All posts by rahwayrising

Uncategorized

Demolition of fire-damaged apartments to begin

Leave a comment

Almost three months after a fire gutted the nearly-completed Brookside at Rahway apartments on St. Georges Avenue, demolition is scheduled to begin Thursday on the three-story structure.

The plan is to demolish down to the foundation and steel and eventually start the process of rebuilding, according to Jim Sisto of Fanwood-based United Excavating, the firm behind the development of the 50-unit rental complex. Once demolition gets under way, he expects it could take about a month, weather permitting, to take down the structure. If anyone is able to take some photos or video of the demolition, feel free to share.

A four-alarm blaze tore through the building on the morning of Jan. 4. The cause of the fire is still unclear. Police John Rodger said as recently as today he had no new information that he could share. Sisto said he hasn’t gotten any answers from authorities or insurance companies as to the cause of the fire. He believes the cause must be arson given how meticulous he said he keeps his job sites, and there was nothing on site that would have sparked a fire.
UPDATED 3/24: Updated portions in italics.

***

A pretty cool idea recently reported in The Wall Street Journal: “Construction info on the go — New codes on building permits provide Smartphone users with city data”. New York City’s Department of Buildings has started to bring “Quick Response,” or QR codes, similar to bar codes, on all permits for buildings undergoing any type of construction in the city. The information already is available on the city’s website but the QR codes will provide instant access to “a condense mobile version of the Buildings Department webpage, which provides permit and violation history for every building, and already received more than one million views a day.

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

City Council

Council to vote on another $1.6m for arts projects

Leave a comment

The City Council last week introduced an amendment to add $1.6 million to a bond ordinance to cover additional costs associated with the Hamilton Street Arts District projects. A public hearing and final adoption is scheduled at the April 11 council meeting.

The governing body approved two bond ordinances and introduced six others last Monday to borrow funds for various improvements or equipment. We’ll break down the ordinances related to redevelopment projects in  the coming weeks.

An $8.5-million bond ordinance, originally adopted in March 2010, was amended to $10.1 million. The extra $1.6 million would cover additional expenses that were presented to the Redevelopment Agency earlier this month, . The original ordinance included funds for the renovation of the Bell Building into a 200-seat black box theater and related equipment, acquisition of nearby homes for eventual parking, and the future acquisition of the Elizabethtown Gas building at the corner of Hamilton Street and Central Avenue. The $1.6 million would cover, among others things, construction of a parking lot behind the Bell Building and a temporary lot where an 1,100-seat amphitheater is planned.

***

A pretty wonky read, Next American City magazine offers a roundtable entitled The Art of Change, with three experts discussing, among other things, what cities can do to support the arts. Not too long but relevant considering Rahway’s efforts to make the arts a cornerstone of redevelopment efforts. One of the roundtable participants is president of Americans for the Arts, which recently released a study indicating that 41 percent of nonprofit arts groups last year failed to meet a balanced budget, up from 38 percent in 2008, with the “health of the sector at a 12-year low.”

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

City Council

E. Cherry St. eyesore may come down by summer

1 Comment

The City Council Monday night awarded a contract to install a fence around Dornoch’s dormant Savoy property on Main Street and moved forward on demolishing the developer’s East Cherry Street eyesore.

First, the governing body unanimously approved a $16,820 contract to Pollock Installations, Inc. of Woodbridge to install a fence at Dornoch I, a.k.a., The Savoy, at Main and Monroe streets. The council then introduced a $200,000 bond ordinance to cover the cost of the fence installation, as well as the demolition of 65 E. Cherry St., and improvements to Parking Lot B, a.k.a., Dornoch II/The Westbury.

The council is scheduled to approve the bond ordinance at its April 11 meeting. If all goes well, bids for demolition would be awarded by June and demolition could come by summer, according to City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier. The property paid about $1,040 in property taxes last year, according to PropertyShark.com.

During a meeting in December, Redevelopment Agency officials asked Glen Fishman, managing partner of Dornoch, about the possibility of at least installing a fence around The Savoy site, since it’s sitting there just waiting to be vandalized. Given Dornoch’s financial situation, his suggestion was for the city to install the fence and place a lien on the property.

The wall that collapsed at the property last month was not load bearing, according to Richard Watkins, director of the Department of Building, Planning and Economic Development. The building was declared unsafe and the owner was ordered to demolish it, however, he has refused, Watkins said. The city plans to place a lien on the property to recover the cost of demolition.

Dornoch purchased the East Cherry Street property from the Parking Authority for $65,000 (less than the likely cost of demolition) and had proposed renovations to the Planning Board in 2007.

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

Uncategorized

Some more storefront shuffling

6 Comments

Catching up on some more retail turnover in the past few weeks, one of the longest tenured stories on East Cherry Street closed. Big Belly Deli opened in spring 2005 but it looks like the owner has some bigger issues to worry about now.

In case you hadn’t seen this story over the weekend from The Star-Ledger/nj.com, the owner of the deli and another man were accused by police of driving around the Rutgers University campus, shooting deer without hunting permits, and bringing the carcasses back to the deli — oh, and they allegedly were intoxicated too. “Authorities have not determined if the deer meat…allegedly brought into the store was sold to customers,” according to the story.

A “Business For Sale” sign was in the window a couple of weeks ago while the deli had closed in February. I’d heard some rumblings about the reason behind the closing but hadn’t been able to confirm that to post about it.

A newcomer to East Cherry Street appears to be Pet Essentials. Stenciled signage in the window at 43 E. Cherry St. indicates a place called Pet Essentials will be taking up space there. It’s essentially been vacant since the Rahway Art Hive moved down the block to Main Street last summer. The flier in the window seems to indicate an April opening for the pet supply store.

