There are more than 300 residential properties on the city’s foreclosure registry, as of Sept. 1, including almost 100 vacant properties.
Continue reading More than 300 properties on foreclosure registry
Category Archives: Foreclosure
Council tweaks property maintenance measures
City Council last week introduced a trio of ordinances related to property maintenance, including changes to the foreclsoure registry created last year.
Continue reading Council tweaks property maintenance measures
Ordinance would create foreclosure registry
The City Council introduced an ordinance this month that would require the registration and maintenance of properties that are vacant or in foreclosure. A public hearing and final approval of the ordinance (O-31-14) is scheduled at the council’s Aug. 11 regular meeting. Continue reading Ordinance would create foreclosure registry
Foreclosed Riverwalk units will become rentals
The 19 Riverwalk townhouses that went into foreclosure will be turned into rental units before the end of the year.
Englewood-based Real Estate Equities Group acquired the 19 townhouses for $111,842 each, according to property records, which works out to a total of roughly $2,124,998.
Greg Van Cleef of Real Estate Equities Group said renovations to the existing townhouses should be completed by Dec. 15. One unit was completed prior to acquisition but others only had rough work done, with plywood floors and Sheetrock. Renovations will include granite counter tops and other amenities.
Rents will range from $2,250 to $3,000, according to Van Cleef. The 19 units are two-bedrooms with a den but some have garages while others have lofts. The foreclosed units range from 1,350 to 1,745 square feet. Tax assessments range from $151,000 (one unit) to $179,300 (three units), with property taxes from a low of $9,131 to highs of $10,842. The 19 units have a total tax assessment of $3.2 million, with an average assessment of $168,437, yielding an average property tax bill of $10,186. Eight are located on Genovese Lane, another five on Hancock Street, and three each on Danchetz Court and Barnhardt Lane.
Real Estate Equities Group specializes in apartment rentals and this is their first property in Rahway, attracted by the proximity to downtown and the train station, according to Van Cleef.
More than half of the owner-occupied Riverwalk units have successfully appealed their tax assessments in recent years (about 24 in 2011 and eight in 2012). Collectively, the 86 Riverwalk units had a tax assessment of $14.4 million, yielding almost $825,000 in property taxes before appeals. The overall assessments have since dropped by 5 percent, to a total $13.6 million. About 30 units that sold have not appealed their tax assessments.
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The average sale price for the 68 Riverwalk units sold by the original developer was about $444,000, an aggregate sum of nearly $32 million, according to my calculations. Fewer than 10 units sold a second time, and many at significantly lower prices.
Bank Of America foreclosed on remaining unsold Riverwalk units in late 2009. Now-defunct Diversified Communities constructed a total of 86 townhomes as part of the Essex Street-area development, with many selling for $400,000 and $500,000 during the housing boom around 2006 and 2007, but 19 went unsold before the developer skipped town. The $5.255-million Sheriff’s Sale on the 19 unsold units took place Aug. 15, 2012 and was acquired by VFC Properties in Waco, Texas, a part of FirstCity Financial Corporation, which is dedicated primarily to “distressed asset acquisitions and special situations investments.” This was the first sale after the foreclosure.
City forecloses on 65 E. Cherry St.
The city has begun the process to foreclose on 65 E. Cherry St., where a fire-ravaged building was razed almost two years ago.
Plan moves forward for top floor of Carriage City
The top floor of Sky View at Carriage City Plaza will be renovated into 20 mostly one-bedroom apartments this year after the Planning Board granted a parking variance last week.
Under the revised redevelopment plan, approved by City Council last month, residential units within the downtown redevelopment area are required to provide 1.25 parking spaces while the previous plan required one per unit. The project already had been approved for an additional seven units units on the 17th floor — for a total 232 units in the building — but a parking variance was needed since seven units now would require nine parking spaces.
The 17th floor has been unoccupied and used as a staging area for materials that were supposed to be built as part of what was planned to be a penthouse level of two- and three-bedroom units, according to architect Greg Waga of Rahway-based Waga Enterprises. Instead, 20 rental units will be built (18 one-bedrooms and two two-bedrooms), along with amenities for residents only: a fitness center, WiFi library, and club room. Waga anticipates construction will begin around Memorial Day and continue into the fall.
Sky View’s owner has found that one- and two-bedroom units, ranging room 800 to 1,100 square feet, are very marketable in this area, Waga said, and the new design is more functional and a better use of the space. About 60 units of Sky View are owner occupied and the remaining 152 are rental units, which range in occupancy from 75 percent (114 units) to 85 percent (174), he said, adding that the leasing agent has a goal of reaching 85 percent this spring.
Waga presented a plan last October to the Redevelopment Agency to convert the 17th floor into apartments. He deferred questions about any possible uses for the rooftop to building manager Joe LoMonaco. There was talk that the original developer, who went into foreclosure after selling barely a third of the units, planned to use the rooftop for some type of bar or restaurant for use by residents and/or hotel guests.
Given the location and transit-oriented development, a mitigating factor is that the plan offers fewer but larger units, said Paul Phillips, planner to the Planning Board, adding that nearly all of the 20 additional units being one-bedrooms lowers the parking demand.
Attorney Christopher Armstrong presented a letter from the Parking Authority indicating they were satisfied with seven spaces. A daily count in the Lewis Street parking deck by the Parking Authority reveals an average of 246 vehicles, less than half of the 524-space capacity, he said, with uncovered portions of the deck sometimes being closed. There are a fair number of Sky View residents that do not have cars, which is part of the reason why the building was built where it was built, Armstrong told the Planning Board.
Sheriff’s sale of Riverwalk this week
Postponed twice, the Union County Sheriff’s Sale of the 19 unsold, foreclosed Riverwalk townhouses is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday (Aug. 16). The $5.255-million sheriff’s sale originally was scheduled in February, then postponed again in April on the townhouses that went into foreclosure in late 2009.
Riverwalk sheriff’s sale postponed
A sheriff’s sale on unsold units at Riverwalk originally scheduled last month has been postponed until April 11. Redevelopment Agency attorney Frank Regan briefed commissioners on the sale at their meeting last month.