An image from the Dobco pitch included off-site improvements along English Plaza, opposite the White Street project site. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
David DeConde, a business development manager 
Dobco Inc., drew gasps Wednesday night when he said his company was proposing 110 parking spaces on Red Bank’s White Street redevelopment zone.
Oops: he meant 1,010 spots, DeConde quickly corrected, chuckling along with the audience at his flub. “It’s been a long day,” he said of his misstatement.
In fact, his company’s plan calls for the greatest gross number of new parking spaces among five proposals submitted by would-be redevelopers of the site, which now has slots for 273 vehicles.
At a special meeting of the borough parking committee, DeConde proceeded to fill in a vision that also includes three outdoor plazas; 38,000 square feet of retail and co-working space; and 177 residential units on the site, with their own 177 parking spots.
DeConde said 35 of the units would qualify as affordable.
Dobco believes it can complete a prefab garage “and hand it over to the borough” after just six months of construction, DeConde told the parking committee. “Dobco isn’t looking for any money from the operation of those spaces.”
Like two other contenders, Wayne-based Dobco proposes linking Monmouth Street and White Street via an extension of Drummond Place, which now terminates in the parking lot. Both plans also call for structures above the pass-through.
Among the noteworthy aspects of Dobco’s plan is one not required by the council in its request for proposals: a plan to link the project site to West Front Street by eliminating 20 percent of the parking in English Place to create a continuous pedestrian “corridor” to Riverside Gardens Park.
The plan also calls for dedicating space for food trucks at a courtyard at the eastern end of the redevelopment site, opposite English Plaza.
DeConde also spoke more than any other builder about the borough’s century-old water and sewer infrastructure.
“It may require us to do some improvements to the utilities,” he said. “We’re ready to take on that aspect, and the costs.”
Here’s Dobco’s complete submission made in April in response to the RFP, with sensitive financial information redacted by the borough.
And here’s redbankgreen‘s coverage of each of the other presentations:
