Business Administrator Ziad Shehady in December, above. Below, the council plans to advance plans for the redevelopment of the former VNA headquarters at 176 Riverside Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A report on a claim of workplace discrimination and a step toward the building of what could become one of Red Bank’s largest residential projects are on the borough council’s agenda for Wednesday night.
At his last meeting as a councilman, Mark Taylor posed with his infant son, Cole, as his wife, Ashley, took their photo. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council wrapped up 2018 last week with swan songs for two one-term members of the governing body, one of whom was the youngest ever elected in the borough’s history.
The site, at 176 Riverside Avenue, is seen as integral to the borough’s efforts to provide affordable housing. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council took steps Wednesday to allow as many as 90 housing units per acre on a key redevelopment site.
But the proposed rezoning of the former Visiting Nurse Association headquarters site would negate a compromise recommendation made by the planning board just last week.
Borough hall would get a new phone system under a contract up for approval by the council. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Here’s a preview of the Red Bank borough council’s agenda for its semimonthly meeting Wednesday night:
Red Bank is negotiating a deal under which the developer would satisfy a “significant” portion of the town’s affordable housing obligation, a lawyer told the board. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The site of a vacant office building in Red Bank is a key element in meeting the borough’s affordable housing obligations, a lawyer told the planning board Monday night.
But a proposal to allow the development of up to 90 units per acre on the 2.7-acre former Visiting Nurse Association headquarters site met continued resistance, despite support from Mayor Pasquale Menna.
Density giveaways at the former VNA site were an issue for planning board members last month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
[UPDATE: Meeting cancelled for lack of quorum. Next one scheduled for November 19.]
By JOHN T. WARD
On the agenda for Monday night’s Red Bank planning board meeting: continued discussion about whether to create an overlay zone for the former Visiting Nurse Association site, and a plan to build two new homes on Bank Street.
The former VNA building sits on 2.7 acres at the corner of Riverside Avenue and Bodman Place. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A recommended new overlay zone that would allow generous density bonuses won’t be on the Red Bank council’s agenda for its next meeting Wednesday night.
That’s because members of the planning board, which was tasked with reviewing the proposal, think it gives too much away to the affected site’s new owner.
The former VNA headquarters, at Riverside Avenue and Bodman Place, is on track to designation for special redevelopment rights. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s elected officials were in redevelopment mode Wednesday night, advancing two measures that could reshape the landscape.
One tapped a consulting firm to set up a redevelopment agency to oversee downtown projects. The other initiated a process under which the former VNA Health Group headquarters could be replaced with high-density housing.
Located at Broad and West Front streets, Saxum’s latest acquisition has Urban Outfitters as its sole ground-floor tenant. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Morris County-based real estate investment firm has acquired one of downtown Red Bank’s oldest and most prominent commercial structures.
The purchase of the home of an Urban Outfitters store by an arm of Saxum Real Estate is the firm’s third major investment in the town in the past 18 months, and the first for occupied space.
The former VNA headquarters building on Riverside Avenue, with the Colony House apartments at right. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The massive former VNA Health Group headquarters in Red Bank would be demolished and replaced with multifamily residential housing under a plan in the works, redbankgreen has learned.
The former VNA headquarters building on Riverside Avenue has been acquired by an office developer. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s municipal coffers are about to be bolstered by the addition to the tax rolls of a major office building.
“It is now taxable,” Mayor Pasquale Menna said Wednesday about the former VNA Health Group headquarters, following a report by app.com that the property had been acquired by a private developer for $7.4 million.
A car, at right, waits for a break in the traffic to turn onto Riverside Avenue from Bodman Place. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Creating a new signal-controlled intersection on a busy stretch of Red Bank highway near the Molly Pitcher Inn is “not feasible,” according to the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
Still, Mayor Pasquale Menna is hoping the DOT will reconsider its oft-stated position if and when there’s a new owner of the former VNA Health Group headquarters building, located on a problematic corner, he told redbankgreen Monday.
Emergency responders working to remove the victims, who were trapped inside their vehicle. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
[This post has been updated since originally posted.]
By JOHN T. WARD
Two people were injured after the vehicle in which they were traveling plowed into a Red Bank office building Thursday morning.
The VNA’s departure could put its headquarters building on the tax rolls. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The VNA Health Group is quitting Red Bank, leaving behind a large empty building that could wind up on the tax rolls of a borough whose officials complain often about the high number of nonprofits.
Heck, it would even make a great hotel, Mayor Pasquale Menna tells redbankgreen.
Three dozen readers recognized the building shown in last week’s Where Have I Seen This?, even though the view was of the back wall of a gas station.
Hmmm…
One passenger was airlifted to a trauma center after the VNA van at right collided with the dump truck, at left. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A passenger injured when a tour van collided with a dump truck in Rumson Thursday is in critical condition, authorities said Friday.
Details about the incident remained undisclosed as authorities withheld the identity of the victim, by name, age, town of residence or gender. The passenger was transported by helicopter to Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune after the crash.
Nine people were in the Visiting Nurse Association van, said First Assistant Prosecutor Rick Incremona of the Monmouth County Prosecutor‘s office, which is investigating. Two incurred minor injuries, he said.
No charges have been filed, said Incremona, who declined to identify the van’s driver.
Emergency personnel place the victim in a MONOC helicopter that landed at Rumson-Fair Haven regional to transport her to Jersey Shore Medical Center. The damaged van, below. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Visiting Nurse Association van carrying “multiple” sightseers on an annual tour of grand homes smashed into a dump truck in Rumson early Thursday afternoon, seriously injuring one passenger.
The victim, who was not immediately identified, was transported by MONOC helicopter to the trauma center at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, said police Chief Scott Paterson.
Two other passengers may have also been taken to a hospital lesser injuries, said Paterson, who added that information was still being gathered by investigators shortly before 3 p.m.
Judith Stanley Coleman at the opening of the Tiffany store in Red Bank in November, 2007. (Click to enlarge)
Judith Stanley Coleman, an ardent land conservationist and philanthropist from Middletown, died Sunday, according to an announcement today by the Monmouth County Historical Association, of whose board she was president.
