Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

RED BANK: ‘REVERSE’ TAX APPEALS ON AGENDA

8-e-front-041218-2-500x375-2703885A law firm hired by the borough says 8 East Front Street, which sold last year for $5.68 million, is improperly assessed at just under $3 million. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

taxes-220x219-4107330A year after authorizing a law firm to go after owners of properties believed to be undertaxed, the Red Bank council is expected to renew its “aggressive” approach this week.
55-broad-022417-2-500x375-8547123The vacant Vault building at 55 Broad Street, above, and Station Place Apartments on Monmouth Street, below, are also under-assessed, the firm claims. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

station-place-080315-1-220x165-8769864In an effort to to “turn the tables,” in the words of Mayor Pasquale Menna, on large-scale commercial property owners who routinely file tax appeals, the council hired the firm of Blau & Blau of Springfield as special counsel to pursue reverse appeals in March, 2018.

The idea: to identify properties that appear to be under-assessed by tenured borough Assessor Mitch Elias, whose work Menna has criticized.

Hiring Blau & Blau, Menna said at the time, “aggressively sets forth that the municipality is now going to play the game, just like the petitioners do” when they challenge borough assessments as too high. The firm had already identified “10 to 12 properties” on which to file challenges and “is ready to go,” he said at the time.

On the agenda for the council’s semimonthly meeting Wednesday night is a resolution reauthorizing the arrangement, under which Blau & Blau gets paid one-third of added tax revenue in successful appeals, and nothing in cases where it fails to boost the assessment.

Attached to the resolution is report on the status of nine cases where Blau & Blau is said to be pursuing possible appeals. Among the properties on the list:

8 East Front Street, a building with first-floor commercial tenants and two floors of apartments. The property is assessed at $2.97 million, despite having changed hands 14 months ago for $5.675 million, the documents says.

• The so-called Vault building at 55 Broad Street, a former bank building that was acquired by a unit of Saxum Real Estate for $4 million in late 2016. In 2018, it was assessed at $4.2 million. The building is vacant.

• An apartment complex at 100-103 Prospect Avenue, assessed at $4.8 million in 2018 but mortgaged for $5.4 million the same year.

• West Side Lofts, a 91-apartment complex above stores at West Front Street and Bridge Avenue.

• The Galleria complex of shops and offices at 2 Bridge Avenue.

• The Station Place Apartments at Monmouth and West streets.

• Three Broad Street properties owned by Downtown Investors.

The council meets at 6:30 p.m. at 90 Monmouth Street. Here’s the full agenda.

 

 

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
Partyline
RED BANK’S FINEST – AND NEWEST
Red Bank Police Officer Eliot Ramos was sworn in as the force’s newest patrolman Thursday, and if you’re doing a double take thinkin ...
EASTER EGG MAYHEM AT THE PARK
An errant whistle spurred an unexpectedly early start to the Spring Egg Hunt on Sunday, which had been scheduled to begin at eggsactly 11am ...
PRESEASON DOCKWORK
RED BANK: With winter winding down, marina gets ready for boating season with some dockwork on our beautiful Navesink River.
CORNED BEEF AND DISCO FRIES?
It’s Friday, and smart Lent-observing Leprechauns know the pot of gold at the end of Red Bank’s rainbow is actually the deliciou ...
SURFBOARD DITCHED
It’s a violation of etiquette in surfing to ditch your board.  (it could hit another surfer and hurt them). But someone appears to ha ...
ELSIE, TAKE ME WITH YOU!
Soaked by pouring rain with the temperature hovering in the low 40’s, this sign in the window of Elsie’s Subs on Monmouth Street ...
WALK THIS WAY
PARTYLINE: Before-and-afters of a sidewalk cleanup on West Street.
SOGGY NOTION
RED BANK: Breezeway sculpture captured the mood downtown as heavy rains fell Saturday morning.
HOME DELIVERY
RED BANK: After a subdivision, an instant house rises on a new Catherine Street lot.
COMMUNITY PROFILES
For Black History Month, Red Bank's Community Engagement and Equity Advisory Committee has been running a series of local profiles on Facebo ...
HEARTY FAREWELL FOR HARDY
RED BANK: Council to honor DPU supervisor Rich Hardy, who retired recently after almost 39 years of keeping things running.
HOMEBOUND? READ ON…
RED BANK: Can't get to the public library? It's now offering free delivery and pickups for homebound borough residents.
TAMING A BEAST OF A WEEK
RED BANK: After the second snowfall of the week, a borough family finds the perfect use for it – a Godzilla snow sculpture.
RED BANK: LIBRARY CLOSED, BUT THE HILL’S OPEN
RED BANK: Though the library was closed by a snowstorm, kids got to enjoy the riverfront property's steep slope Tuesday.
LIGHT(HOUSE) MAKEOVER
This year, getting ready for spring means a midwinter makeover for Strollo's Lighthouse in Red Bank.
TODAY: LOCAL PUPPY COMPETES ON ANIMAL PLANET’S “PUPPY BOWL”
Red Bank’s very own rescue puppy, Biscuit, is set to compete in Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl this Sunday, February 11, at 2 PM. Th ...
WHAT? NO redbankgreen NEWSLETTER?
Apologies to redbankgreen newsletter subscribers: the daily email hasn’t gone out for two days because of technical issues.
RED BANK: TIRED OF SKEETERS?
RED BANK: Tired of mosquito bites every summer? Monmouth County has a free program to help eliminate skeeter breeding grounds.
SEA BRIGHT: POLAR PLUNGE FOR ST. JAMES, OTHERS
Hundreds braved the wind and sea on Sunday at 1PM in support of St. James Elementary School, and other Catholic schools in the area. The eve ...
RED BANK: RBR CLAIMS TITLE
RED BANK: Watch pure joy as the RBR boys basketball team celebrates its first B North championship in 17 years.