City officials are scheduled to meet with a developer this week to discuss a project centered around the former Elizabethtown Gas Building at the corner of Hamilton Street and Central Avenue. A presentation to the Redevelopment Agency is expected at its next meeting, April 4.
Continue reading Artist housing explored for gas building site
The Redevelopment Agency last night officially agreed to consider uses other than those permitted in the redevelopment agreement for the former Kelly’s Pub property.
A principal of the proposed KC Jazz Club at 1646-54 Irving St. (Block 162, Lots 5-7) made his case to commissioners at their meeting last month, arguing that financing evaporated while annual costs continue unabated. A restriction limiting the property to use as a jazz club apparently also hindered any potential sale or new developer to resurrect the project.
(Note the new sign in recent weeks, “Commercial Building Available,” on the left in the photo above, juxtaposed with the one on the right that says: “Coming Soon! KC Jazz Restaurant.”)
The resolution was adopted during a special meeting last night, a week after a lack of quorum for last week’s regularly-scheduled meeting did not allow for official action to be taken.
Check out this piece from Crain’s New York Business about Brooklyn’s Myrtle Avenue. Twenty years ago, you’d be told to avoid the Clinton Hill neighborhood’s “crime-ridden main drag.” Today, 97 percent of the businesses are locally owned, with eight new arrivals in the past year, and 78 percent of them are minorities and/or women.
The story provides some details about community leaders and longtime residents creating a revitalization project in 1999 that has morphed into a business improvement district with an annual budget of $1 million thanks to money from the city, private foundations and fees on local landlords.
The requirement that only a jazz club/restaurant can be developed at the former Kelly’s Pub property looks like it will be lifted by the Redevelopment Agency, allowing other options to be pursued for the site.
Continue reading Restriction likely to be lifted for jazz site
Work is coming along on the Hamilton Stage for Performing Arts with walls recently going up to cover most of the steel. The $5.825-million project is slated to be complete by next spring.Years ago, the Redevelopment Agency agreed to sell the former Kelly’s Pub on the condition that the property at the corner of Irving Street and Seminary Avenue be turned into a jazz club and restaurant.
Serious financial issues have plagued the proposed KC Jazz Club to the extent that developers would like to explore selling the property as a simple tavern — only they would need the agency’s approval first. In a Sept. 19 letter to the Redevelopment Agency, Union-based attorney Ronald Esposito, representing E.T. Building, LLC, asks for a meeting to discuss issues in hopes of resolving “what appears to be a very serious financial problem.”
“The only possible way my client can recoup some of their money and reduce their loss, would be to explore the sale of the property and liquor license without the restriction that the facility must be a restaurant/jazz club,” Esposito wrote, adding that Realtors have indicated it would be easier to sell the property without the restriction that a jazz club and restaurant be built.
The property, at 1646-1654 Irving St. (Block 162, Lots 5-7), was acquired for $398,000 in April 2004, according to PropertyShark.com, and pays about $5,500 in property taxes. Only a few weeks ago, the KC Jazz Club website was still active, featuring the rendering below, and proclaiming a 2012 opening. The website was suspended sometime in the past couple of weeks.
City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said the attorney should be advised to come before the agency with an update. He told commissioners that the agency “shouldn’t just arbitrarily approve it” but wait for the applicant to present a plan for what to do. The intent of the redevelopment agreement, and the agency selling the property, was for a jazz bar/restaurant, Agency Attorney Frank Regan said, so they would have to come back to the agency for approval to make it simply a tavern.
Esposito details issues the developer has had with financing, including an original $1.5-million mortgage from RSI bank that fell through and a partner defaulted on sale of another property, the proceeds of which would have helped to fund the jazz club effort. Over the past three years, Esposito writes, his client has reduced the cost of the building from $2.3 million to $1.7 million in a failed effort to secure financing from a bank and then private investor. He claims that the anticipated value of the building was agreed upon at $1.75 million when completed ($2.3 million with the restaurant operational).
The bank was to extend a mortgage of $1.5 million, which was reduced to $1 million, Esposito said, which may or may not still be available since about six months ago RSI insisted on payment of the initial $400,000 mortgage money advance used for the property and monthly payments of $2,685 since April. [You can read the full text of the letter here.]
