Tag Archives: parking

City Council

Alternate parking plan for Water’s Edge

1 Comment

Almost two dozen more spaces will be constructed under an alternate parking plan to accommodate the 108-unit Meridia Water’s Edge project. The developer, Capodagli Property Company, will pay $25,000 for 3,700 square feet (in red on this accompanying map) to build spaces for the rental project, in addition to constructing 22 spaces (in green on the map) for use by the Rahway River Condominium Association.

The 22 spaces will be created along the levee in the outdoor parking lot adjacent to the library building, which is owned by the condo association. The Redevelopment Agency, which is a 50-percent owner of the association along with Rahway Office Center, approved the sale of the property at its meeting last week. The City Council is scheduled to introduce an ordinance next week that would grant an easement to allow construction on city property.

The $25,000 sale price was based on the sale of land for the five-story Water’s Edge project. The Water’s Edge plan that gained approval proposed the use of 21 existing parking spots out of the roughly 160 spaces, which the newly created spaces will replace, along with 87 spaces on the ground floor below apartments.

The condo association needs the parking for future tenants of the commercial space above the library and could not provide for parking related to Water’s Edge unless additional parking would be provided and paid for by the developer, according to Redevelopment Director and City Administrator Peter Pelissier. “The intent is to have a zero loss of spaces for the condo association while providing the spaces needed by Meridia, at no cost to the condo association.”

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

Arts District, Downtown

Hamilton Stage coming along

1 Comment
Work is coming along on the Hamilton Stage for Performing Arts with walls recently going up to cover most of the steel. The $5.825-million project is slated to be complete by next spring.

Continue reading Hamilton Stage coming along →

Arts District, Downtown, Parking, Redevelopment Agency

Contract awarded for Hamilton Street parking

1 Comment

Two months after rejecting bids for the amphitheater parking lot project, the Redevelopment Agency awarded a $1.1-million contract to Gingerelli Bros at its meeting earlier this month. Berto Construction submitted a bid of $1.6 million. Bids were received July 29.

A pre-construction meeting is scheduled for next week, City Engineer James Housten said, after which construction should begin, including work on drainage, stream bank stabilization, curbing and lighting foundations. Work is expected to be completed in conjunction with renovations of the Hamilton Stage, which is expecting to be finished in the spring. Toms River-based Gingerelli Bros. also is the firm that was awarded the $5.825-million contract for the Hamilton Stage.

The Redevelopment Agency early this year decided to delay building the amphitheater and instead build about 115 parking spaces in the interim.

***

The center stairs of the inbound platform of Rahway Train Station finally opened today, approximately 18 months after they were closed for repairs. 18 months. NJ Transit also issued an advisory this week that as part of repairs to the elevator on the outbound platform (which are expected to last until early next month), travelers will not be able to use the sidewalk to the corner of Milton Avenue and Broad Street from Monday to Thursday of next week due to the installation of a pump and tank next to the pedestrian tunnel.

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

Rahway

Irene leaves her mark

3 Comments

Few places in Rahway were spared from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene this past week. The heaving banks of the Rahway River and Milton Lake spilled out onto streets, leaving the Veterans Field underwater, felling trees along St. Georges Avenue and elsewhere.

Former Mayor James Kennedy, now executive director of the Arts District, thought the Hamilton Stage for the Performing Arts, now under construction, “fared well” (photo above). The 4 inches of water on the platform “more than likely would not have had the opportunity to enter the building if it were all closed in,” he said via email. “I’m not concerned about the water here. The houses to the left, facing the building, really need to be removed; but the building will be fine,” Kennedy said.

The plan is to eventually acquire the remaining homes and create parking for Hamilton Stage and the adjacent amphitheater (photo left). Due to the rising costs of the arts projects, however, interim parking will take the space of the amphitheater for the time being.

Having grown up on the corner of River Road and Church Street, Kennedy said he’d never seen a storm this bad but is confident that more mitigation will occur upstream in the future.

