The garage adjoins the mostly empty Red Bank Corporate Plaza on West Front Street.

Fulfilling the terms of a five-year-old deal with the borough government, the owner of the Red Bank Corporate Plaza will make the parking garage at the facility available to the public during off hours, for a fee.

The deal was formalized by the Red Bank council Monday night. Mack-Cali Corp. of Edison owns the site.

Though the lot won’t be open during regular business hours, Mayor Pasquale Menna said the move will open up about 150 parking spots “for what is a peak period” when the Count Basie Theatre holds major events.

He said theater patrons would be directed to the facility to reduce the number of cars trolling nearby residential neighborhoods in search of street parking.

“This would be of substantial benefit to the borough,” he said.

The garage, located about two blocks from the theater, is part of an office-and-stores complex that was envisioned in better economic times. Homebuilder Hovnanian Enterprises, which built it’s own corporate HQ across West Front Street from the site, was to have occupied all 88,000 square feet of office space in the four-story project. But shrinkage in its business prompted Hovnanian to put 66,000 square feet of that space up for sublet in early 2007, according to an industry report.

No stores have yet opened at the site.

Here’s the resolution: Download 08-152.pdf

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