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| What site looked like two years ago |
In addition, Esposito explains that since December 2005 contract entered into with the agency, his client had to purchase a liquor license for $40,000, and pay annual licensing fees of $2,100 to the city and $200 to the state. He also details $32,000 in costs to obtain Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permits, $15,000 in costs to obtain variances from the city, and $120,000 for engineering and architectural planning.
In a postscript (P.S.) to his letter, the attorney suggested that due to the length of time involved the agency consider, as an alternative, the temporary abatement of taxes and ABC fees until the matter is resolved.
A 10-year lease agreement between the Redevelopment Agency and Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) for the Hamilton Stage began Oct. 1.
Redevelopment Agency commissioners adopted a resolution at their September meeting authorizing the lease, which will last through September 2011 2021.
The Redevelopment Agency, which has “no intention of operating [the site], other than the use of parking to support other downtown activities when no performances are being held,” will receive $100 per year, according to the resolution. The 14,000-square-foot Hamilton Stage will have a “200-seat proscenium theater with rehearsal hall, flexible 50-seat public space, dressing room and other support facilities.”The Redevelopment Agency owns the former Bell Building (Tax Block 167 – Lots 38, 39) that’s being renovated as well as the former Hamilton Laundry site (Block 167 – Lots 44, 45) where a parking lot is planned. Both projects are expected to be completed in the spring.
Interesting story from the Upper East Side/East Harlem (“Carnegie Hill” now, apparently), about artist space and housing, which Rahway has been planning to do.
A vacant, former school on the Upper East Side/East Harlem will be rehabbed into affordable artist housing, according to this report from DNAinfo.com. Vacant for 15 years, the 113-year old Gothic Revival style building will be transformed into 90 affordable homes for artists and include 10,000 square feet of space for arts groups. The former P.S. 109 will be called El Barrio’s Artspace and is being developed by a Minnesota-based nonprofit, Artspace, with El Barrio’s Operation Fightback.
The project has been in development for five years, amid a number of changes, including the size increasing from 70 to 90 units. Construction would begin in December and take two years, according to the report.
The Redevelopment Agency last month authorized the second of three $100,000 payments to the Arts District to cover start-up costs of the Hamilton Stage for Performing Arts.
The Arts District and the Redevelopment Agency entered into a shared services agreement in January, with the agency agreeing to provide $300,000 in increments of $100,000 per year, based on the availability of funding.
The Arts District has “used and intends to continue to use the funding for costs associated with support, encouragement and promotion of the arts in Rahway and associated economic development,” including the start-up operation and management of the Hamilton Stage, a 200-seat black box studio being constructed on Hamilton Street (Tax Block 167, Lots 38, 39, 42, 44 and 45), according to the resolution adopted by the Redevelopment Agency at its Sept. 7 meeting.
As of last month, about $30,000 remains from the first $100,000 payment, according to Arts District Executive Director James Kennedy. Funding has been used primarily for the development of the three-year launch plan and projected budgets for the Hamilton Stage, he said, adding that they’re now moving into grant development, fundraising strategy, lease agreements, booking and implementation.
This month, a contract was entered into with Front of House Services, a Madison-based consultant that will see the project through the opening (expected next spring) and operating the first two years, Kennedy said.
A friend passed along this story from The Atlantic, “Descendants of the High Line,” spotlighting four efforts around the country inspired by New York City’s wildly popular High Line, including the closest to home, Jersey City’s The Embankment.
Two months after rejecting bids for the amphitheater parking lot project, the Redevelopment Agency awarded a $1.1-million contract to Gingerelli Bros at its meeting earlier this month. Berto Construction submitted a bid of $1.6 million. Bids were received July 29.
A pre-construction meeting is scheduled for next week, City Engineer James Housten said, after which construction should begin, including work on drainage, stream bank stabilization, curbing and lighting foundations. Work is expected to be completed in conjunction with renovations of the Hamilton Stage, which is expecting to be finished in the spring. Toms River-based Gingerelli Bros. also is the firm that was awarded the $5.825-million contract for the Hamilton Stage.
The Redevelopment Agency early this year decided to delay building the amphitheater and instead build about 115 parking spaces in the interim.
The center stairs of the inbound platform of Rahway Train Station finally opened today, approximately 18 months after they were closed for repairs. 18 months. NJ Transit also issued an advisory this week that as part of repairs to the elevator on the outbound platform (which are expected to last until early next month), travelers will not be able to use the sidewalk to the corner of Milton Avenue and Broad Street from Monday to Thursday of next week due to the installation of a pump and tank next to the pedestrian tunnel.