Tag Archives: Redevelopment Agency

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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Uncategorized

Other developers presented with Savoy project

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The administration is working with undisclosed developers in an attempt to have The Savoy property purchased from Wachovia bank, according to City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier.

Mayor James Kennedy is working with the bank and Dornoch about a possible purchase of the Main Street property, Pelissier said during a Redevelopment Agency meeting earlier this month. While it may not look like anything is going on at the site, he added, they’re “aggressively working with developers to move forward.”

The city plans to repair the sidewalk and move the fence back along the Main Street frontage of The Savoy, according to Pelissier. Whoever ends up doing the project will reimburse the city for the sidewalk work, he added.

Homes By Maplewood apparently has an updated Web site which no longer now lists The Savoy as “Coming Soon” but no longer The Lofts as it once did on our Local Links to the right, the leased apartments at the corner of Irving and East Cherry streets. It still mentions P&F Management’s “urban division is currently developing residential communities,” in among other places, Rahway.

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City Council

Redevelopment Agency considers parking options for future amphitheater

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The planned amphitheater on Hamilton Street is expected to break ground this fall and be completed in about a year. When the amphitheater and adjacent black box theater opens, where will patrons of the facilities park? City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier raised the issue to the Redevelopment Agency during its monthly meeting last week, initiating a discussion among commissioners about future parking options.

Among those discussed as possibilities were:
* Constructing a five- to six-story parking deck near the corner of West Main Street and Elizabeth Avenue;
* Building a deck at the property currently occupied by Cambridge Courts apartments (above) on West Main Street; and,
* Razing the four homes on Hamilton Street between the Bell Building and the amphitheater site for surface parking or a future parking facility.

Pelissier estimated the third option could provide 50 to 80 surface parking spaces and the agency also could pursue a future parking facility for the site. Construction of a parking deck is expensive (~$20,000/space) and buying the homes might be less expensive but just a matter of dealing with multiple property owners, he added.

One suggestion raised last week that was quickly shot down was pursuing a lease with St. Mark’s Church across the street from the amphitheater site. Redevelopment Agency Commissioner Timothy Nash, who sits on the St. Mark’s Church finance committee, told the agency in no uncertain terms that the church property on Hamilton Street is not for sale and will not be decided for at least 18 months. St. Mark’s — not the archdiocese — owns the church property. (St. Mark’s is slated to merge with St. Mary’s Church on Central Avenue, as per directions from the Archdiocese of Newark.)

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Arts District, City Council, Downtown

Council approves Hamilton Street arts projects

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With at least one proponent invoking the mythical tale of Prometheus, more than a dozen speakers, including labor union representatives, artists and school officials, last night spoke in favor of borrowing $8.5 million for construction of the Hamilton Street arts projects. Two residents questioned the cost and benefit to city taxpayers.

The City Council last night unanimously approved an $8.5-million bond ordinance to build a 1,100-seat amphitheater (above) at the former Hamilton Laundry site and to renovate the Bell Building (below) to house a black box theater. One speaker after the next noted that the amphitheater project is part of the city’s continuing investment in the Arts District and the overall vision for the arts to drive redevelopment, remaking the city as a destination. (Here’s The Star-Ledger‘s take on last night’s meeting.)

The council last night also unanimously approved ordinances to shift management of the Special Improvement District funds to the Rahway Arts District and to negotiate the purchase of 52 E. Cherry St. from the Rahway Center Partnership.

Construction of the amphitheater is still on schedule to begin this fall, City Engineer James Housten told the Redevelopment Agency last week. Remediation of the soil can begin now that a case manager has been assigned by the state for the city’s Brownfields sites. Most all of the soil has been contaminated with fluids used in dry cleaning, he said, adding that it can either be trucked away or mixed with chemicals on site to remediate.

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Bars, Commercial, Downtown, restaurants, Retail

Irving St. restaurant slowed by sewer fee dispute

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A dispute over sewer connection fees apparently is holding up development of an Irving Street restaurant and bar.

City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier told commissioners Wednesday night he was told by partners in the Station Bar & Grill that they could not do the project if they had to pay the city’s total calculation. The city doesn’t want to stop the project, he added, but is willing to work within the confines of the ordinance.

The calculation for the connection fee range, set by city ordinance, is based on a property’s historic data and previous occupants. The amount the developers want to pay, according to Pelissier, is about a quarter of the calculation by the city’s construction official. The developers, he added, have shared their calculation with the city and what they think they should be charged.

The Planning Board approved a minor site plan for the 6,900-square-foot project last June.

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In case you somehow haven’t yet heard about “Rahway’s snow babe,” it first appeared Saturday via CNN’s iReport, before getting picked up in Wednesday’s Star-Ledger, and then on and on.

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City Council

Final approval for amphitheater funding Monday

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The City Council is scheduled to vote next Monday night to borrow $8.5 million for three projects planned within the city’s Arts District. A public hearing is scheduled during the council’s regular meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m. (Click on the image above to enlarge to full screen.)

The ordinance would cover the cost of construction of the 1,000-seat amphitheater; renovation of the Bell Building for a 200-seat black box theater; acquisition of the Elizabethtown Gas building, and acquisition of related arts equipment. The city already has bonded about $3 million for earlier site work and acquisitions, including $2 million to purchase the former Hamilton Laundry building for the amphitheater. The gas building is eyed for a co-operative gallery space, and an adjacent property for artist housing. “It will add a true presence of artists living and working in town,” said Mayor James Kennedy.

The Hamilton Street arts projects aim to become self-sustaining, between naming rights and fee- and non-fee based programming, to pay off the debt, according to City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier. They will feature a different type and level of programming than the Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC), the mayor said.

One of the four 2-1/2 story homes between the Bell Building and former Hamilton Laundry site is scheduled to be demolished this spring. Ultimately, the four remaining homes will be acquired and razed to provide more parking for the area, according to Kennedy, ideally within two years.

The site is ideally tailored by the river for an amphitheater, according to Michael Farewell of Princeton-based Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects. “It’s hard to find a better site for an amphitheater,” he said during a presentation to the Redevelopment Agency last month. The project will include stabilizing the bank in the natural curve of the river. The structure, he said, must be designed to withstand floods as well as being exposed to the elements while the lower area of the amphitheater will have removable seating. The only part of the site not within the flood plain is the Bell Building itself, according to City Engineer James Housten

Housten said remediation should take place over the next four to six months. The city, he added, already has a $500,000 state grant for investigation and remediation will be done through the state Brownfield Development Area funding.

If the UCPAC is ever going to be successful, the city must be able to accommodate 800 to 1,000 people with a 400- to 500-space parking deck closer to the arts center, the mayor said. The city is looking at two potential sites for a parking structure: the corner of Elizabeth Avenue and Main Street and the Cambridge Court Apartments on Main Street.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the council is scheduled to give final approval on an ordinance that would shift management of the Special Improvement District from the Rahway Center Partnership to the Arts District board.

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City Council

City moves to buy Beverage Shop building

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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.

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