The exterior is just about finished at Union Street Village. But as indicated by the’ sample’ list of residents in the intercom, the eight condo units as well as a commercial space remain vacant.
News that three players in Red Bank’s Union Street Village have been indicted for fraud leaves Red Bank facing a key question:
Will the project, which has already sat idle for almost two years, become a long-term white elephant now that the real estate market is plunging?
A Monmouth County Grand Jury last week indicted a Middletown building contractor, his fiancé and an Edison woman on charges of theft by deception and forgery in connection with what authorities say was a diversion of more than $2 million from the partnership that owned the site, at the corner of Union Street and Wharf Avenue.
The victims: Patricia and Neil Malloy, the longtime owners of the Olde Union House restaurant, which the condo project replaced.
According to the indictment, 53-year-old general contractor Timothy Hurst, a frequent patron of the Olde Union House, proposed the project to the Malloys and came to control its finances after Amboy National Bank of Old Bridge loaned $6.8 million toward its completion. The loan was secured by the property and the restaurant’s liquor license.
But questions arose about 14 months ago after Hurst told the Malloys the project had experienced cost overruns. An investigation led to evidence that Hurst and his 50-year-old girlfriend, Laurie Quinn, were building a house on Pine Street in Middletown with funds that had been diverted from the project.
From a press release issued by Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin on Friday:
According to the Asbury Park Press, lawyers for each of the accused said they were innocent of the charges.
“Unfortunately, the corporation in question, like so many corporations in this day and age, went bad and any disputes involving funds are civil in nature and absolutely, unequivocally not criminal,” said Hurst’s attorney, Mitchell J. Ansell, Oceanport.
Quinn’s attorney, Michael D’Alessio of Roseland, said his client built a new house but had no knowledge whether any of the money to do so came from the Village Street partnership.
“Any check she received from Hurst, from him personally or the LLC, was his contribution to joint expenses of living together,” said D’Alessio, who also denied his client had access to a company credit card.
Rowe, who was released on her own recognizance after surrendering to the prosecutor’s officer Thursday, was merely doing her job when she signed what are now alleged to be forged checks, said her lawyer, Steven D. Cahn of Edison.
Hurst was freed on $100,000 bond; Quinn was released on a $25,000 bond, according to the Press.
redbankgreen was unable to locate the Malloys for comment.
The project has been in a state of near-completion for about two years. At one time, a sign outside claimed that two of the 8 units had been sold, but Monmouth County property records show no unit sales.
With views of Marine Park and the Navesink River, the project’s location is considered desirable for buyers willing to tolerate some urban challenges. Two bars are nearby, and the emergency room of Riverview Medical Center is across the street.
But the units carried pricetags that rivaled or even surpassed properties with actual waterfront access, private garages and entrances and other amenities.
One unit, for example, with two bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths, was originally priced at $2.15 million. A similar-sized unit with an 800-square-river-view deck could have been bought at the same time at the nearby Corinthian Cove, a gated community, for $1.3 million.
The asking price on the Union Street unit was later reduced to $1.3 million. But as rumors of a bankrutpcy swirled in recent months, brokers become reluctant to show the property. The project was sold to G.S. Realty, a unit of Amboy National, for $1 last July.
A check of bankruptcy court records shows no such filing for the project.
The 26,000-square-foot retail and residential development was approved in early 2005 by the borough planning board over the strenuous objections of preservationists. They said the restaurant was a link to the earliest commercial district in Red Bank, having been home to a hotel and tavern dating back to the early 19th century.
But an architectural historian for the developer claimed that those historic ties had been severed by a 1960s fire that destroyed the structure anything.
Here are the indictment and the prosecutor’s press release:
Dead Bank anyone?
This project much like the BLT one on Monmouth was the work of our excellent zoning and planning board. I have to admit that although the historic merits of the olde union house were debatable there is no excuse for reckless building of eyesore structures such as the one above. But the real question is how much will we the taxpayers now be swindled.
Always knew I smelt a rat in Hurst!
Ok what next - when is someone going to see who got what from whom and when for building this piece of Cr@p - Hopefully the accused will turn over and give some evidence (If there is any) because I smell a rat too! (and I should know what a rat smells like) nuff said!
We've heard it all before
We've been learning to ignore
You must confess this awful mess
Isn't just a bore
It's more than we could bear
But you don't really care
Kiss of live to save our life
All you do is stare
Sell yourself for cheap
Make our mothers weep
Loosing pride is hard to hide
And harder still to keep.
Yes I can see it now Please don't give our town away we've asked
The card game is becoming to come to an end. who will rollover first, who will cough up whatever guilty party's out there..
Another song comes to mind….."Wasn't me…..