For more images of flooding throughout Rahway, see our Facebook page, where we’ve shared quite a few compilations from readers. Thanks to everyone who shared their great photos!

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

Arts District, Parking, Rahway

Bids rejected for interim parking at theater site

Leave a comment

The Redevelopment Agency rejected two bids for construction of interim parking at the site of the proposed Hamilton Street amphitheater. A new bid could be awarded by next month.

The two bidders — Berto Construction and Gingerelli Bros. — were about $500,000 apart, one reason why they were rejected, according to City Engineer James Housten, though seven contractors purchased bid packets. (Gingerelli Bros. earlier this year was awarded the $5.825-million bid for the Hamilton Stage project at the Bell Building.)

When the Redevelopment Agency decided several months ago to put the amphitheater on hold and instead build an interim parking lot at the Hamilton Street site, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) determined that a different permit would be required, Housten said. Meetings with state officials, however, have led to a more favorable recommendation, he said, with the process and cost to a less than if the agency had followed the DEP’s original edict and see another permit.

Part of the bid included removing remediated soil, which Housten said will be tested and determined exactly what it contains and how much there is. That process might provide for less expensive bids when the project goes out to bid next week. He hopes to have a resolution to award a new contract at the agency’s August meeting.

Early this year, the Redevelopment Agency decided to delay building the amphitheater and instead construct an interim parking lot to accommodate the Hamilton Stage. Commissioners also held off on acquiring three remaining homes on Hamilton Street that were slated to eventually become parking areas.

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

Apartments, Arts District, Downtown, Zoning Board

Zoning Board approves senior housing

Leave a comment
With virtually the same application presented in January that raised concerns about neighborhood parking, a senior housing facility was approved by the Zoning Board of Adjustment last month.

Continue reading Zoning Board approves senior housing →

City Council

Interim parking coming soon to Lot B

Leave a comment

The City Council tonight awarded a $30,000 contract for the construction of an interim parking lot on Main Street, which should be completed within several weeks.

Matawan-based Esposito Construction was awarded the contract in the amount of $29,652.95. Funds for the interim lot were included within a $200,000 bond ordinance also approved tonight that also will fund demolition of 65 E. Cherry St. and installation of a fence around The Savoy site at Main and Monroe streets. Mounds of asphalt millings have been staged at the site for the resurfacing, which must be completed in time for next month’s Hot Rods & Harleys event, according to Redevelopment Director and City Administrator Peter Pelissier.

The interim lot is expected to add about 100 spaces to the existing 65, which the Parking Authority will lease from Dornoch Holdings — the developer which originally proposed to build The Westbury — for $1 annually in exchange for property taxes on the site being waived. The idea for an interim lot was proposed in fall 2009 when it became clear the mixed-used development wasn’t coming online anytime soon. [Link in italics added 4/16]

***

An advisory issued last week by NJ Transit indicated that construction of the center stairs at the train station — which have been closed for a year — is expected to begin in “mid-April.”

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

Uncategorized

Appraisers’ report expected this month

Leave a comment

An appraiser’s report should be completed by the end of March so the City Council and Redevelopment Agency will know how much additional money will be needed to acquire three remaining homes adjacent to the Bell building, according to Redevelopment Director and City Administrator Peter Pelissier.

The Redevelopment Agency awarded a contract in January to Prime Appraisal of Woodbridge to appraise the three remaining properties between the amphitheater site and the Bell building that it hasn’t yet acquired.

At its meeting this month, where Pelissier briefed commissioners, the Redevelopment Agency awarded a $32,900 contract to Frank Lurch Demolition Co., LLC, of Avon By the Sea for 324-326 Hamilton St. The 2 1/2-story, multifamily home was purchased last summer by the Redevelopment Agency for $240,000. The agency bought the first of the five homes along Hamilton Street in March 2009 for $340,000 and razed it last year.

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();