Downtown Investors has dropped its plans to demolish the house at 26 Wallace Street for parking. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A century house targeted for demolition in downtown Red Bank has been spared the wrecking ball, redbankgreen has learned.
Downtown Investors plans to demolish the house at 26 Wallace Street for parking. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Members of Red Bank’s Historic Preservation Commission split Wednesday night over its next steps regarding a developer’s plan to demolish a century house for parking.
The HPC also approved remodeling plans for a building at a key downtown intersection after the owner revised plans that were rejected a month ago.
Downtown Investors plans to demolish the house at 26 Wallace Street to create a parking lot. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Historic-value claims about a century house targeted for demolition in downtown Red Bank are “in error,” a developer’s land-use expert told the planning board Monday night.
Members of the Historic Preservation Commission were itching to differ.
A rendering of the office building Downtown Investors wants to erect at 21 Linden Place. (Image by Stephen J. Gassert Design. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank developer hopes to expand its holdings by erecting a new office building downtown.
But first, Downtown Investors says it needs planning board approval to demolish a house estimated to be 132 years old in order to create parking.
The house at 26 Wallace Street, believed to have been built in 1889, would be razed to expand a parking lot under a developer’s proposal. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A decision on a developer’s plan to raze a 132-year-old house in downtown Red Bank for parking was postponed Thursday night.
The plan may offer the first significant test of powers granted to the Historic Preservation Commission three years ago.
The house at 26 Wallace Street, believed to have been built in 1889, would be razed to expand a parking lot under a developer’s proposal. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Anticipating possible challenges to its authority on two fronts, Red Bank’s Historic Preservation Commission was in a muscle-flexing posture Wednesday night.
Downtown Investors plans to raze the house at 26 Wallace Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank developer plans to demolish a downtown house to expand a parking lot, with an eye toward future building.
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.
Five developers have submitted proposals regarding the White Street municipal parking lot. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Seven weeks after receiving proposals for a possible new downtown parking garage, the Red Bank council may release them this week, Councilman Mike Whelan tells redbankgreen.
But the disclosure still hinges on legal roadblocks thrown up by former Councilwoman Cindy Burnham, who sued the town over the plan immediately after she left office.
Downtown property owner John Bowers hired an architect to show the borough what it might build without involving a private developer. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Instead of trying to entice a private developer with high-profit-margin sweeteners like apartments and retail space, what if Red Bank addressed its downtown parking problem simply by building a “pure” garage itself?
That’s what landlord John Bowers wants to know, and he’s on a campaign to head off the borough’s White Street redevelopment effort before it leads both taxpayers and merchants over a cliff.
Two years after the death of its owner, the house at 27 Linden Place in Red Bank is slated for demolition this week.
Doug Cavanaugh, seen at right in 2009 painting a hitching post he installed outside the house, left the property in his will to Saint James Roman Catholic Church, whose schools he’d attended.
Zoning officer Donna Smith Barr leaves the job this week after 26 years. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The cliches compete: it’s tempting to say Donna Smith Barr has had a front-row seat on Red Bank’s two-decade-long bounceback from “Dead Bank” to today’s bustling burg. But it’s probably more accurate to say she’s been the gatekeeper.
Whether you wanted to put a deck on your house or turn a downtown store into a restaurant, Barr’s office has been the first stop at borough hall. And if she spoke or wrote the word “variance” in response, it probably wasn’t your last, as it would mean the time and expense of making one’s case before the zoning or planning board.
“I’m glad I don’t have to tell people they need variances anymore,” Barr told redbankgreen Tuesday. A single instance is one thing, “but when you do it for 26 years, that’s enough.”
The three living former mayors of Red Bank — Benedict Nicosia, Michael Arnone and Ed McKenna — join Mayor Pasquale Menna as guests of honor at the first annual Mayor’s Charity Ball, going on May 1st.
Press release from Red Bank Mayor’s Ball Committee
Mayor Pat Menna is honoring three of his predecessors — and inviting the community — to the first annual Red Bank Mayor’s Charity Ball, scheduled for May 1st at The Oyster Point Hotel.
“Our committee is planning a great event and a fun evening, celebrating all things Red Bank,” noted the mayor. “We are fortunate to have three former mayors — Judge Benedict Nicosia, Assemblyman Michael Arnone and Mayor Edward McKenna — still here in the area, and we will be honoring them for their public service.”
Other honorees include Red Bank RiverCenter, which will receive the Outstanding Community Service Award; the Two River Theater, the Cultural and Arts Award; Gerry Eisner, the Historical Legacy Award; Downtown Investors, the Urban Development Award; and Seals Eastern, the Manufacturing and Technology Award.
The ‘bridge‘ is in. Following a six-month construction sprint, securities broker Morgan Stanley Smith Barney completed the consolidation of its Red Bank offices into a single location at Broad Street and Linden Place this week, said Jay Herman, a principal in Downtown Investors, which owns the property. The expanded space includes a suspended structure linking two existing buildings, as seen at right last January. (Click to enlarge)
The addition will connect two existing buildings while permitting vehicles to pass underneath. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Framed by talk about its positive effects on lunchtime restaurant business, a plan for an office bridge between two downtown buildings won easy approval from the Red Bank zoning board Thursday night.
With no objectors present, the plan by property owner Downtown Investors drew a smattering of questions about window placement and parking, as well as praise by board members.
“I do want to say, another wonderful project by the Hermans,” said member Karen Waldmann, speaking of Downtown Investors principals Jay and Todd Herman.
The two Linden Place buildings above would be connected at the second floor, as seen in the rendering, below. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
One of the Wall Street brokerages that help stock Red Bank’s downtown office population is looking skyward as it plans an expansion.
Morgan Stanley, which occupies nearly all of two adjoining office buildings on Broad Street and Linden Place, wants to connect them at the second-floor level, according to plans on file with the borough.
The big-box retailer will lease a space less than a quarter the size of its average store at 137-139 Broad Street.
Staples Inc., the big-box office supply retailer, is coming to Red Bank.
But the giant seller of everything from pens to desktop computers won’t be opening one of its warehouse-sized stores here. Instead, it’ll be trying out a relatively new micro store, dubbed Staples Copy & Print, that will feature the services of the print shops in the big-box Staples plus the top 1,000 items available on their shelves.
Jay Herman, principal of site owner Downtown Investors LLC, tells redbankgreen that Staples has signed a lease for 4,000 square feet at 137-139 Broad Street, three doors up from the intersection of Harding Road.