Tag Archives: Wheatena

Wheatena

Interest in Wheatena site

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City officials were scheduled to meet last week with a developer interested in the former Wheatena site.

File photos

City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier told the Redevelopment Agency last week that he and Redevelopment Agency attorney Frank Regan were scheduled to meet with American Properties last Thursday. The company, which has several developments around the state, previously had expressed interest in the property, according to Pelissier.

Matzel & Mumford recently terminated a redevelopment agreement for the 8-acre parcel at the corner of Elizabeth and West Grand avenues, where it once had planned as many as 300 units before scaling back to 130 units and ultimately dropping the project.

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Wheatena

‘It’s time to knock it down’

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City construction and health officials will determine what it will take to raze the building on the former Wheatena property at Elizabeth and West Grand avenues.

“It’s time to knock it down,” said City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier. The five-story building is structurally sound but has numerous broken windows, sustained recent storm damage, and is known to have “feet of pigeon droppings,” he said. Pelissier expects the Health Department can find grounds for demolition.

The developer, Matzel & Mumford, had asked the city not to pursue demolition previously so as not to interfere with efforts to acquire the property, Pelissier said. The trustee of the property and the developer have not been able to come to terms for acquisition but he suggested demolition might encourage the two sides to get together. Demolition could cost at least a half-million dollars, he added.

A K. Hovnanian Company, Matzel & Mumford have plans for a 130-unit condo complex at the former Wheatena and Quinn & Boden sites.

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Wheatena

Wheatena developers working on new timeline

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The city is working with developers to update a redevelopment study for the former Wheatena property and come up with a new timeline for the 130-unit project.

Redevelopment Agency Attorney Frank Regan provided a report to commissioners during their meeting earlier this month and said an amended redevelopment agreement, with a revised timeline, should be completed in 30 to 60 days.

Early this year, developers Matzel & Mumford concluded the 130-unit Carriage Park at Rahway was “economically infeasible” at this time but were still committed to it.

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The Union County Performing Arts Center recently added two shows that you might consider a little more high profile than usual: Popular ’90s band Rusted Root on May 21 and comedian Brad Garrett (the brother from Everybody Loves Raymond) on June 13. What do you think? An improvement?

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Apartments, Downtown

Irving St. side of Park Square 90% leased

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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.

 

Continue reading Irving St. side of Park Square 90% leased →

Apartments, Wheatena

Wheatena project ‘economically infeasible’

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Developers of the proposed 130 units at the former Wheatena/Quinn & Boden facilities on Elizabeth Avenue want to build the project — just not in this real estate market.

Redevelopment Agency attorney Frank Regan emphasized to commissioners at their meeting Wednesday night that Matzel & Mumford is still committed to the project as approved but could not sell the condos for what they needed to. The city will continue to update the redevelopment study for that redevelopment area, which they hired an consultant for last fall, funded by Matzel & Mumford.

Market conditions, “coupled with the continued unrealistic expectations of the property owners within the redevelopment area, as well as other prohibitive costs and constraints have, unfortunately, rendered this project economically infeasible at this time,” wrote Carl Erler, attorney for Matzel & Mumford, in a Dec. 4 letter to City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier.

A market study for Matzel & Mumford by East Brunswick-based Otteau Valuation Group in November pegged the average overall selling price at $294,000, with condos ranging from 1,646 to 2,306 square feet, with an average 2,041. Carriage Park at Rahway would consist of 72 “stacked” and 58 “traditional” townhouses. The plan was scaled down in 2007 from 300 units (264 condos/36 townhouses).

Representatives of Matzel & Mumford met last month with Mayor James Kennedy, Pelissier and Regan to discuss the timing of the project and current conditions of the real estate market.

“We have a significant amount invested in this project and we remain confident that the project will be viable when the market conditions improve,” Erler said in his letter.

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MyCentralJersey.com had a writeup of tomorrow’s First Thursday (Jan. 7), including an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Rahway Art Hive on East Cherry Street.

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Apartments, Redevelopment Agency, Wheatena

Wheatena developers meet with city

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Developers of the project proposed at the former Wheatena factory at Elizabeth and West Grand avenues are scheduled to meet with city officials this week.

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Uncategorized

More losses for builder

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Hovnanian Enterprises — the parent company of Matzel & Mumford, developers of the Wheatena site on Elizabeth and Grand avenues — reported more bad news from the last quarter.

The Rahway Redevelopment Agency last year accepted a revised concept for the former oatmeal factory site adjacent to the railroad tracks and Rahway River Park. Instead of the 264 condominium flats and 36 townhouses, M&M plans 130 townhouse units with clubhouse amenities. (The image above is from the city’s Web site).

Negotiations with the largest property owner have been going on for an extended period of time, according to Redevelopment Agency attorney Frank Regan, with the sticking point being environment issues. “The environmental issues are not nearly as bad as all had expected,” he said at last week’s RRA meeting, so some concessions are being sought from the property owners.

City Administrator/Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier mentioned at a previous RRA meeting that the project could be done in phases, starting with the parking lots.

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Apartments, Arts District, Downtown, Rahway, Wheatena

On tap for 2008: Park Square, Sky View

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Nothing Earth-shattering in the mayor’s State of the City address last night. The new year should bring with it the completion of Park Square and Sky View at Carriage City Plaza, which includes a Hotel Indigo. Mayor James Kennedy pledged that downtown redevelopment efforts would continue to see progress this year, despite a downturn in the national economy as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis.
The largest portion of the mayor’s nine-minute remarks focused on a new billing method for sewage. He expects the city’s assessment from the Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority (RVSA) to increase from $3.6 million in Fiscal Year 2007 to $6.1 million in FY 2010, or almost 70 percent in the next three years.
Speaking of the subprime mortgage mess, what effect has it had on Rahway’s plans? I happened to pose that question to City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier just last month, after reading about Asbury Park’s problems, and one Hoboken developer switching condo projects to rentals because of the housing market.
Pelissier said the city hasn’t been adversely affected by the real estate market — in terms of redevelopment — and rattled off an update on a number of projects:
* Park Square (rentals) has made plans to take out permits for the second building, which will face Main Street.
* Dornoch I (Main and Monroe streets) has taken out permits for The Savoy (36 units for purchase with 7,000 square feet of retail).
* Station Place (Five stories, with 80 units and 132 parking spaces, on Campbell Street between Elm and Cherry, for purchase) is still in the process of acquiring properties and relocating the main tenant, A&M Tool Co.
* Wheatena (Elizabeth and West Grand avenues) has requested assistance on the acquisition of properties for its 200-unit project (for purchase).
* Renaissance at Rahway, 72 units with underground parking, also requested assistance of the Redevelopment Agency to acquire the remaining three properties necessary to control the site (Triangle Inn area on Monroe Street). Five of the eight properties necessary are under contract.
* The Town Center project in the City Hall area is still being discussed, and the potential developer is negotiating with retailers as well as the property owners on the site. “As you can imagine this project is complex and will take some time to coordinate all the components of a project this size,” Pelissier said.
If a developer wanted to convert a condo project to rentals, as in some towns, the developer would have to come before the Redevelopment Agency again for approval, he said.
“Each week developers contact the mayor or myself inquiring as to the possibilities of developing in Rahway,” Pelissier said. “Also take a look around the downtown area, properties are being improved in the Arts District as well as throughout the downtown. This points out the small investor continues to believe in the future of Rahway as well as the larger developers.”
The mayor also mentioned that City Council has authorized demolition of the Hamilton Laundry site. I’ll have an update and potential timeline on that later this week.

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