Speaking of The Art Hive, I’ve been told Jim McKeon, the man behind the Art Hive, is on hiatus traveling for the spring and closed up the art gallery and co-op studio last month.

***

A story last month in The New York Times takes a look at continued redevelopment efforts in Asbury Park (Asbury Park’s Boardwalk Revival Moves Inward).

Some key takeaways:

* “Recent development projects and a growing restaurant scene have helped potential investors see the town as one that was ‘moving forward,’ and that its creative history had attracted a passionate crew.”

* Market-rate rents for street-level retail spaces range from $12 to $15 a square foot.

* “A soft economy and a lack of parking and pedestrian traffic had kept business from truly booming.”

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

Uncategorized

Agency discusses potential developer

Leave a comment

Rahway is apparently drawing interest from a developer that has the funding to back a project Redevelopment Director and City Administrator Peter Pelissier told the Redevelopment Agency at its March 2 meeting that he and Mayor Rick Proctor met with a developer within the last couple of weeks who’s “very, very interested,” and has financing available, for development in Rahway. Later in the meeting, the Redevelopment Agency went into closed session for about 40 minutes to discuss the matter.

Government bodies are allowed to close portions of their meetings when discussing matters of personnel or potential litigation.

***

David Ginfrida, owner of David Ginfrida Home Improvements on Elm Avenue, passed away March 10. His obituary appeared in The Star-Ledger and his funeral will be tomorrow morning.

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

Uncategorized

Appraisers’ report expected this month

Leave a comment

An appraiser’s report should be completed by the end of March so the City Council and Redevelopment Agency will know how much additional money will be needed to acquire three remaining homes adjacent to the Bell building, according to Redevelopment Director and City Administrator Peter Pelissier.

The Redevelopment Agency awarded a contract in January to Prime Appraisal of Woodbridge to appraise the three remaining properties between the amphitheater site and the Bell building that it hasn’t yet acquired.

At its meeting this month, where Pelissier briefed commissioners, the Redevelopment Agency awarded a $32,900 contract to Frank Lurch Demolition Co., LLC, of Avon By the Sea for 324-326 Hamilton St. The 2 1/2-story, multifamily home was purchased last summer by the Redevelopment Agency for $240,000. The agency bought the first of the five homes along Hamilton Street in March 2009 for $340,000 and razed it last year.

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

Uncategorized

Coming soon: New train station stairs?

Leave a comment

Be still my heart, it looks like there’s a possibility that the stairs at the Train Station could be repaired by spring.

A recent addition to the board blocking access to the center stairs, near the taxi stand, is a poster that reads similarly as this station advisory on the NJ Transit website (though neither are dated specifically (so let’s hope it’s not a stretch that I’m assuming it means mean May 2011):

“The stairway serving the center of the inbound/eastbound platform (near the elevator) remains closed for necessary repairs. NJ Transit is working through the required permit process and expects construction to begin mid-March and continue through early May.”

An April 2, 2010 advisory noted that the stairs would be closed until further notice for “necessary repairs.” A year later and it would appear the “necessary repairs” were slowed up by the permit process, necessary approvals and paperwork. Just a guess, as there’s no word from NJT.

The most information I could come up with were in the comments to this blog post last year, where readers posted the responses they got from NJT’s customer service: Something about a re-design and approval required from the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA). Who knows, maybe it had to re-bid as well, which would cost a few months at least. I say, let’s have an anniversary party.

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();

Uncategorized

Price tag rising on Arts District projects

Leave a comment

A trio of change-orders and construction costs for additional parking at the Bell building could increase the cost of the Hamilton Street arts projects by as much as $2.1 million.

The Redevelopment Agency on Wednesday approved three change-orders to the Bell building renovation project totaling about $348,000. The largest change-order was $275,000 for site work all the way around the building to the nearest adjacent home, which includes some drainage work. Another change order for $4,500 was for an alternate bid for the roof, and another set aside $68,500 for mold remediation throughout the building.

Mold is on most of the walls, studs and rafters in the Bell building, City Engineer James Housten said during a presentation to the Redevelopment Agency last week. Remediation will be done in two phases: first, clean and demolish the walls, and then the roof and windows will be installed at which point the entire interior can be fogged.

The change-orders increase the $5.825-million contract for the Bell building to $6.173 million, which Housten said was still less than the $6.2 million in the current account for the project. The cost of parking construction, however, came in at a total of almost $1.6 million, including $815,000 for Lot A and $256,000 for Lot B, and another $507,000 for soft costs and contingency.

Lot A, where the amphitheater originally was planned, would have 99 spaces while Lot B would have 58 spaces, along with 16 remaining behind the Bell Building, for a total 173 spaces, almost as many as the 202 seats planned for the black box theater, Housten told commissioners last week.

Construction bids for the Bell building renovations also don’t include the soft costs for architect fees, $281,000; engineering fees, $260,000, and utilities, $25,000. In all, the project could need another $2.1 million, not including bond and legal costs, which is broken down in this Google spreadsheet.

At least one commissioner, Timothy Nash, seemed concerned during discussion of the costs possibly rising to $8 million or more for the projects. “That’s a lot of money,” he said.

If City Council approves financing next month, the city could bid the parking lots and break ground by August, Housten said. If all goes well, both the parking lots and black box theater would open sometime next spring. He reminded commissioners that the parking lot would be available for a lot of other uses, not just the Bell building, such as the Union County Performing Arts Center and downtown activities and restaurants.

The City Council last year approved an $8.5-million bond ordinance for construction of the Hamilton Street arts projects. The Redevelopment Agency in January decided to move forward with the black box theater and build temporary parking at the site of the proposed amphitheater.

_uacct = “UA-2976232-1”;
urchinTracker();