A proposed sale of the former borough hall by the Community YMCA has been tied up in litigation for nearly three years. (Click to enlarge)
One of two lawsuits pitting the Community YMCA against the borough of Red Bank has reached a tentative settlement that could be approved by the town council Monday night, the Asbury Park Press reports.
The deal would cost the borough $125,000 and clear the way for the Y to sell the former borough hall at 51 Monmouth Street to Red Bank Catholic High School, the newspaper reports.
From the Press:
“We have reached an agreement in principle with the borough and the YMCA is waiting for the Borough Council to approve it,” said Andrew Bayer, attorney for the YMCA. “This satisfies the YMCA.”
The settlement has been pending since a trial scheduled for Sept. 15 was canceled. If approved, it ends a disagreement over whether the building should be returned to the borough, a question that arose after the YMCA put it up for sale in February 2008.
YMCA and borough officials disagreed on whether conditions of the 2000 sale of the building to Kidsbridge for $1 included a clause stipulating that the building go back to the borough if it was to be sold commercially. Kidsbridge, a charitable group, merged in 2002 with the YMCA, which spent about $3 million renovating and restoring the 1890s era building that opened as the YMCA’s Children’s Cultural Center.
A borough ordinance approved in October 1999, which was the basis for a sale contract, stated that the “building will only be used for education, recreation, culture and similar purposes . . . and shall not be used for any commercial, trade or manufacturing enterprise, nor for political, partisan, sectarian or religious purpose.”
In a separate lawsuit, the Y is challenging the borough zoning board for rejecting a plan to expand the nonprofit’s health facility on Maple Avenue.
