"BREAKING POINT'' - RESIDENTS OF FLOODED RED BANK BUILDING CRITICIZE DENHOLTZ

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By BRIAN DONOHUE

In February 2024, Allison and Tiffany Kenny were so fed up with repeated water leaking into the bedroom and living room of their third-floor apartment at the Red Bank luxury apartment building The Rail, that they moved to a new apartment on the second floor.

But in apartment 208, they say, things were nearly as bad.

Water regularly entered the living space from the area around the bedroom window during rainstorms, they said.

“Our frustration has reached a breaking point,” they wrote in a December 19, 2025 email to building management in which they threatened to break their $ 4,500-a-month lease if repairs were not made.

“In addition to water entering our apartment, the common areas of the building consistently leak during rainstorms, ” they wrote, ‘indicating a broader issue that has not been properly addressed.”

Then came Wednesday morning.

Tiffany Kelly said she was awoken shortly after 6 am by Red Bank firefighters banging on the apartment door. When she got out of bed, she stepped in several inches of water that had flooded the apartment.

The couple are now among the residents of at least a dozen apartments in the 57-unit building displaced after a three-inch water pipe burst, flooding much of the third floor and most, possibly all, of the second floor. They and others are now staying at a hotel, uncertain when they can return home to the building at 118 Chestnut Street, next to the train station.

“We are heartbroken,” Tiffany Kelly said in a meeting with Deputy Mayor Kate Triggiano attended by a redbankgreen reporter.

They were among a half dozen residents of The Rail who have expressed frustration at both chronic water issues in the building and what they call a lack of response from the building owner, Denholtz, in the 48 hours since Wednesday’s flooding.

“The way Denholtz is going about it is just absolutely so inhumane,” said tenant Rich Carranon.

Speaking to a reporter 36 hours after the firefighters responded to the leak, he said representatives of building owner Denholtz, had still not been in his apartment where the ceiling had collapsed and standing water remained. “All of my belongings, everything – destroyed,” he said.

Of the $6,000 a month two-bedroom, he said, “is my fourth unit in the building because I’ve had to move because of plumbing issues.”

Tenants remove their belongings from The Rail Wednesday morning.

A spokesperson for Denholtz said the company was “working as quickly and safely as possible to restore their homes and return the property to normal operations.”

As for previous water related issues, the email states: “We have experienced isolated instances of water and plumbing leaks in the past, and in each instance, have worked as quickly as we could to resolve those issues. The safety and well-being of our residents is our highest priority, and we remain committed to promptly responding to all maintenance issues as they come to our attention.”

(Note: the company’s response came in an email response to questions sent by redbankgreen five hours earlier in the day Friday, but received after this story was originally published. Denholtz’s full response is posted at the end of this story.

In an email sent to tenants Thursday, a Denoltz representative instructed tenants to get in touch with their insurers and said remediation would continue with more updates to come.

“We know how stressful and disruptive this situation has been and we truly appreciate your patience and cooperation as we work through it,” it reads. (see full text below)

**An email sent to residents of The Rail shortly before 3 pm Wednesday.**

A few moments after the email was sent, Allison Kenny stood inside her apartment, where the floor appeared partly dry until she stepped on it. When she did, water could be seen seeping up from underneath the laminate flooring.

She said the several emails Denholtz reps sent to tenants in the 36 hours since the flood had provided no information on how to move forward.

“No plan, no information, just a corporate email,” she said of the emails Denholtz sent to tenants. “You would think they’d be walking the halls saying, ‘Can we help you?”

On Tuesday – the day before the pipe burst – residents and building management said plumbers had spent hours working in an area of the third floor where the pipe burst hours later.

In an email sent to tenants on Tuesday afternoon, building representatives said a water shutoff that was planned to last several hours would last longer than expected.

“The necessary plumbing repair is taking longer than originally anticipated,” reads the email, provided to redbankgreen by a tenant.

The leak started sometime overnight. Red Bank volunteer firefighters were called to the building shortly after 6 am Wednesday, knocking on doors to alert residents and shutting off the water and electricity to the building.

