RED BANK: UNPLANNED BID DRIVES AUCTION

At stake in the auction were 11 borough-owned parking spaces on Morford Place. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)

By BRIAN DONOHUE

A peeved Red Bank resident may have saved homeowners a few pennies each on their tax bill – and cost a local cannabis shop thousands of dollars a year – with a gambit that seemed to surprise even herself at last week’s meeting of the borough council. 

Devin Liles, owner of Monteverde dispensary on North Bridge Avenue. Below, map shows the location of the shop and the borough-owned parking spots. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)

The council was holding a legally required auction for a five-year lease on 11 parking spaces on a narrow strip of borough owned land adjacent between Morford Place and Riverside Avenue. 

As Mayor Billy Portman opened the bidding at $22,000 a year, the sole bidder in the unique auction appeared to be Devin Liles, owner of newly-opened Monteverde Dispensary at 45 North Bridge Avenue.  

Monteverde was hoping to win the auction to meet its obligation to provide a minimum of nine parking spots under borough zoning laws. The planning board made inclusion of the spaces a condition of approval last June.

“Twenty-two thousand,” Portman said after a pause. “Going once….”

Then came an unexpected bid – even for the woman making it.

“Twenty-three thousand!’’ said Linda Cohen, a resident of nearby Navesink Riverside Residences and Marina (formerly Riverview Towers). 

Cohen had moments earlier expressed dismay at the auction, saying if it had been better publicized more people might have come out to bid, thus providing much needed parking for them and more revenue for the town. 

“Parking is pretty essential in Red Bank, and there are a lot of other entities that may have been interested collectively or singly,’’ she said. 

So, over the next few minutes she and Liles bid back and forth until the bids hit $30,000 and Cohen finally threw in the towel, allowing Liles to win the auction. 

Cohen later said she wasn’t sure what she would have done with 11 leased parking spaces, but was driven by frustration with the process to jump in and bid.

“It was spontaneous,’’ she said. “I felt like I was put in a box, and I thought that the underlying point was to make it understood that there are people out there besides pot shops who might be interested.”

“As it is, I got the town $8,000 more in money,’’ she said.

Cohen she said her neighbors at her Riverside Avenue high-rise might have been interested in renting them. 

 “There are a lot of people in our area that would love to have those spaces, and they should have offered,” she said.

Borough officials said the auction had been announced publicly with legal ads in the Asbury Park Press and elsewhere as required by law.

But Cohen, who had learned about it by reading redbankgreen, suggested the town should consider placing such ads on this site instead.

“redbankgreen is the venue people read,” she said. “If it were not for redbankgreen, residents would have no idea what the hell goes on.” 

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