An Essex County judge ruled yesterday that the Township of Bloomfield may condemn the Bloomfield train station under eminent domain.

Judge Patrica K. Costello determined that Bloomfield was entitled to condemn the train station for its stated purpose of providing  “safe and convenient public access to the NJ Transit platforms.”

The town had been trying to buy the property from Howard Haberman, a local developer and land owner. Haberman owns the concrete station and the tower portion of the train station and New Jersey Transit owns the tracks and platform.

Haberman had hoped to develop the property rather than sell it. In July, Haberman’s company,  Bloomfield Daval Corporation, received notice that the Township had initiated condemnation through eminent domain.

“After many years of making significant contributions to Bloomfield’s downtown, I am deeply disappointed that the Township of Bloomfield has chosen to condemn our company’s Block 220 train station property rather than work with us to develop a first class restaurant, retail and office complex consistent with my father’s vision,” Haberman said at the time.

His father, Allen R Haberman, a developer in Essex County, formed Daval in 1964 to acquire Bloomfield’s westbound train station. The station was built in 1912 and is on the National and State Historic Registers.

Glenn Domenick, Bloomfield’s Director of Community Development, told Bloomfield Patch in September that Howard Haberman had let the station fall into disrepair and “refuse[d] to negotiate in good faith.”

The town wants to renovate the station, which sits across from the empty site that will become Glenwood Village, the downtown redevelopment project that will include apartments, retail and restaurant space and a public parking garage.