A rendering of the proposed train station redevelopment plan looking south from Monmouth Street, with the historic train station building in white at center. Proposed new buildings are in color. (Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Two six-story buildings and a five-story structure containing a total of up to 400 apartments and two parking garages. Two new streets and a pedestrian-only promenade. The transformation of the parking lot next to the historic train station into a park-like area with trees and green space.
Developer Denholtz Properties unveiled the company’s plan for the redevelopment of several blocks surrounding the Red Bank NJ Transit rail station Tuesday night, a proposal that would transform the very heart of the town in a manner first envisioned by town leaders three decades ago.
Oakland Street resident Mandy Hanigan may have summed up the only reaction shared by all the roughly two dozen residents in attendance who variously liked what they saw, hated it, or fell somewhere in between: “There is,” she said, “a lot to absorb here.”
Robert Goodill, principal at SK+I Architects, the Maryland-based firm that drew up the plans for developer Denholtz Properties, addresses the crowd at the Red Bank Senior Center (photo by Brian Donohue)
The presentation marked the beginning of a process for a train station redevelopment plan that must clear several hurdles, the first being a series of Planning Board hearings that could begin as early as February, according to Borough Planner Susan Favate.
If the plan is approved by the board and the Borough Council, construction could begin by the end of 2025 and be completed by 2028 at the earliest, Denholtz reps told attendees at the meeting at the Red Bank Senior Center.
Favate called the plan a step toward enacting a vision first laid out in the 1995 Master Plan and reaffirmed in the 2023 version, which calls for the construction of dense housing in an area that has been an expanse of parking lots for decades. Nonetheless, it faces possible, if not likely, changes as it wends its way through layers of approvals.
“This is all still draft,” she said. “That’s why we’re here tonight.”
Click above to tour a 3D rendering of the model constructed by Denholtz Properties architects.
The plan, presented in a tabletop model and a series of slides prepared by the Denholtz-hired, Maryland-based architecture firm SK+I includes:
- Two six-story apartment buildings between Monmouth and Chestnut Streets, connected by a glassed-in bridge stretching over a pedestrian-only plaza on what is now a section of Oakland Street. Each building would have retail space on the ground floor and share a parking garage for use by residents and the public.
- A five-story apartment building between Chestnut and Leonard Streets on an area that now includes parking lots, a rail yard and a retention basin. Like the buildings to its north, the ground floor would be retail space with a parking garage at its center. The total number of parking spaces – both in the two garages and on the streets – would be about 900.
- A “station square” in the area directly around the historic Daniel O’Hern Train Station that landscape architect Tom Bauer called “a people friendly plaza” and “an iconic community space for Red Bank” dominated by trees and plants where events could be held. A small cafe, possibly in a converted old rail car might be included.
- Two new public streets, one running from Chestnut Street to Leonard Street and another wending roughly parallel to the train tracks from Monmouth Street to Chestnut Street, with a 5 mph speed limit to prioritize cycling and pedestrians and ensure cars are just “the invited guest” as SK+I architect Chris Huffer put it.
Renderings of the north site of the proposed project (above) and a before and after rendering of the south site (click to enlarge)
While the exact number may change before plans are finalized, the total number of apartments would be no more than 400, architects and Favate said.
Twenty percent of the units would be designated as affordable housing, taking a huge chunk out of the borough’s obligation to create 157 new units under new state mandates. Because the state gives additional credits for housing built near mass transit, Borough Director of Community Development Shawna Ebanks said of the quota: “We’ll be meeting it with this project pretty much.”
Besides the green space and affordable housing, Denholtz reps touted the conversion of several NJ Transit parking lots into properties paying revenue to the borough, either in the form of property taxes or payments in lieu of taxes.
“Currently from this land, Red Bank receives no revenue, so this is a huge plus to generate municipal revenue,” said SKL+I Architects principal Robert Goodill. 
Denholtz has been named the designated developer by New Jersey Transit for its properties within a 13-acre zone the Borough Council declared in April and area in need of redevelopment.
Dozens of details and issues were discussed at the public workshop, from how buses that currently circle through the train station parking lot would move through the area to how the economic ripple effects could fuel gentrification of traditionally working class West Side neighborhoods.
“I feel like this is a very much upper crust kind of development,” said Locust Street resident Amy Goldsmith. “It doesn’t seem inviting to me and I can’t imagine it would seem inviting to neighbors of mine.”
A rendering of the “station square” area proposed for Monmouth Street by the historic train station. (click to enlarge)
Goodill said architects set out with a goal to convert an area that is a hodgepodge of parking lots, rail yards and a fetid retention pond few in town even know exists, into space that connects parts of town with plazas, streets and promenades.
“We see our roll, as to essentially fulfill the promise of the Master Plan,” he said.
There are several large features of the area that would remain. The parking lot west of the railroad tracks on Bridge Avenue remains intact, partly because of its utility as a pick up and drop off area for train passengers and taxis, Denholtz reps said.
And the overhead high voltage transmission lines that run through the area will stay in place, Goodill said, because moving them or putting them under ground would prove so costly as to “kill the project.” Goodill called the developer’s ability to get rid of the fabric-lined retention basin, however, a “triumph.”
