Assemblyman Sean Ryan also said developing the land in and around Terminal A was premised on reusing the building. He said he's hoping to see an "aggressive adaptive reuse plan."

"I'd much rather use public funding to increase "lighter, cheaper, quicker" activities on the Outer Harbor, instead of using scarce public dollars to do demolition on the promise of things to come," he said.

Improving the neighboring parkland at the same time will make taking on Terminal A more attractive to developers, especially with the other projects nearby, Higgins said.

"There won't be a lot of interest if the people who own it don't show a lot of interest," Higgins said. "It's like showing a house. I want to see them have a vision about doing those two things concurrently. Put out an RFP for Terminals A and B, and announce you're committing X amount of dollars to redevelop the parkland. That will make the likelihood of someone responding favorably that much greater."

Hoyt said plans are nearing completion for improvements to the nearby green space. He also expects the agency to reach out to developers soon, though not in the way Higgins is suggesting.