RED BANK: BANK DOWNSIZING AT CORNER
A sign recently installed outside one of Red Bank’s most prominent business addresses says there’s space “for lease” in the building, now home to a single tenant: Wells Fargo Bank.
RED BANK: TESLA TRYOUT UPDATED
The borough-owned Tesla gets recharged at a station intended for public use. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s borough government is not yet ready to pull the plug on a donated Tesla sedan, even though keeping the vehicle charged up has been a challenge, interim Business Administrator Darren McConnell tells redbankgreen.
RED BANK: DENHOLTZ PLANS MASSIVE PROJECT
Denholtz’s plan would cover several NJ Transit parking lots, as well as company-owned sites. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Denholtz Properties is negotiating to create a massive new development at the Red Bank train station, redbankgreen has learned.
The company’s plan is dependent on the borough designating a swath of sites around the station as redevelopment area, CEO Steve Denholtz said in an interview this week.
RED BANK: $2M CENTER REPAIRS ON AGENDA
Almost $2 million in funding for repairs to Red Bank’s leak-damaged Senior Center is on the table when the borough council holds workshop and regular voting sessions Wednesday night.
RED BANK: BOROUGH MAY GET USED TESLA
Nancy and Phil Blackwood with the car they’ve offered to the town. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A fire-engine red Tesla sedan may become part of the Red Bank municipal fleet this week, pending the acceptance of a proposed donation by a borough couple.
RED BANK: CENTER REPAIR PLANS TWEAKED
Phil Blackwood, at left, addressing architect Pradeep Kapoor during the first of two sessions Wednesday. Below, the Senior Center floor plan. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Repair plans for Red Bank’s long-shuttered Senior Center may get some final tweaks following a pair of public comment sessions held Wednesday.
Suggestions ranged from small (add a door buzzer) to large (dig a basement).
RED BANK: CENTER REPAIR FORUMS SLATED
Red Bank officials have slated two sessions to solicit comments on plans for repairs to the long-closed Senior Center.Â
RED BANK: SENIORS MARK END OF SUMMER
Dozens of Red Bank senior citizens attended the borough Senior Center‘s annual end-of-summer cookout, hosted at the Westside Hose firehouse on Leighton Avenue Friday.
RED BANK: CENTER REPAIR FORUM(S) POSSIBLE
The Senior Center has been idle since a fire suppression system leak in January, 2019. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Six months after the Red Bank council agreed to repair the water-damaged Senior Center, a presentation – or two – is in the works to get public input on the plans.
RED BANK: AGENCY APPOINTEE SILENT
Cherron Rountree, bottom left, during the agency’s meeting Tuesday. (Zoom screengrab. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The prospective new manager of the Red Bank Redevelopment Agency appeared onscreen without introduction during its monthly meeting Tuesday evening.
Cherron Rountree, who now serves as township administrator in Holmdel, also did not speak, even as former council member Cindy Burnham said her appointment should be halted by a pending sexual harassment lawsuit in which Rountree is a defendant.
RED BANK: AGENCY CALLS FOR $9.3M YARD
A Google Maps satellite view of the public works yard and adjoining property to the east, roughly outlined in red. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank should move quickly to bond for an overhauled public works facility, according to a recommendation adopted by the Redevelopment Agency Tuesday evening.
Estimated cost, including the acquisition of property adjacent to the Chestnut Street site: $9.3 million.
RED BANK: LONG APART, SENIORS MEET ANEW
Dottie Ferris, at right, greeting friends at the event Thursday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Apart for months, Red Bank seniors enjoyed a pandemic-era get-together outside the temporary home of the borough Senior Center Thursday.
“It’s so nice to see everyone and talk, even if you don’t know everyone,” said 92-year-old Dottie Ferris, a resident of the Wesleyan Arms senior apartments on Wall Street, as she sat at a table outdoors. At home, “all I do is watch TV and eat,” she said.
RED BANK: COUNCIL INITIATES REBUILD
The Senior Center occupies a stand-alone building on Shrewsbury Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council moved to jumpstart repairs to water-damaged Senior Center Wednesday night, one day after a recommendation by the Redevelopment Agency that it do so.
But even enroute to a unanimous vote, the measure churned up bitterness among the all-Democratic governing body.