I'm shocked. SHOCKED.
Its a nice building and would sell at the right price.
Guess it's a historical building now.
That is quite possibly the ugliest building I have ever seen.
pathetic. even if the olde union house was rebuilt in the 1960's, this project should have never been approved. 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s,…it's all history in the making and now we have to stare at this atrocious vacant building that was put up by greed. if red bank wants to keep the allure, it also needs to hold the history, architecture, and grounds the way we found them. what a sad sad story. RIP Olde Union House
so does this mean there is an available liquor license in town?(damn shame …that this is how it had 2 become available…..but really is it there???????)
justwondering makes a fair point about the liquor license….as this property goes down the foreclosure road, that license is about the only thing worth keeping. This is an ugly building, the zoning BS is an ugly process, and it is uglier still knowing that our sleepy town has about ten more condo projects in the works, to be built, or on paper plans. Have we not crossed the line already?
Hi if it gets foreclosed maybe the town can buy it for a buck and give it to the "Boys & Girls" Club. lmao
THE RBHPC AND PRESERVATION RED BANK FOUGHT TO SAVE THE SITE OVER 14 MONTHS AND LOST THE BATTLE. WE HAD A CHANCE AT REVERSING THE DECISION THROUGH APPEAL BUT PRB HAD DRAINED ALL ITS RESOURCES. WHEN DEMOLITION STARTED THE CONTRACTOR STRUCK UNDERGROUND SPRINGS A SIGN THAT BAD THINGS WERE HAPPENING FROM THE BEGINNING, THE FINISHED BUILDING REMINDED ME OF A LEGO SET THAT REPLACED A PIECE OF RED BANK HISTORY NEVER TO BE REPLICATED.
George–
Your Caps Lock key is stuck.
I was at several of the zoning/planning meetings re this project. The project principals and their reps were an arrogant and patronizing bunch and the bd members who were supposed to be representing us (the citizens of Red Bank) were very dismissive of PRB et al. This is another example of poor town management and the loss of one more place that made Red Bank unique. The outdoor restaurant behind the Union House was a great place to watch a storm come across the river. All we have now is overpriced condos and boutiques (and a hospital that multiplies like a bacteria when nobody is watching.) I'll take Dead Bank any day, it was an interesting and fun place to live.
AGENDA
RED BANK ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT
December 18, 2008
The Red Bank Zoning Board of Adjustment will hold its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, December 18, 2008, at 6:30 p.m. in the Municipal Building, first floor, Council Chambers, 90 Monmouth Street, Red Bank, New Jersey.
PUBLIC HEARINGS:
Siros of Monmouth, LLC, 120 Monmouth Street, Block 33, Lot 9.01 Z 8451 (continued)
Bifurcated application. Seeking use “d” variances for number of units on each floor (2 apartments permitted, 8 apartments proposed); number of apartments per building (4 apartments permitted, 24 apartments proposed); and floor area ratio (1.75 permitted, 2.25 proposed) to permit the demolition of an existing commercial building and construction of a mixed use building consisting of 6,000 sf of retail space and 24 condominium units. If the use “d’ variances are granted, applicant will seek site plan approval.BR-1 Zone.
I am shocked
Municipal land use regulation can be very complicated with Planning and Zoning Boards limited in their options by State Law and Municipal Ordinances.
It may also be time for Red Bank to take a hard look at its Master Plan to see if it reflects current realities in the use of land in the Borough.
Observer - the Master Plan is being reviewed - http://www.redbanknj.org/plan_agenda_121508.html
Lets just keep building condos. More and more condos. Thats what this town needs. That bulding is terrible. It represents everything that is wrong around here. By the way did anyone catch the additional floor that was added to the armory? They added another level. I was sent a letter saying they were making minor roof alterations. Minor?
This would have happened in dead bank
by far one of the ugliest buildings in monmouth county. the architect should be taken away in cuffs too. what a shame. how could this building be approved by all that were involved. money doesnt buy taste. its sooooooooo ugly.
c'mon yall love it to be controlled by political law firms and lawyers holding public office to grease the way for developmentr and lining the pockets of their law firms at the expense of the tax payers. Keep voting these little Neros who's alliances are the monopoly of little rome, fully supported by their golf buddy judges and crony realtors. Red BLank and Monmouth is the crown jewel of everything Obama is against. Bunch of slime balls attorneys with Nero complexes.
So when is the auction for these condos at penny's on the dollar going to be. They even closed up the garage, but like anyone who knows that part of red bank knows the underground springs are a mess, and that is going to mean huge maintenance fees for the owners of this mess. Since no one is there, maybe they can get it taken down and turned back into a nice little place to have dinner on a deck. That would be nice, and the right thing to do