Tag Archives: Irving Street

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Settlement reached on Carriage City

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The Redevelopment Agency last night approved a settlement with Carriage City Properties (CCP) that will allow the developer to continue to rent unsold units at the 16-story condo/hotel.

CCP has sold about 57 units and began marketing vacant units for rent as early as last fall. Five are occupied by tenants and the city has issued 76 temporary Certificates of Occupancy in all at the 222-unit complex.

The two sides have been in discussions since the Agency declared CCP in default of its redevelopment agreement two months ago.

Here’s a summary of the settlement:
* CCP will execute a note and mortgage to secure the outstanding $2,285,250 in development fees and purchase price payments. The agency will get 10 percent of rent from each rented unit, which will be deducted from the $13,850 development fee until the unit is sold, at which time CCP will pay the balance. There are 165 remaining units.

* Infrastructure improvements, namely the East Milton Avenue and Irving Street realignment, cost approximately $1 million, of which CCP was liable for $368,562. The agency accepted CCP’s offer of $150,000, to be released immediately.

* Professional fees of $19,913 and water connection fees of $71,981 owed by CCP will be paid no later than April 1, 2010.

* Construction permit violations totaling $168,000 will be waived upon abatement of all issues identified by the city’s construction official.

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5/17 UPDATED: Between the intersection improvements and construction penalties waived upon correction, CCP got about 15 percent knocked off what it owed in total. City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier described that as “small to the potential of a bankrupt redeveloper,” adding that the site pays almost $1 million in property taxes. Meanwhile, construction penalties usually are waived if violations are corrected as a matter of business, with the point to get conformance and have the building safe for occupancy.

Many builders, renters and retailers are trying to renegotiate contracts to stay solvent, he said. “This is no different. The RRA and the city need to work together with redevelopers and sometimes although not popular with the critics public improvements not private improvements have to be paid for by the taxpayer to receive acceptable returns.” While CCP has taken a lot of heat for not adhering to the redeveloper’s agreement, Pelissier said, they did complete construction.

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Settlement discussions with Carriage City

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City officials are in discussions with Carriage City Properties to resolve their dispute over payments related to Sky View at Carriage City Plaza. The Redevelopment Agency claims almost a half-million dollars is owed by Carriage City while the developer has threatened bankruptcy.

Declared in default of their agreements last month by the Parking Authority and Redevelopment Agency, Carriage City Properties had about 30 days, until April 8, to rectify the situation or they could be taken to court. Redevelopment Agency attorney Frank Regan said after Tuesday’s City Council meeting that any litigation is essentially on hold as they discuss a resolution.

According to written correspondence between the two sides, the Redevelopment Agency is claiming Carriage City Properties has not paid fees of about $458,000 related to at least 11 condo sales ($74,250), reimbursement for professional costs ($15,351), and a “reasonable contribution” toward the cost of intersection improvements at East Milton Avenue and Irving Street ($368,562).

Carriage City has paid the agency $323,000 to date but has not received closing-related fees since December. Payments on the 11 units ($74,250) would push them over the deferred $331,194 threshold set last summer and revert to the full $11,750 fee per unit owed the agency upon each closing. About 58 units have closed and appeared in tax records while the agency claims that fees have been paid for only 47 units.

According to that same letter, Carriage City has expressed concerns about the Redevelopment Agency’s financial ability, requested the agency’s audits for the past three years, and has “repeatedly stated in meetings with city and agency officials that it cannot meet its financial obligations and may lose the hotel flag and have to file for bankruptcy,” Regan wrote.

Representatives of Carriage City Properties/Silcon have not returned my email messages in months, but in this report last week its president of real estate suggested an unspecified change in the redevelopment agreement proposed by the city last year. He also claimed city officials turned down an offer to meet late last month to resolve the situation and that they have more in escrow than what the city claims it’s owed, according to the report.

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Apartments, Arts District, Downtown

Park Square aiming for June occupancy

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In case you haven’t been to the Park Square Web site of late, it’s been updated to reflect a planned June 2009 occupancy. Previous timelines had pegged October 2008 and March 2009 for residential occupancy at the four-story, 159-unit rental development.

It’s been about a year since brick work was started on the Irving Street facade and construction of the Main Street side began. The photo above was taken Sunday, and you can see the streetscape work continuing up to the corner of Elizabeth Avenue. You’ll recall the first tenant was signed for the first-floor Irving Street retail space earlier this year.

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Park Square signs first commercial lease

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The first commercial space at Park Square is spoken for. Eyes on You, an optometrist, has signed a five-year lease and will occupy about 1,800 square feet along Irving Street near Elizabeth Avenue.

The buildout is under way and occupancy could come by May, according to Matt Dobrolowski, the listing agent for Park Square.

As for the remaining 4,000-plus square feet for the ground floor at Park Square, Dobrolowski said there have been “on-again, off-again” discussions with a “small, franchise cafe” that could still happen.
For some perspective on progress at the site, at left is a photo taken late last March. The inspiration for that photo (and a continuing series of the same) came from Harvey Keitel’s character in the movie “Smoke,” who snaps a photo from the same spot outside his Brooklyn smoke shop every month for many years. Not quite the same, I’ll admit, but taking a photo every few weeks from the same corner does offer some perspective.

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A new poll is up and available. Thanks to all who offered their nominees for this month’s question. If you don’t see your favorite on the list, just select “Other” and feel free to use the comments section to specify who that might be.

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New retail agent at Carriage City

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It looks like Carriage City Plaza has a new leasing agent. Paramus-based The Goldstein Group moved into the ground-floor of the East Milton Avenue corner of the building several weeks ago.

No word from Silcon/Carriage City about what happened to the steakhouse — an unnamed “New Jersey institution” — that was in the works a year ago for that area. I’m sure you all have your guesses.

The dry cleaners at Carriage City has opened but it appears unlikely that Cuppy’s Coffee will move in next door (though Goldstein does label the space that way in their site plan). There remains a building permit on the front door of Cuppy’s — dated earlier this month — indicating alterations to the space for a “Mr. G’s.”

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Of artists and jetpacks

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A couple of non-redevelopment news items over the last few days:

* A Star-Ledger “I Am New Jersey” profile of local artist Marcel Truppa on Friday. It must have been about a year ago when I made my first visit during one of the First Thursdays events and it was evident, as one person put it in the Ledger profile, “he’s absolutely a local treasure.” If you’ve never been to his downtown studio on Irving Street, it’s worth the trip, whether it’s stories about his art or living in Rahway.

* A Wall Street Journal piece about jetpacks on Monday that included a Rahway environmental engineer who’s been building one in his basement for the last decade or so.

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I got a suggestion for a new poll question: “If you were desperate for a cheeseburger, where in Rahway would you go?” It follows our culinary theme among poll questions which seem to be the most popular. We have some ideas but to try to avoid leaving out any potential vote-getters (as we did with the pizza poll), we’ll accept some “nominees” this week to be included in the poll; email suggestions or use the comments section below.

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Progress on Park Square streetscape

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It looks like there’s some progress along Irving Street in front of Park Square, as concrete has begun to be poured for a new sidewalk.

Occupancy at the 159-unit rental development doesn’t look like it will be “early 2009” as reported earlier. There’s almost 7,000 square feet of retail space planned along the Irving Street side of the four-story complex. Landmark Companies of Keasbey has been in discussions as early as last summer with an optometrist and coffee/tea house.

It’ll be interesting to see what rental prices will be once they finally are occupied. Originally planned for a fall 2008 opening, Park Square rents ranged from $1,600 to $2,375 but that was before Sky View entered the leasing market at $1,250 a month.

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