The former bank building that houses Prima’s Home CafĂ© is for sale, but the store itself isn’t. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
redbankgreen came upon Red Bank-based commercial real estate broker Geoff Brothers putting a for-sale sign in the window of Primas Home Café on Broad Street last week.
But the furniture store’s not for sale, only the building that houses it. And it’s one of a number of downtown commercial properties on the market.
Because Brothers has a hand in so many commercial deals in town, we thought we’d take a moment to call some out some of the listings available (and likely to soon be seen) on the Brothers Commercial Brokerage website.
Butterfly Fine Arts is fluttering away, leaving 116 Broad available for rent. (Click to enlarge)
• Butterfly Fine Arts, whose windows have been dark more often than not, is moving its business online and closing its gallery at 116 Broad following a closeout sale this weekend, according to an email sent by owner Natalia Belaya. Formerly home to a California Closets store that closed in 2009, the building got a facade makeover before Butterfly alit there in June, 2010.
• The Primas Home Cafe building, at 28 Broad, is listed at $1.8 million. Built as the Merchants Trust Company, and later the longtime home of Carrolls Stationers, the property features an gasp-worthy vaulted ceiling above a 3,200-square-foot first floor and a 1,900SF loft.
• Wells Fargo Advisors is moving its brokerage officefrom the first floor of 73 Broad Street to Lincroft soon. The building, directly opposite Monmouth Street, has had a basement vacancy since the departure of a spa more than a year ago. The financial giant’s retail banking operation at Broad and East Bergen Place is unaffected by the move.
• The Agostino Antiques building at 21 Broad, is listed at $2.7 million. The Trupiano family, which owns the building, is holding a clearance sale and plans to consolidate its operations at an older store in New York, though there’s no date for the move set, we’re told. Wouldn’t that make a spectacular spot for an Apple store?
• 42 Monmouth Street, last home to Fameabilia, a 4,600SF single-story structure listed at $1.35 million. Old-timers will remember it as the home to Boynton & Boynton insurance.
• The asking price for Murphy Style Grill, which has been on the market for ages, is down to $850,000, from a starting point a few years ago of $1.5 million. That’s for the business only; the building, which has separate ownership, is not on the market.
• By the way, and only because a reader posted a comment about it on redbankgreen Tuesday: 51 Monmouth Street is not for sale, even though a listing for it at $2.55 million appears on the Brothers website. The transfer of the onetime borough hall and police station from the Community YMCA to St. James Church/Red Bank Catholic was held up by a lawsuit, since adjudicated, and a closing date has not yet been set, says Brothers.