RED BANK: SENIOR CENTER FIX-UP ADVANCES
The backyard of the mothballed Senior Center overlooking the upper Navesink River. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A proposal to repair Red Bank’s mothballed Senior Center without adding any new facilities won a Redevelopment Agency endorsement Tuesday evening.
The action could defuse one of the hottest issues in a contested Democratic race for two council seats just six weeks before a primary vote.
RED BANK: BANK DIMS LIGHTING TO WIN OK
The bank agreed to remove the lights behind the red logo atop its ATM machine, but said the site overall was inadequately lit under state regulations. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Wells Fargo dodged likely planning board rejection when it agreed to dial back an illumination plan for its Red Bank branch Monday night.
The fact that the property is under review as a possible new home for borough government also lit up the conversation.
RED BANK: POSSIBLE TOWN HALL SITE ID’D
The building at Broad Street and East Bergen Place has served as a branch for various banks since 1965. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Redevelopment Agency is looking at a Broad Street bank site as a possible future home for borough government.
Emphasis on “possible.” But the Wells Fargo branch at the corner of East Bergen Place has attributes that may make it “viable,” borough Business Administrator Ziad Shehady said at the agency’s monthly meeting Tuesday.
RED BANK: DREAMING BIG ABOUT RIVERVIEW
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.
RED BANK: AGENCY PRESSED ON SENIOR HALL
David Huber, center top, began what he said would be his last year as redevelopment agency chairman. (Photo from Zoom. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank residents pressed the borough’s Redevelopment Agency to save the Shrewsbury Avenue Senior Center Tuesday.
RED BANK: HEAD-ON PARKING TO BE REQUIRED
With the reconstruction of the White Street parking lot nearing completion, the Red Bank council moved last week to keep newly created walkways clear for pedestrians.
The council introduced a parking ordinance amendment that requires vehicles to be parked “head-on” into spaces, rather than backed in.
RED BANK: WHITE STREET DISRUPTION FEARED
Kris Winters says her White Street shop, Cabana 19, was just getting back on its feet from last year’s streetscape disruption when the pandemic hit. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank construction project looms large for some business owners as they start to crawl out from under one of the worst economic crises in American history.
They’re pleading for “empathy” as they try to avoid a third consecutive blow in one year.
RED BANK: PARKING SYSTEM TO GET MAKEOVER
Interim parking director Tom Calu with a smart meter at Wednesday’s presentation. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s entire inventory of parking meters and kiosks is slated for replacement, borough officials said Wednesday, as they debuted a ‘smart’ meter scheduled for rollout curbside early next year.
Meantime, the search for a parking director, the foremost recommendation of a parking study released in January, has been “disappointing,” the official leading the search told redbankgreen.
RED BANK: NEW PARKING METERS TO DEBUT
Red Bank is planning to replace its coin-operated parking meters, and the public will get a chance this week to weigh in Wednesday on the changes they’ll bring. More →
RED BANK: PUSHBACK OVER REDEV CONTRACT
Commissioner Megan Massey pressed agency manager Ken DeRoberts on differences in prices quoted for a contract. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s new Redevelopment Agency began doling out work to professionals Tueday, and one member immediately tapped the brakes on spending.
At its monthly meeting Tuesday, Commissioner Megan Massey signaled a reluctance to approve a contract that had been recommended by the agency’s manager.
RED BANK: REDEV AGENCY INCHES AHEAD
Wilson Beebe recommended some tweaks to the agency’s statement of goals and objectives. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Still taking small steps, Red Bank’s new Redevelopment Agency advanced on its goal of giving municipal properties some long-overdue attention Tuesday.
In a 20-minute meeting, agency members agreed to begin the process of assessing the condition of borough real estate holdings.
RED BANK: NEW AGENCY EYES TOWN ASSETS
Among the ideas the committee may take up: the possible sale of borough hall, above, at 90 Monmouth Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A new municipal body with the potential to exert powerful influence on the future of Red Bank quietly took to the stage Tuesday.
Not quite the hottest ticket in town, the late-afternoon session of the new Redevelopment Agency drew an audience of three: two advisory committee members, who left early, and a reporter. But the ideas being floated, including the possible sale of borough hall, could soon move to the spotlight.