The Rail, a multiuse Denholtz Properties project seen at right, abuts the North Jersey Coast Line. Below, a flyer announcing the public workshop to be held July 31. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials plan to hold a public session later this month on what could turn into one of the most consequential construction projects in the town’s history: the redevelopment of the train station for housing and commerce.
But while the push for a transit village may still be light on particulars, one thing its developer will be pressing for is that it be “dense” with residences, he said.
Steve Denholtz at the station. Graphic below shows the properties designated as an “area in need of redevelopment.” (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
The public workshop will be held Wednesday, July 31, at the Senior Center, 80 Shrewsbury Avenue, beginning at 6:30 p.m. There, over two hours, attendees will hear about the planning process, learn about redevelopment plans and get to share ideas for the station’s future, according to a borough announcement Tuesday.
In April, the borough council designated a 13-acre collection of properties surrounding the station as a “non-condemnation an Area in Need of Redevelopment” to kick off what is expected to be a multi-year effort.
Though the resolution makes no mention of Denholtz Properties, the company is the designated developer for the project in partnership with New Jersey Transit, which owns the station.
But the company’s plans are still so early in the process that concept drawings don’t yet exist, CEO Steve Denholtz told redbankgreen in a recent interview.
“We need feedback from the town, we need to engage with the community” before such plans begin, he said. “I mean, I have ideas of my own… but it’s hard to formulate a plan until you know what the community will accept.”
Among the key pieces, though, is that “it should be dense,” Denholtz said.
“I know everyone’s afraid of density, and that will play out as it plays out” politically, he said. “But it should be dense. You don’t get many opportunities like this to populate the downtown” while also providing much-needed housing and “activating” underutilized parking lots, he said.
Denholtz said the project will set aside 20 percent of housing units for low- and moderate-income earners and veterans, and offer 20,000-square-feet of “maker spaces” for onsite craftspeople, artists and other creatives within 50,000 total SF of commercial.
He envisions “some kind of a square, where people could go from one to the other,” he said.
“It’s a tall order,” he said, but one that could get a boost from financing through the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s Aspire program, he said.
“You can’t build today without help from the EDA. The numbers don’t work,” he said.
Denholtz said the company’s plans will preserve the train station, which will be 150 years old in 2025 and is listed on both the national and state historic registers.
Denholtz Properties employs about 60 people at 116 Chestnut Street in an office building that abuts the southbound platform of the North Jersey Coast Line. Next door, it also built the multiuse Rail project with 57 apartments and ground-level retail. Under its deal with NJ Transit, Denholtz would develop and manage what are now station parking lots under a longterm ground lease.
The transit village would comprise a smattering of parcels between Monmouth and Herbert streets owned by Denholtz or NJ Transit. They include:
• The former Mayo Auto Service site on Monmouth Street and three adjoining lots extending to West and Oakland streets (but excluding the building that is home to Juanito’s restaurant).
• The NJ Transit parking lot along the east side of the station to West Street.
• Two adjoining NJ Transit lots on Chestnut Street, opposite Denholtz’s headquarters.
• A 95-space lot on Herbert Street that Denholtz has owned for five years.
• The borough’s public works yard and water treatment plant at 75 Chestnut Street.
The development would not displace any homeowners, residential tenants or businesses. Commuter parking and accommodation for buses would be retained, Denholtz said.
The station currently has parking capacity for 479 spaces, though utilization was estimated at 30-to-35 percent in 2022, according to NJT.
Denholtz said the council “was really smart” to include the deteriorating public works facilities in the area, and that he “would love to” help rehabilitate the property. He was emphatic that he and company representatives have “never had a conversation with anybody from the town” about it.
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