Shortly after 6:30 am, RBFD issued a second call for additional manpower to handle the situation.

On a walk-through of the building Thursday afternoon, workers with the flood remediation company ServPro were installing large ventilation hoses, air movers and fans in the hallways and common areas.

The carpeting on the third floor hallway had been pulled up, but soggy carpeting on parts of the second floor hallway remained.

Sections of sheetrock in hallways could be seen warping and a smell of mildew was strong in an area closest to the epicenter of the leak.

Work crews were on the scene again Friday.

After meeting with tenants Thursday, Deputy Mayor Kate Triggiano said she was going to reach out to Denholtz officials to relay residents’ concerns.

“Anything I can do to help,” she told the residents.

Denholtz is on track to build the equivalent of six more buildings similar to The Rail around the train station in the coming years.

The company, whose headquarters sit next door to The Rail, is NJ Transit’s designated developer for the massive train station redevelopment that could include up to 351 apartments, parking garages, retail and public plazas.

The first phase of that project, a 175-unit building called The Rail North, is the subject of ongoing public hearings before the Red Bank Planning Board, which is tasked with approving the site plans.

Board members earlier this month sent architects back to the drawing board with scathing criticism of the designs submitted by Denholtz for site plan approval. The hearing is slated to resume in September.

Wendy Hollander, a third-floor resident of The Rail, said the only plumbing or water issues she’s had since moving into the building were a shower pipe that was installed backwards, sending water spraying out of the shower, forcing her to mop up the floor after every shower.

She said the problem took ten months for management to repair, “but I will say they lowered my rent to accommodate what I went through to get it fixed.”

After hearing strange noises Wednesday, Hollander looked out the peephole of her third-floor apartment to see water that “looked like a river” flowing down the hallway. Because the water flowed away from her apartment, her unit was spared major damage, she said.

A single mom living with her teenage son, she was unsure whether to check into a hotel, return home, or even begin looking for a new place to live altogether.

She recounted a conversation with a building manager Thursday afternoon in which she asked, “Is it safe to be here to continue living here? And she said, I can’t tell you that, but I can also, I can’t ask you to leave.:”

“Wow,” Hollander added. “I didn’t think that was the right answer.”

Here is the full response to redbankgreen questions from a spokesperson for Dehnoltz.

On the extent of the damage and timeline for residents to return:

Following the pipe burst on the third floor on Wednesday, water impacted units on the second and third floors, as well as common areas on the first floor and the parking garage. Power and water have been restored to every unit in the building as of this morning.

Second and third floor residents have been advised to secure alternative accommodations while remediation work continues. Our property management team and remediation vendor, ServPro, have been inspecting each affected apartment individually to assess damage and determine next steps. We have provided regular updates to all residents as the situation has progressed, through email and in conversations on site, and invited them to contact our site team directly with individual concerns and questions. As we get clarity on when each unit will be deemed safe, we are informing those residents individually.

We recognize this has been a disruptive and stressful situation for our residents, and we’re working as quickly and safely as possible to restore their homes and return the property to normal operations.

On mold concerns:

Our property management team and ServPro are working to address and fix all damage throughout the building, including any necessary mold mitigation and prevention, as quickly as possible.

On whether remediation is limited to common areas or includes individual units:

Remediation is not limited to common areas. Our management team and ServPro have been conducting water extraction, setting up dehumidifying equipment and fans, and conducting individual apartment inspections and repairs in the affected units. Remediation work is ongoing on the second and third floors specifically.

On residents’ accounts of no assistance for 36 hours:

We take these concerns very seriously. Our team and ServPro have been on-site since Wednesday morning and conducting extraction, inspections, and remediation work all throughout the day on Wednesday, Thursday, and today. We will continue remediation work throughout the building until all restoration work is complete, and ask residents who feel they have not received assistance to contact management.

On residents’ claims of ongoing leak and plumbing issues over the past few years:

We have experienced isolated instances of water and plumbing leaks in the past, and in each instance, have worked as quickly as we could to resolve those issues. The safety and well-being of our residents is our highest priority, and we remain committed to promptly responding to all maintenance issues as they come to our attention.

redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.