The circa-1875 office building at Broad Street and East Bergen Place. The driveway to the right belongs to the adjoining property. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

The prospective buyer of a historic, high-profile Red Bank property won approval Wednesday night to make an alteration: the addition of a small parking lot out back.

The planning board unanimously approved the creation of a 12-space lot in the rear yard of 286 Broad Street, at the corner of East Bergen.

The building, a three-story Victorian with a mansard roof, was erected as a private residence in 1875 and used in recent decades as offices for lawyers from the Allegra family, according to Rumson resident Wayne Greenleaf, who is under contract to buy it.

Greenleaf told the board he plans to relocate the 401(k) consulting firm Cafaro Greenleaf, where he’s managing partner, from its current home on Maple Avenue, to the address.

No material changes are planned for the building, Greenleaf said. “We’re old-house people,” he told the board.

While many of the site’s Broad Street neighbors have been torn down or had their backyards converted to parking lots over the decades, the Allegra property remained stuck in the horse-and-buggy era, with employees and visitors forced to find street parking.

The new lot, which will be accessed via an existing driveway apron on East Bergen, will be used exclusively by the firm’s employees, who travel to meet clients rather than having them come to the office, Greenleaf said.

In other board business, a plan for a Crossfit gym on westbound West Front Street, opposite West Street, was withdrawn, and a hearing a proposed 80,000-square-foot self-storage facility at Central Avenue and Berry Street was rescheduled for March 7.