New White Castle taking shape

Construction is under way on a new White Castle and it's been taking shape along Routes 1/9 North in recent weeks. Work started at least a month ago but since there was such a good response to the entry about the recent opening of a White Diamond in Rahway, I figured I'd post an update. It was just a matter of getting a good photo of the site without having to play Frogger in the northbound lanes. It turns out that Sunday mornings are a good time.

The Planning Board approved the 36-seat project last year but it was a little tricky to figure out where it was on a Google Map. It's essentially between the Dunkin' Donuts and Murphy's Towing on the northbound side of 1/9, near East Scott Avenue and the southern end of Merck's facility.

Renaissance at Rahway moving along

Work is progressing at Renaissance at Rahway since it broke ground just a few months ago. These photos were taken Sunday (at right, along East Grand Avenue looking west; below, along East Grand, looking east).

Home to what was the former Triangle Inn and several houses along Monroe Street and East Grand Avenue, Renaissance at Rahway plans to build a five-story, 88-unit rental complex. There will be ground floor parking. The development also will eliminate the block of Montgomery Street between Monroe and East Grand, building up to its adjacent neighbor, Riverton Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

The only property owner not to sell to the developer owns the building at the tip of Monroe Street and East Grand Avenue. The two-story retail-residential structure used to house a bait and tackle shop. Signage in the windows indicates a barber shop, T-Liners, is on its way into the ground-floor commercial space.

About a year ago, the Planning Board approved changes to the project, paving the way for 44 one-bedroom and 44 two-bedroom units instead of an initial proposal of 72 for-sale condos.

Catching up on tenant turnover

There's been a bit of turnover in some downtown spaces the last few months, particularly along East Cherry Street. As we mentioned earlier, InTheMix opened on Friday, and last month it was Kataluma Chai. (I stopped into Kataluma a couple of Saturday nights ago. I didn't realize chai was so sugary sweet, but it's worth the trip and though small, it's got some charm to it.)

Just A Little Healthier closed up shop after being there only about a year. Apparently, the owner sold his space to another eatery, Buddy Michelman, who owns the building, said in a telephone interview a few weeks ago. It's unclear when the new tenant will take over, as they have to go through the city approval process, he said.

Also, Taste of Portugal closed a while back and as reader Realist pointed out several weeks ago, so did The Original Nile, which occupied the former Back Porch space behind Main Street, facing the River Place apartments. No word on what might be in store for those spaces.

For a peek at what other towns are facing, this nj.com story follows a discussion about empty storefronts in downtown Cranford.

After many months, dessert cafe opens

The windows are no longer covered and there was some activity as I drove home along Irving Street last night: InTheMix dessert cafe is open.

We first reported in May that the cafe would be coming to the corner of Irving and West Main streets and it finally opened last night. It's been almost a year since a photo and camera shop left the 1,200-square-foot space.

If anyone pays a visit to InTheMix, let us know what you think.

Architect hired for amphitheater, Bell Building

City Council approved two contracts last week for an architectural firm to prepare a conceptual design and cost estimate for the Hamilton Street amphitheater and black box theater and dance studio planned at the Bell Building.

Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects of Princeton received both contracts, $65,000 for the amphitheater and $49,000 for the Bell Building. City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said at last week's council meeting that cost estimates would be necessary before moving forward with construction. The project is scheduled to break ground, and be completed, during 2010.

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Thanks to everyone who came out to The Waiting Room on Friday night for our first official, informal happy hour. I wasn't sure what kind of turnout to expect but we had upward of 20 people at one time and commandeered a couple tables. It was a nice mix of old and new faces and I had a great time. Next time we'll plan a little better, but there definitely will be a next time, perhaps some time after the holidays. And I'm always up for suggestions on where and when to have it.

County acquires Rahway horse farm

Did you know there's a horse farm in Rahway? Well now you do, and now you know it was purchased by Union County through the Open Space, Recreation and Historic Preservation Trust Fund, according to this report.

The 2.54-acre property at Bramhall Road and Jensen Avenue, near the Colonia border, was acquired for $1.7 million. Assessed at almost $560,000, the property paid about $25,000 in taxes last year.

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I stumbled upon this post on Chowhound looking for some input on Tauros Tapas Grill on Monroe Street. I haven't been there yet but I know a few readers have, in case anyone wants to share their opinion on that board.

Join us for happy hour tonight

Join your fellow blog readers and neighbors interested in redevelopment tonight for the first official Rahway Rising happy hour.

We'll be meeting at The Waiting Room, 66 E. Cherry St., at around 6 p.m. or so, and I'm sure we'll stick around for a few hours.

Since a giant banner, DJ and giveways aren't in our budget (not that we have one), look for the guy whose picture is in the profile box below (that's me!). Or just head for the most devastatingly handsome group of people you see...

(**The image at right is for comedic/artistic purposes only. We encourage drinking responsibly. Note that he's walking, too.)

A visit to Diversified's 'headquarters'

The talk of foreclosure at Riverwalk and the story from North Carolina about another project abandoned by Diversified Communities got me curious.

I didn't expect much when I paid a visit to the (former) "corporate headquarters" of Diversified this week and wasn't disappointed. I'm not sure how long the Parsippany office of Diversified has been vacant, but Suite 110 most certainly is (photo above), despite being listed on the building directory. Actually, most of the building is empty except for what looks like one tenant (photo below).

Although Accent Title Agency hasn't had its Web site shut down, unlike Diversified, phone numbers for both are disconnected. Accent is described as an independently operated affiliate of Diversified (.pdf, of a brochure), which was founded in 2002 by Ken Schwartz and Richard Weissman.

Almost all of the unsold 19 units at Riverwalk are those with balconies facing the Kings Inn motel and incinerator across Routes 1/9, City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said at Tuesday's City Council meeting. Only seven of the 86 units have not paid their property taxes, he added.

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Jim McKeon's Broken Hearts Memorial, which was installed at Train Station Plaza this past summer, was picked by MSNBC in a Web-exclusive video story (2:29) this week. You can check it out here.

Riverwalk not the only project Diversified ditched

Riverwalk, with its last 19 unsold units going into foreclosure, isn't the only construction project abandoned by Diversified Communities.

I came across this story in the Triangle Business Journal (Raleigh, N.C.) from last month about L'Hermitage, a project where Diversified had planned 125 condos, 75 townhomes and 35 single-family units. Only two were sold and barely two dozen completed in all. Work stopped in spring 2008 and the abandoned project is described as "the poster child for the housing industry’s downfall."

Spring 2008 was about the time Diversified parted ways with DeBartolo Development on the Town Center project proposed for the City Hall property some three years ago.

Some key passages from the story:

-- "Diversified Communities...walked away from the project in 2008, leaving two dozen homes in various stages of construction. Diversified...built the roads, sewer lines, water lines and power infrastructure...as well as a 5,000-square-foot clubhouse with a swimming pool and tennis court.

-- "Diversified had sold two homes in the community for more than $480,000 each and had started construction on 12 condominiums and 11 other single-family homes when work stopped. Some homes are finished, others are about halfway complete. "It's been more than two years since I've spoken with anyone at Diversified," Apex Town Manager Bruce Radford said. "They walked away from millions in ground there already."

-- "In its unfinished state, the property has become the victim of vandals and neglect. A 3,200-square-foot unfinished home in L'Hermitage was destroyed by fire in mid-September. The clubhouse was severely damaged when a water pipe burst and flooded the building."

KC Jazz redesigns, eyes 2010 for opening

KC Jazz restaurant has its sights set on 2010 for an opening.

Developer Casey Granieri said in an email last month that the project is going out to bid after a redesign to lower the cost. Any changes will be in materials and roof modification, he said, and if everything gets done in a timely manner it will open next year.

