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: POOL CLOSURE PROMPTS RENT CASE

grandville-pool-082720-500x375-5275391The Grandville Towers pool has not opened all summer. (redbankgreen photo. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Thursday’s meeting of the Red Bank rent leveling board included a sharp disagreement over whether capital improvements to an apartment building’s pool enhanced the property’s value.

Steven Kaye, an executive at PRC Group, which owns Grandville Towers, insisted repeatedly that upgrades made seven years ago to the building’s pool added no value to the property, because “they already had a pool there.”

Board attorney Gene Anthony was clearly incredulous at Kaye’s assertion.

“The property also had a building at all times,” and PRC won approval for rent surcharges on capital improvements made to it in 2013, said Anthony.

“Ninety-nine percent of capital improvements on apartment complexes involve something that was there before,” he said

At issue in the Zoom-held hearing were demands for rent reductions by tenants at the 10-story rent-controlled building on Morford Place.

They claimed they’ve been denied use of the pool and gym throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and should see a commensurate cut in their rent.

PRC, represented by attorney Chris Healy, contends that COVID-19 restrictions imposed by Governor Phil Murphy accounted for the pool shutdown through June, as well as the closure of the gym, which continues.

But since Trenton issued new guidance on pools July 1, the landlord has been unable to find and hire lifeguards and individuals to serve as pool “ambassadors,” Kaye said. The second job involves checking-in pool users as well as cleaning toilets, he said.

Staffing was “probably our biggest obstacle” to reopening the pool, Kaye said. “We’ve been advertising for a cleaning person for a long time. We just weren’t able to hire the staffing to satisfy the governor’s order.”

The building had two COVID-19 cases early in the pandemic, the borough’s first, and PRC spent $25,000 on a biohazard cleanup of the site as a result, Kaye said.

A hearing on the issue began at the board’s monthly session in July, based on rent-reduction demands filed with the board by 10 tenants. That number was cut in half by the end of Thursday’s meeting, the rest having dropped out.

Among those pursuing the claim was Yvonne MacDonald, a seven-year tenant who said she was a regular user of the pool and gym.

“I just feel we’re paying all these surcharges for all these amenities,” she told the board. “If we’re not using them, then we shouldn’t be surcharged for them.”

Hugh Magee, a real estate consultant from Rumson, testified for PRC that he conducted an analysis of apartment amenities throughout Red Bank. Among his findings: that Grandville Towers is the only one with a pool, and that on a square-foot basis, its rents are sharply lower than elsewhere, even without taking the pool and gym into account.

A typical tenant in the building pays $1.10 per square foot a month, he said. The next-lowest rent in town among the 12 complexes he reviewed was at the Colony House, on Bodman Place, where the average was $1.56 per square foot.

Magee said it is “disingenuous” of tenants to seek a rent rebate. The pool “has a limited value,” but that amenity “should not be held hostage on a rent reduction when already there is superior value” in the rent.

In addition, he said, PRC had not “thrown out” any tenants who lost their jobs in the pandemic and had trouble making the rent, he said.

Anthony, however, said the current stage of the hearing is about answering one question, under the rent ordinance: “was there a service reflected in the rent, and was that service reduced?”

If so, questions of what the service was worth, and whether a rent cut is appropriate, should follow, he said. The effect of the pandemic could be a “mitigating factor,” he said.

The hearing is expected to continue at the September 24 meeting.

If you value the kind of news coverage redbankgreen delivers, please become a paying member. Click here for details about our new, free newsletter and membership information.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
El Camino y la Siesta
An early-arriving El Camino owner sneaks in a few winks as the annual Liberty Hose – Red Bank Firefighters’ Classic Car Show in memory o ...
RED BANKJ: JAZZ IN THE PARK BEGINS THURSDAY
Jazz in the Park kicks off tonight (Thursday) with The Grace Fox Big Band, an all-women 16-piece ensemble known for its bold original compos ...
LOST PARROT
This little blue beauty was found by a redbankgreen reporter Thursday boldly tempting fate by foraging on the ground on the turf of a pack o ...
ORANGE GLOW OVER RED BANK
A truly unbelievable post-storm sunset Tuesday (shot on Monmouth St. facing west). Photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus.
BROAD STREET’S THIRSTY BLOOMS
Delfino, a worker with the company Terra Casa that manages the flower beds for the Red Bank special improvement district waters the flowers ...
PILGRIM BAPTIST MEN’S DAY CELEBRATION
  (photo by: Shanikquya Jackson) On Sunday, June 22, Pilgrim Baptist Church of Red Bank hosted its annual Men’s Day Celebration a ...
THREE GENERATION PROCLAMATION
Mayor Billy Portman presents the Borough of Red Bank’s Independence Day 2025 Proclamation to Arleen Brahn (second from right), grandmo ...
STEW THE BUTCHER COSPLAY
On the occasion of the retirement of Stewart Goldstein, longtime proprietor of Monmouth Meats, we thought it apt to present this photo from ...
NAVESINK FISHING
A kayak fisherman tries his luck under the NJ Transit train trestle across the Navesink River in Red Bank. (Photo by Partyline contributor A ...
RED BAKE
As the temperature hit 100 degrees Tuesday, Tom Sevison, Red Bank High School Class of 1973 and in town briefly on his way back home to Virg ...
JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION
Performers at Red Bank’s Juneteenth community celebration Sunday at Johnny Jazz Park. (photo by Brian Donohue)      
BUTTERFLIES LOVE THE WEED
Save the monarch, plant butterfly weed. (photo and text by Partyline contributor Roseann DalPra)  
LANTERNFLY PARTY
An invasive ailanthus tree sprouting in front of the US Post Office on Broad Street is covered with invasive spotted lantern fly nymphs Wedn ...
STREETCORNER SERENADE
An Irish doodle named Cheddar listens to native New Jerseyan, singer/songwriter and former Houston resident Tom Foti, (identified in the hea ...
Red Bank 5K Fun!!!
Red Bank Classic – June 14th, 2025 (photo by Partyline contributor Adam Kaplan)  
RAINBOW OVER RED BANK
Saturday, before and after the storm that rolled through town. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)    
Mini Ballers Bring the Heat at Fusion Basketball School
As the temperatures heat up, so does the competition in the mini baller clinic at Fusion School of Basketball. These little tykes are intens ...
DOZENS OF PLEIN AIR ARTISTS “PAINT RED BANK”
Plein air artists take over town for first ever "Paint Red Bank" event. (click to read)
RED BANK: SIGN ON ICONIC DANNY’S STEAK HOUSE COMES DOWN
The sign hanging from the shuttered Danny's Steak House comes down ten months after a manager reported Danny's Steakhouse would be back "bet ...
FOR YANKEES FANS, GOOD TRASH PICKIN’
A collection of framed photographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and other New York Yankees greats was placed curbside along with a ...