auction or donated to zoos.
Special effects artist Harry Redmond, Jr. designed and constructed a new film studio for the Army Film Training Lab at Fort Monmouth during World War II. Fort Monmouth was also home to the combat motion picture school, including laboratories and a production studio. Students were from the army, air force and marine corps. During the Vietnam era, Vietnamese army students were also trained.
Rosenbergs Julius Rosenberg had worked as a radar inspector at Fort Monmouth in 1942 and 1943. It is from the fort that he was accused and convicted of stealing proximity fuze plans and passing them on to the Soviet Union. Documents released by Russia after the Cold War showed that Julius Rosenberg was indeed a spy. Joseph McCarthy claimed in October 1953 that Julius Rosenberg had set up a wartime spy ring at Fort Monmouth, and that the ring might still be in operation. Two Fort Monmouth scientists, Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant, fled to the Soviet Union.Sen. Joe McCarthy and Camp Evans from InfoAge
The hysteria surrounding Fort Monmouth and the Rosenbergs was not limited to Julius and Ethel; others with the last name Rosenberg (or Kaplan) lost their security clearance for no reason other than sharing a name with communists.
Final years as an Army post
Before its BRAC closing was announced, Fort Monmouth was the home to the CECOM Life Cycle Management Command (CECOM LCMC). CECOM LCMC was a lead command for the Army in the area of C4ISR development, acquisition and sustainment. Though no longer the home of the US Army Signal Corps (after its move to Fort Gordon, Georgia in the 1970s), Fort Monmouth is sometimes referred to as the "Soul of the Signal Corps". It housed the official Time capsule of the Army Signal Corps until June 21, 2010, when it was removed for relocation to the U.S. Army Signal Center & School at Fort Gordon, Georgia. The fort also hosts the Avenue of Memories, a set of trees and monuments dedicated to Signal Corp soldiers who died in World War II. The memorial is a part of the main road through the Eatontown side of the fort.
Fort Monmouth hosted the following CECOM LCMC subordinate organizations: