Renaissance project reaches new heights

Renaissance at Rahway looks like it has reached its high point, literally. Construction on the five-story, 88-unit rental development continues, taking shape along Monroe Street and East Grand Avenue. There will be ground floor parking spaces, along with 44 one-bedroom units and 44 two-bedroom units.

The image above was taken this past weekend. Here's what the site looked like last month and in November. Demolition of the several homes on the block, in addition the former Triangle Inn, took place last summer. A sketch of the proposal is below.

Recent retail roundup

There have been quite a few retail tenant changes of late -- and more to come next week.

Chess Mates, a chess cafe and club, plans a grand opening and ribbon cutting on Monday, becoming the second retail tenant at Park Square. It's expected to occupy less than 1,000 square feet in retail space next to Eyes On You, which opened earlier this year.

Some other recent retail hello's and goodbye's:

* Charlie's Flowers and Gourmet Baskets closed in the first week of February. A Linden location remains and a woman answering the phone there said they had been in Rahway since about 2001 at its Main Street location, next to Cubanu.

* Thomas' Surf-n-Turf replaced Just a Little Healthier at 95 E. Cherry St., opening this past weekend.

* Across East Cherry and up the street, work appears to be continuing inside the former Taste of Portugal space (and Eat To the Beat Cafe before that, circa 2005). A handwritten sign on the door for at least the past month indicates its the future home of Casa Borinquen: A Touch of Latin Flavor. For what it's worth, this is among the East Cherry Street properties owned by Dornoch.

* As mentioned previously, Mr. G's Coffee has closed for good (since the passing of the owner last fall), and its neighbor at Carriage City Plaza, Sky View Cleaners, closed up shop last week (despite the Grand Opening banner still flying this weekend). No word from Carriage City Properties/Silcon about the future of those retail spaces.

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A reminder that the Rahway Rising happy hour will be this Friday at Flynn's Irish Pub at 6:05. We'll have a drawing for two tickets to The Rahway Taste of Spring on April 9 -- which kicks off Restaurant Week -- between 7 and 7:30. All you have to do is show up -- just see me for a drawing ticket.

The weather forecast for Friday might be iffy (at the moment), but we're plowing ahead -- bring a friend and we'll see you there!

From No. 400 to No. 467

Rahway tumbled to No. 467 in New Jersey Monthly's biannual ranking of top towns in the Garden State. Rahway ranked No. 400 the last time the magazine compiled rankings two years ago. The city was sandwiched behind Monroe Township (Middlesex) and ahead of Harvey Cedars Borough (Ocean), slotting into the 83rd percentile, the bottom fifth of the state's 566 towns. (Bedminster (Somerset) ranked No. 1, accompanied by a story, and here's a .pdf of the entire ranking.)

Eight of Union County's 21 towns ranked in the top 100, led by Mountainside (8) and followed by Berkeley Heights (19), Clark (24), Cranford (34), New Providence (66), Scotch Plains (75), Summit (76), and Springfield (85). Five county towns ranked behind Rahway: Hillside (507), Roselle (533), Linden (540), Plainfield (543) and Elizabeth (563). Other nearby neighbors ranked No. 280, Edison, and No. 358, Woodbridge.

It seemed like a rather peculiar ranking this year, as more than a few towns within the top 20 had jumped from the 200s and 300s the last time around.

According to the report, NJ Monthly's research team selected "a prototypical indicator corresponding, respectively, to each of these eight categories":
* Population growth rate since the last Census (2008)
* Three-year change in median home prices (2009)
* Median property tax bill combined with change in median taxes the past two years (2009)
* Percentage of land preserved as open space (2009)
* Unemployment rate (2008)
* Total crime rate (2008)
* Proficiency on state-mandated standardized tests for fourth-, eighth- and 11th-graders
* Number of acute-care hospitals within 10 miles

"To level the playing field, household income was not considered and home values were measured by the rate of increase/decrease over three years rather than current prices. To compare land development, towns with relatively slower growth and more open space were rated more favorably. Towns with lower unemployment and crime rates also scored higher, as did those close to more hospitals."

Arts District board to take over SID management

The City Council will vote next month to shift management of the downtown Special Improvement District (SID) to the Rahway Arts District, a precursor to a revamped Rahway Center Partnership. The ordinance, introduced at the council's Feb. 8 regular meeting, also would expand the SID to include the Arts District, namely the Hamilton Street arts projects.

The arts district would receive and oversee the funds collected through the SID's special assessment. The SID, created by the city in 1993, generates about $140,000 annually from 165 commercial properties in the downtown area. Commercial property owners today pay roughly an additional 7 percent to the SID, beyond regular property taxes, according to City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier. For example, a commercial property owner paying about $10,000 annually in property taxes would pay another $700 to the SID.

SIDs were created in New Jersey in the mid-1980s as financing tools by local businesses to provide services as part of a revitalization downtown plan. Commercial property owners "organize and assess themselves in order to pay for the services that are needed." Cities have used it for things like security, sanitation, graffiti removal, facade/streetscape improvements, marketing and special events.

The future of the Partnership itself is up in the air, with an almost certain transformation in the coming months. Among the options that will be examined, according to Pelissier, is consolidating the Partnership with the Parking Authority. The city will compare the operational costs of both entities and see what's necessary. The Partnership, he added, could still host its major fundraisers and special events, such as Hot Rods and Harleys, The Taste and a wine tasting event.

SID money would provide funding for programming at the proposed Hamilton Street amphitheater and black box theater, and in general, could be used to "develop activities and programs to encourage the long-term success of the arts community in the Rahway Arts District," according to the ordinance. The arts district board is made up of downtown stakeholders, including city officials, artists, restaurant owners and a developer, Pelissier said.

The ordinance will come up for a public hearing and final adoption at the March 8 City Council meeting.

*** FULL DISCLOSURE *** I was appointed last month to a three-year term as an "honorary member" of the Rahway Arts District Board of Trustees. Honorary members do not vote and do not have the same obligations as other board members; all are unpaid. I expect to attend meetings whenever possible as a means to inform the community, as my blog has always aimed to do.

City moves to buy Beverage Shop building

The City Council last week introduced an ordinance to purchase the vacant Beverage Shop building from the Rahway Center Partnership (RCP) after Dornoch defaulted on its agreement to acquire it. A public hearing and final approval is scheduled at the council's regular meeting on March 8.

The Partnership bought the one-story structure at 52 E. Cherry St., (Block 318, Lot 18) in April 2001 for $130,000, and had an agreement in July 2006 to sell it to Dornoch. The property was to be part of the developer's downtown plans and RCP, as I understand it, acquired it at the time as a way to control problem properties/tenants, with the intention of it becoming part of the larger plan. In late 2007, Dornoch presented plans to the Planning Board to knock down several East Cherry Street properties -- including The Beverage Shop -- and build a new four-story structure as part of what's sometimes referred to as Dornoch II 1/2.

Dornoch, which also planned two other projects that have since stalled -- The Savoy and The Westbury -- has defaulted on its agreement and payments of almost $8,000 to RCP. Annual property taxes on the building are more than $6,700, according to property records, which haven't been paid for the last two quarters, according to City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier.

The City Council also approved a contract with Prime Appraisal to appraise the property and the ordinance opens the door for negotiations. The building has been vacant for a few years and its condition is unclear, Pelissier said. The city plans to assume the agreement with Dornoch, put a lien on the property and likely list it for sale.

In addition to Dornoch defaulting on its agreement, the Partnership lost funding from Merck and NJ Transit and faces some major structural changes in its future which will be detailed in the next post.

Irving St. side of Park Square 90% leased

About 90 percent of the units at Park Square are occupied with 57 of the 63 units in the Irving Street building leased, according to rental manager Nilyne Fields.

The four-story residential/retail development has 63 units on the Irving Street side with another 96 units currently under construction on the Main Street side (a total 159 units). About 44 units were leased as of December, and the five-story Main Street building is expected to be completed later this year. The Irving Street units began taking residential applications in May.

Rents range from $1,550 for one-bedrooms to $2,375 for the largest two-bedrooms.

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Something that keeps coming up in keyword search analytics several times in recent weeks is the phrase, "How much did Matzel and Mumford pay for the Rahway site."

To clarify, Matzel and Mumford was designated by the Redevelopment Agency as the redeveloper for the former Wheatena site on Elizabeth Avenue, however, it has not purchased the property yet. It's still owned by the Los Angeles-based David & Sylvia Weisz Foundation, which acquired it in 1985 for $2 million, according to property records. According to our last blog post, the two sides have been negotiating for some time but the project doesn't look likely until the market turns around.

Pizza and coffee

Some lighter fare today for your weekend reading. We talk about pizza aplenty here; maybe it's rubbing off on others. At the risk of turning this into a pizza blog, there's been a couple of pizza-related items in the past month.

New Jersey Monthly offered its "25 Perfect Pizzas" from around the Garden State as well as some "celebrity" pizza picks. (NJ Monthly is also conducting its annual Readers' Choice Restaurant Poll.)

Then there was nj.com's Pizza Patrol finally wrapping up its statewide journey to find the best slice. Alas, there were no Rahway pizza joints in either list, although you can probably find some mention of a local place among the comments accompanying the story. I did randomly find one comment from the Munchmobile driver in response to a query about Nancy's Townehouse ("Nancy's a personal favorite, but we judged the other runners-up slightly better"), however, I didn't get through all 10 pages (!) of comments to see if any other locals got a mention.

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Not that it's unexpected but it looks like Mr. G's Coffee is "officially" gone. A "For Lease" sign was spotted in the window of the Carriage City Plaza coffee shop this week, along with the sign that appeared in December about being "closed for inventory." Thanks to reader Sylvia for the tip!

City purchases $90k piano for conservatory

The City Council on Monday night approved $90,000 for the purchase of a handmade Italian piano as part of the plan to establish the Klavierhause Piano Conservatory. The council entered into a contract with Piano Culture Institutional Consultants at Klavierhaus "for the purchase of a Fazioli Pianoforti F-228 (photo below) to enhance the Arts District Expansion Project."

The piano retails for $140,000, according to City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier, but the city will pay $90,000, with "another source outside of the municipal tax base" that will contribute $5,000. The piano will be on loan to the Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) and can be moved for performances at the planned amphitheater as well as the arts center.

The bank building adjacent to UCPAC (on the corner of Coach Street) will be retrofitted to house the Klavierhaus Piano Conservatory, which will offer a variety of recitals, lessons, performances and more "with special emphasis given to young people." The Edge art gallery nearby is being eyed for a satellite sales office for Klavier, where it could feature console pianos, according to Mayor James Kennedy.

A world-class piano brings an interesting component of a respectable art form, Kennedy said, and it shows that city is serious about the arts, especially to funders like the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

The piano will attract internationally renowned pianists that have chosen Fazioli pianos in concert halls, conservatories, theaters and recording studios to perform and record their performances for the public to attend, according to Pelissier. "This is one component that will be a tremendous asset for the UCPAC to provide for and make Rahway a distinct destination of the arts," he said.

A ceremony to celebrate the piano's arrival will be Sunday, Feb. 21, at 4 p.m. at the UPCAC Studio Theatre, featuring Russian-born pianist Vassily Primakov.

Asked how a $90,000 purchase for a piano could be justified as property taxes rise, Pelissier described it as an investment in the arts district and the city's overall redevelopment plans, not unlike the county's $6-million purchase and renovation of UCPAC, construction of the library and recreation center, and renovation of Train Station Plaza.

"Municipalities that have concert halls have testified that the monies that come in to their respective towns and cities are in the millions resulting from parking fees, spending in restaurants, etc.," Pelissier said. "In as much, as redevelopment has slowed down with the exception of a few projects, the arts initiatives set forth by the mayor will not only attract people to Rahway, it will continue to attract redevelopers to our city when the economic market returns. Our city will be ready."

'The Smoldering Hedge Fund' and Rahway

A fellow local blogger in Plainfield alerted me to a Fortune magazine story from several weeks ago. "The Smoldering Hedge Fund", a three-month-long investigative story details the troubles of Greenwich, Conn.-based Plainfield Asset Management. What's this got to do with Rahway?

P & F Management was founded in 2005 as a joint venture of Plainfield Asset Management (PAM) and Glen Fishman of Lakewood-based Fishman Real Estate Enterprises. Fishman is managing partner with Dornoch Holdings, which is owned and operated by P & F Management. Dornoch had multiple projects in the works -- The Savoy (photo below), The Westbury -- and bought up several other properties downtown for millions at the height of the real estate boom in 2006 with plans for redevelopment. Dornoch also has a project in Plainfield.

Plainfield Asset Management once managed $5 billion but today oversees $3.3 billion, according to Fortune, and "has faced a wave of withdrawal requests, which it contained only by invoking a contract clause and refusing to let investors withdraw money." Of the $3.3 billion, $2.7 billion represents money from investors who weren't permitted to leave, and won't until 2012. As the Fortune story puts it, only $560 million managed by PAM is from people who "actually want the firm to run their money." The fund continues to charge investors management fees.

Without getting too much further into it, PAM is "fending off suits from borrowers," according to Fortune, and its "lending practices are now being examined by the New York City's district attorney." I encourage you to read the Fortune story in its entirety.

How does this all affect Dornoch's Rahway projects? It's unclear exactly but it can't possibly be good. I'd ask someone at Dornoch but the number to their Hillside offices has been disconnected maybe I'll pay them a visit. [Feb. 10 UPDATE: Since this original post, I was able to get through on the phone, if only to a maze of voicemail menus and greetings. So apparently the phone is not disconnected.]

Asked about the report in Fortune, Mayor James Kennedy said he never heard of P&F Management and doesn't know who Fishman's partners are, while City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said he was aware of a Holland-based hedge fund backing Dornoch.

'Eye candy' planned for downtown areas

A variety of public art will grace downtown areas as part of the plan to show that Rahway is "All About the Arts."

In a post-State of the City interview last month and a public presentation before the Redevelopment Agency last week, Mayor James Kennedy talked about murals and sculptures scattered around the downtown loop as part of an overall plan focusing on the arts. He described the visual arts piece as a complement to performing arts initiatives such as the amphitheater and black box theater planned for Hamilton Street and gallery space in the YMCA and Elizabethtown Gas building. The "eye candy," as the mayor describes it, is expected by mid-summer.

As examples, Kennedy noted the walkway connecting Main Street and the parking lot behind River Place as an ideal spot for a mural or a sculpture, in addition to some areas connecting Hotel Indigo to the Lewis Street parking deck. "The whole arts picture has been growing in many pieces that ultimately is coming together now," he said.

A committee will determine about two dozen quirky spots downtown for sculptures, which then would be cataloged into a booklet for a sort of sculpture garden. The city would be responsible for the footings but artists would cover the cost of their own sculptures. "The advantage to artists is not that they're paying for their own sculpture but the advantage is that it gives them exposure and exhibition space," Kennedy said.

Another program will copy what was done in Ithaca, N.Y., where The Sagan Planet Walk at Sciencenter pays homage to the Rahway native and noted Cornell astronomer. A scale model of the solar system would station planets at specific locations between City Hall and the Arts Guild. The program also would incorporate the high school physics program, the mayor said, while the educational piece would include brass descriptions of the technical data about the size and composition of planets. The sculptures would be to scale so some might be as small as a tennis ball while others might be much larger.

"The neat thing is that it brings a sense of community, it's a something-to-do kind of thing," Kennedy said, adding that these initiatives aim to create a pleasant atmosphere but also catch the attention of passersby.

A third aspect of the visual arts piece is a window treatment program like one that was done for the Carriage City Plaza sales office. People looking into the windows can see the image or art while those on the inside can clearly see outside. Rather than have paper covering up vacant storefronts, Kennedy said the city also is trying to encourage empty stores to allow the space for use by artists until they are leased.

Recent studies paint bleak picture for the arts

Two items got my attention recently that are relevant to Rahway given the mayor's plans to make it "All About the Arts."

The first National Arts Index released last month by Americans for the Arts indicated that while the "number of arts organizations increased rapidly over a recent 10-year span, the percentage of people attending arts events declined." Here's The Washington Post's take on the study. Among the points that jumped out to me:

"'Audience demand has failed to keep pace' with this boom in opportunities for arts participation, said Randy Cohen, the vice president for local arts advancement at the Americans for the Arts. 'There is a new arts organization created every three hours.' Straitened financial circumstances and audience drift are issues that have been festering for years, and the recent recession didn't help."

It's worth the quick read and is a national look at what nj.com examined in Sunday's story, "Recession devastates N.J. nonprofit arts scene," that details some of the deficits faced by theaters and museums around the state:

"Ticket sales were down, donations plummeted, state funds were slashed and investments tanked, creating a state of continuous crisis for the state’s theaters, museums, orchestras and arts centers. And that pain spread out into communities like Red Bank, New Brunswick, Millburn and Newark. These downtowns rely on arts patrons to spend money in their restaurants and shops. Fewer performances and smaller audiences hurt more than just the theaters’ bottom line."

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Here's an abbreivated report on last month's green building meeting between the Environmental Commission and Planning Board.

Plans for Hamilton Street arts projects to be presented to City Council Monday night

The City Council will get a presentation Monday night on the plans for the Hamilton Street arts projects. A similar presentation was made to the Redevelopment Agency at its meeting tonight.

The governing body is scheduled to introduce an $8.5-million bond ordinance Monday for construction of an amphitheater at the former Hamilton Laundry site (photo, right), and renovation of the former Bell Telephone Building into a dance studio and black box theater. The ordinance also would cover funding for the future acquisition of the Elizabethtown Gas building at the corner of Hamilton Street and Central Avenue, according to City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier.

The bond ordinance will supplement $3 million already borrowed for work related to the Hamilton Street projects. A follow-up presentation will take place during the public hearing and final adoption of the bond ordinance, scheduled for the City Council's March 8 regular meeting. Pelissier said the design option that was selected was the most expensive, but meetings with the Rahway Arts District board will continue and alternatives can be considered. "We need to take a look and see that we need what was requested," he said.

The amphitheater will seat between 1,000 and 1,300, and the black box theater about 22o. The plan is to go out to bid this summer and award contracts by September. Construction would begin in October and last about nine months, allowing for operation by sometime in summer 2011.

Concerts the clear choice for arts center

So judging by the most recent blog poll, y'all want concerts at the Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC).

The question becomes what kinds of concerts are you most interested in? Obviously, UCPAC has plenty of concerts throughout the season, but what kinds of concerts would you prefer? There's also the question of what two voters consider to be "other." Magic shows?

With now more than 250 readers subscribing by email and the average number of daily visitors creeping toward 200, I thought for sure we'd hit triple digits on the number of votes. After posting it, I realized I could've been a little more creative and added more options. I blame myself mostly; I just copied what we used in the last UCPAC poll. We could have added some other offerings, like kids' shows or dance, for instance.

"What would you like to see at the Union County Performing Arts Center?"
Concerts, 43 percent (22/51 votes)
Comedy, 23 percent (12/51)
Movies, 19 percent (10/51)
Plays/Musicals, 9 percent (5/51)
Other, 4 percent (2/51)

Results weren't radically different from when we asked this poll question two years ago, but for about twice as many votes and a more decisive margin for concerts.

Happy hour: Friday, Feb. 26 at Flynn's

As kind and benevolent dictator of this fine blog, I hereby decree that the next Rahway Rising happy hour will be Friday, Feb. 26 at Flynn's Irish Pub, 1482 Main St. Let's say, 6-ish?

Thanks to readers who offered their suggestions in comments and emails on where to meet. We decided to keep it downtown but rotate the location, and since we were at The Waiting Room the last time, we'll just sashay over to Main Street.

We had a nice turnout in November and I hope to see some more readers who couldn't make it the first time around. Come meet your neighbors and fellow Rahway Rising readers -- see you there!