RED BANK: VACANT EXXON OWNER EYES SALE TO NYC BUYER

Ye Olde Dead Exxon at the foot of Cooper’s Bridge. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)

By BRIAN DONOHUE

A Staten Island-based real estate company is under contract to buy one of Red Bank’s most prominent and fought-over pieces of land: a vacant gas station at the northern entrance to town, redbankgreen has learned.

The still-pending sale of the property at 199 Riverside Avenue would mark the latest twist in the history of a property where builders’ bids to build a hotel – and more recently, a cannabis store – have crumbled like the rotting bulkhead that lines property’s Navesink River shoreline.

That latter scenario, a plan by The Garden at Red Bank LLC to turn the former Exxon station into a pot shop, now appears to be officially dead.

In legal filings in their ongoing lawsuit against the Borough of Red Bank, company attorneys state the property owners, 80 Rector Place LLC, cancelled their contract to sell them the property in February.

“The deal with Plaintiff for the Property’s purchase is dead,” reads an affidavit by principal investor Rod Sheldon filed in state superior court in Monmouth County June 26.

The collapse of that sale apparently opened the door for the latest entity, a firm headed by a Staten Island-based developer living in Middletown, to enter into a contract to buy the 1.2 acre tract three months later, records show.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by redbankgreen (@redbankgreen)

Here’s what we know about the property, described variously in documents as 80 Rector Place and 199 Riverside Avenue:

A search of Monmouth County real estate records shows the property’s owner, 80 Rector Place LLC, entered a contract of sale with New York R&P Holdings LLC for the purchase of the property on May 27. No dollar figure was recorded.

New York State corporate records show New York R&P Holdings LLC was formed in April, 2022, listing its location as Richmond County, New York. A 2026 statement filed for the LLC is signed by member Philese Blackler.

A 2019 Staten Island Advance story identifies Philese Blackler as the owner and developer renovating a long-abandoned theater in the Tottenville section of the borough.

Blackler and Robert Pelosi, are also listed in State of Florida business records as the owners of Citrus Land Development Holdings, LLC, registered in Plantation, Florida. That filing lists the two as having a Middletown, New Jersey address.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Blackler declined to comment on the pending sale, saying she would divulge plans for the site once the purchase is finalized.

Whatever they decide to build, they may be eligible for a five-year tax break to do it.

The Mayor and Borough Council voted unanimously to declare the property an “area in need of rehabilitation” last August.

A declaration of the property as an area in need of rehabilitation could create new zoning guidelines for the property and allow the borough to use other tools, including five-year tax abatements, to spur development. Unlike the designation “area in need of redevelopment,” the tag does not allow either the use of eminent domain or longer-term tax abatements.

RED BANK: BORO EYES REHAB TAG FOR TWO RIVERFRONT TRACTS

The site was acquired in 2021 by a limited liability company, 80 Rector Place LLC, which is registered by Janice Esdale of Union Township. Numerous filings by The Garden at Red Bank attorneys in the lawsuit identify the owner as David Herzka.

As for the cannabis shop plan?

Herzka’s decision to back out of the sale, The Garden attorneys state in court filings, is providing more fodder for their lawsuit in which they blame borough officials for the collapse of the venture.

The company entered into a contract to buy the property in April 2023. The Planning Board approved its application for a cannabis dispensary on the site in December 2023.

What they never got was a borough license to sell weed.

In July 2024, the owners of the business, The Garden at Red Bank sued the borough after it was shut out by an ordinance that limits the number of retail cannabis licenses in town to the three already issued to other sellers.

The uncertainty created by that ongoing legal battle, company attorneys now argue, has now caused the collapse of their contract to buy the property.

80 Rector Place exxon google streetview — **A Google street view image of the dead gas station.**

In recent legal filings over the past few weeks, company attorneys have asked the judge to allow them to amend their original complaint to seek additional damages due to the loss of a chance to buy the property.

“Directly due to the actions and inaction of the Borough of Red Bank, that sale has been extinguished,” The Garden attorney Reginald Jenkins wrote in a memorandum filed in State Superior Court in Monmouth County on June 26.

Attorneys representing the Borough of Red Bank have argued in written motions that the case should be dismissed under NJ laws granting municipalities immunity from claims brought as a result of judicial or legislative decisions.

“The proposed causes of action threaten to create a dangerous precedent against municipalities,” writes borough attorney Salvatore Alfieri in a recent written motion in the case.

The collapse of the cannabis shop plan marks the second development proposal for the site to die.

In 2017, the Planning Board approved the site for a six-story Hampton Inn hotel. That plan also became mired in litigation and collapsed.

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