A view of the Rail project from Chestnut Street, with the existing office building at right and the new residential portion at left. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By CHRIS ERN
For nearly four years, it’s been slowly emerging from the ground alongside the Red Bank train station. Now, most of the block bounded by Bridge Avenue, Chestnut and Oakland streets is a teeming site of construction activity.
So What’s Going On Here? Here’s the latest.
Neighbors John Shepherd, left, and Charlie Oliver, on the grassy island between East and West Lake roads. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The temporary takeover of a block-long island of grass and trees that spans the Red Bank-Little Silver border has neighbors furious.
Red Bank officials said they had no advance notice of the New Jersey American Water Company project, and only learned last week, months into the project, that it had camped out on borough property.
The empty lot, located next door to the public library, slopes down to the Navesink River. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Months after long-vacant buildings next door to the Red Bank Public Library were demolished, not much progress appears to have occurred on a development plan for the site.
What’s Going On Here? Read on for the latest.
The tooth-shaped sign is used as a reference by locals when giving out driving directions. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
In less than half the time recommended for a good brushing, Red Bank’s Historic Preservation Commission OK’d the replacement of a dentist’s tooth-shaped sign Wednesday night.
26 West on the Navesink, above, and the nameless restaurant planned for 3-5 Broad Street, below, hope to install garage-style openings. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two downtown Red Bank restaurants will seek permission to install garage-style front doors when the Historic Preservation Commission meets Wednesday night.
Also on the unusually busy agenda for the advisory body: a dentist needs a tooth pulled.
Yet another century-old building in Fair Haven’s historic downtown is up on blocks.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
A video created by a Philadelphia architectural firm shows a vastly expanded Riverview Medical Center campus. (Video by BKT Architects. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Over more than a dozen years of amassing Red Bank real estate, officials at Riverview Medical Center have been silent on an obvious question: what do they plan to do with their growing land bank?
They’re still not saying. But someone went to the expense of hiring an architecture and urban planning firm to come up with blue-sky concept plans for Riverview, redbankgreen has learned. And he just made a killing selling the hospital some real estate.
The prices of vacant lots quadrupled in less than four years when they were sold to Riverview in late December. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The latest addition to Riverview Medical Center’s Red Bank real estate holdings yielded a windfall gain for the seller, redbankgreen has learned.
Why the hospital paid a whopping price for the site remains unanswered.
Part of Buttonwood Drive in Fair Haven was closed to traffic Tuesday as workers in crane buckets worked up in the street’s famed canopy of sycamore trees.
A rendering shows the window clings that will cover one side of the vestibule of the new Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. (Image by South Shore Sign Company. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With filmmaker Kevin Smith deploying some characteristically colorful language, Red Bank’s Historic Preservation Commission endorsed splashy signage at the new home of Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash Wednesday night.
Filmmaker Kevin Smith is in the process of relocating his store to 65 Broad Street, seen above in 2014. Below, illustrations filed with the HPC application. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Historic Preservation Commission is slated to review plans for signage on three Broad Street businesses Wednesday night: a new pizzeria, a new juice bar, and the new home of Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.
The planning board approved the demolition of 95 East Front Street in July, 2019. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Turning aside pleas by historic preservationists, Riverview Medical Center demolished a 19th-century Red Bank mansion Monday.
Meantime, the hospital is planning to gobble up more real estate, redbankgreen has learned: a vacant lot directly across East Front Street from the mansion.
The former Anderson Storage building in Red Bank was named one of three recipients of a 2020 Monmouth County Planning Board Merit Award Monday.
The planning board approved the demolition of 95 East Front Street in July, 2019, but the building remains vacant and intact. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
Pent-up frustration over the apparent fate of a former Red Bank mansion erupted at the first pandemic-era meeting of the Red Bank Historic Preservation Commission Wednesday night.
Commission member Kal Pipo ripped the planning board for allowing the the demolition of a Victorian mansion two doors away from Riverview Medical Center – and said Mayor Pasquale Menna “sounded like he was the lawyer for” the hospital at that hearing where that decision was made.
After months of abandonment, a downtown Red Bank site is on its way to becoming home to 24 individuals and families.
What’s Going On Here? Read on…
Construction fencing surrounds RayRap Real Estate’s Azalea Gardens project site at Harding Road and Clay Street in Red Bank this week. The development has been in the works for seven years, though there’s been little activity since half a block of rundown houses and garages were demolished in early 2018.
What’s Going On Here? Read on…
Monday was demolition day in Red Bank, it seemed, as heavy equipment tore down old structures at two building sites. (Reader photo. Click to enlarge.)
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
It’s easy to miss, but there’s a new sign on the facade of 55 Broad Street in Red Bank.
‘Provention Bio’ says the marker, installed without fanfare on the building its owner/developer has dubbed ‘The Vault.’
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
Thirteen months after it was abruptly closed over contamination concerns, Red Bank’s only community garden heads into autumn with a crop of periodically mown grass.
But what happened to the neighborhood soil testing that was supposed to be conducted? And will the garden reopen?
redbankgreen’s What’s Going On Here? has an update.
The Red Bank Historic Preservation Commission plans to hold its first meeting in six months Tuesday night.
On the agenda: an update by a commission member on a pre-1868 Victorian house at 95 East Front Street slated for demolition by Hackensack Meridian Health Medical Center.
A long-vacant former gas station at the northern entrance to Red Bank was fenced off Wednesday for some site work.
The former Anderson Storage building, above. Below, Chris Cole in the space being readied for Glen Goldbaum’s Lambs & Wolves salon.(Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
With the opening last week week of Sickles Market and Booskerdoo, Red Bank’s Anderson Storage building has all but completed a transformation in the works for almost two decades.
But for developer Chris Cole, who oversaw the project, it’s just another day at the office.
A bumper crop of new parking meters has appeared in downtown Red Bank.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
Without discussion, the Red Bank council authorized a restaurant’s closing of a public street for seating of diners Wednesday night.
Amid a boomlet in