216 Pine Place in Middletown.
A redbankgreen reader with a nose for financial hanky-panky calls our attention to a house for sale in the River Plaza section of Middletown.
Turns out this is the home built by two defendants in a pending $2 million fraud and forgery case. Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin’s office says $730,000 was diverted from the eight-unit Union Street Village condo project in downtown Red Bank to construction of the year-old house on Poricy Pond.
An open house was held over the weekend. Our intrepid reader emails us:
I live around the corner from Pine Place in Middletown. Yesterday I saw an open house for sale on 216 Pine Place. It was a beautiful new house decked out to the nines with views of Poricy pond, huge gourmet kitchen (four dishwashers, three frigs…), flat screens in every room, coy pond/waterfall, hot tub, sauna…
Two things stuck out: the price was just $950K, and why would someone build this huge house on pine place (a nice street but the house was at least twice the value of its neighbors)? The listing also states that the furnishings are also for sale.
The realtor said the couple was getting divorced. Something didn’t smell right so in searching around i found the story of the Hurst/Quinn fraud case (olde union house development
https://redbankgreen.com/redbankgreen/2008/12/fraud-at-red-ba.html ) and found this is the house where $730K was diverted. Not sure how these folks are selling this house if it might have been obtained via fraud.
Of course, there should be an “allegedly” before that “diverted.” As we reported last month, contractor Timothy Hurst, his fiancé Laurie Quinn and a third person were indicted for scamming the owners of the now-gone Olde Union House in the construction of the Union Street Village condo and store development. The charges are pending.
The indictment alleges a good chunk of the money went into the construction of 216 Pine, which features three bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, a coffered-ceiling living room, views of Poricy Pond and more. Monmouth County records show it’s owned by Quinn and assessed at $356,000.
Union Street Village, at the corner of Union Street and Wharf Avenue opposite Marine Park, stands unfinished and empty.
Here’s the listing. The broker is Patricia Snell of Heritage House Sotheby’s.
