One of Red Bank’s landmark commercial buildings has a new owner, redbankgreen has learned.
Two other downtown buildings have also changed hands recently.
The homes of Ce La Vi restaurant, above, and Tatum Gallery, at 9 Wharf Avenue, have new owners. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
• The three-story red-brick building that houses the Urban Outfitters store at 2-10 Broad Street sold for $12.75 million on April 27, according to a deed filed with the Monmouth County Clerk.
The buyer was Jemal’s Front & Broad LLC. Incorporation documents identify Gregory and Lillian Jemal of Oakhurst as the members of the limited liability company, which was formed March 16.
The Jemals could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The seller was Saxum Real Estate, based in Summit, which paid $6.9 million for the property in 2018.
The red brick building, at the corner of West Front Street, has deep roots in Red Bank mercantile history, dating to around 1875, according to local historian Randall Gabrielan.
Originally known as the Spinning and Patterson building, it later became the home of the J, Kridel clothier business in 1914, and for decades beginning in 1946 was home to Natelson’s department store. [CORRECTION: Natelson Brothers acquired J. Kridel’s in 1946, but the store retained its name until 1968, when it was rebranded as “Natelson’s J.Kridel,” according to reporting and ads in the Red Bank Register.]
Urban Outfitters, based in Philadelphia, opened its store there in 2009.
With two floors of offices above the retail space, the building generated $95,000 in property tax revenue last year, according to borough records.
Saxum has now sold both major downtown buildings it owned. In 2016, the company bought the onetime bank building at 55 Broad Street for $4 million. After gutting and refilling the long-vacant structure with tenants, the company sold the property – rebranded as “The Vault” – last October for $10.7 million.
The company’s plan for a 212-unit residential development on the site of the former Visiting Nurse Association headquarters, at Riverside Avenue and Bodman Place, won planning board approval 2019. Construction has yet to start.
In other commercial real estate news:
• The building at 14-16 Monmouth Street, home to Ce La Vi restaurant and the Monmouth Academy of Ballet, has sold for $1.28 million.
The seller was the estate of the late Maryann Brown. The buyer was VIPP 14-16 Broad Street LLC, controlled by Igor Kapelnikov, who last year made a whopping 114-percent gain on his two-year investment in 14-16 Broad, home to the Bistro at Red Bank restaurant.
Kapelnikov told redbankgreen he’s not ready to discuss his plans for his latest acquisition.
• The building that was the longtime home of Chetkin Gallery, at 9 Wharf Avenue, changed hands for $1.2 million in March, a deed shows.
The buyer was 9 Wharf JDS LLC, which is controlled by Jeremy Suarez, of Colts Neck, according to a state filing.
The sellers, Don and Carol Lynn Chetkin, had previously been under contract for the building with Denholtz Properties, which acquired other buildings at the corner of East Front Street from the couple.
Tracey Hagger’s Tatum Gallery has occupied the ground-floor space for the past year.
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