During last month's Redevelopment Agency meeting, Redevelopment Director and City Administrator Peter Pelissier mentioned that a developer with experience in Newark's Ironbound section was brought in to help with the changes while there also were some financing details to iron out. The former Kelly's Pub building, at the corner of Seminary Avenue and Irving Street, gained Planning Board approval in July 2007.

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It looks like there's a comfortable lead for Friday to be the day for a Rahway Rising happy hour. If no one has any objections, why don't we call it 6 p.m. at The Waiting Room this Friday (Nov. 13). See you there!

Station stairs slated for replacement this month

NJ Transit plans to replace the staircase on the east side of the eastbound platform this month. The stairs, at the corner of Irving and East Cherry streets, are expected to reopen Dec. 4, according to this advisory issued last month.

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Here's a nj.com story on the foreclosures at Riverwalk that we wrote about last month. It looks as though the developer, Parsippany-based Diversified Communities, defaulted on an $11.8-million loan from Bank of America.

Rahway Rising enters the Terrible Twos

Rahway Rising is a lovable toddler today. Two years ago I launched this blog to get some of the information in my head out to the public, hopefully informing our community about what's going on in their neighborhoods.

For a look at our first year, here's a blog post from Nov. 1, 2008. We now have about 230 subscribers by email,which fluctuates from 225 to 250 regularly. About 150 visitors come to the site daily, some days breaking 200. We cracked 300 visitors in one day for the first time last month, just after a post about foreclosures beginning at Riverwalk.

Here are some stats from our first two years in existence, according to Google Analytics:
20,408 visitors
73,709 visits (42% direct visits to the site)
127,542 page views
1.73 pages/visit
71.9% bounce rate
1:56 average time on site
27.75% new visits

Some other tidbits from Google Analytics: As far as keyword searches, the top five are all related to Rahway Rising (16%), rahway blog, or rahwayrising.com, although coming in fourth was "rahway new jersey skyview condos for sale". Also in the top 10 of keywords searches were Brooklyn Pizza, rahway nj skyview, nancy's townhouse rahway, and cubanu restaurant rahway.

Food/restaurant-related blog posts, regardless of how old, continue to be among the most widely viewed. Here are the top five posts since we began tracking:
1. On Tap for 2008: Park Square, Sky View, 1,747 page views
2. Cubanu: A review, 1,284
3. Luciano's set to open, 893
4. Pizza pizza, 866
5. Brooklyn Pizza coming to Rahway, 642

Surprisingly, all those posts are from 2008 yet still garnered the most page views. Among the most viewed posts of 2009 are Carriage City violating redevelopment agreement (428 page views), Carriage City declared in default of agreement (353), Return of White Castle in the works (347).

In our second year, we've ventured onto Twitter and Facebook, with about 40 followers and 75 fans and friends, respectively. We've also started Google AdWords, and as you can imagine, I'm already planning my retirement.

I said it before and I'll say it again, hard to believe another year of blogging has gone by, and we still haven't organized an official Rahway Rising happy hour, despite the urging from some readers. Well, let's change that. Pick a night that's best for you and vote in the poll. Let's try to set a date before the holidays get into full swing (We'll also take suggestions on where to have it). Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to make it to The Taste this year -- which is always fun for meeting up with readers -- so now we must have a happy hour.

I often write "We" when referring to the blog. Although I'm the only writer, there's a cadre of people I turn to for their opinions on potential blog posts, coverage and general advice. To them, I say thank you for putting up with me and always being willing to listen to my rambling and brainstorming. When I use the term "We," I'm also referring in a sense to our readers, who often email their tips and observations or comment on blog posts. Thanks to all who have taken the time to read the posts and comment, whether anonymously or not. I'm not sure how long I'll keep this up, but hearing from you at least makes it seem a worthwhile endeavor. Thanks everybody.