The city will buy the former Beverage Shop for $80,000 — $50,000 less than what the Rahway Center Partnership (RCP) paid for it nine years ago.
The City Council l
ast week approved an $80,000 bond ordinance to acquire the East Cherry Street building, with a down payment of $4,000 coming from the Capital Improvement Fund. City Council in March approved an ordinance to acquire the property and begin negotiations and appraisals.
The Rahway Center Partnership bought the one-story structure at 52 E. Cherry St., (Block 318, Lot 18) in April 2001 for $130,000, and had an agreement by July 2006 to sell it to Dornoch, which last year defaulted on the agreement. Assessed at $129,600, the building paid property taxes of almost $6,200, according to PropertyShark.com.
I'm sorry but I don't understand. The city bought the shop from the RCP? Isn't the RCP an arm of the city? What was the purpose of the transaction?
RCO is not part of the City. They are a not for profit group that is broke.
What is the city's intention with this property? What is planned? I think this was previously going to be demolished to add access to the parking deck to be constructed behind this block. Is any of that plan still active?
RCP is not an arm of the city, though the city does have/had some representation on its board and it did receive revenue from the Special Improvement District tax of about $140k annually, which the city recently shifted to the arts district.As anon2 indicated, the RCP is a nonprofit, <$500k in overall annual revenue — at least according to the most recent tax form (June 2008). It remains a nonprofit, but no longer has a paid executive director or staff since it essentially ran out of money several months ago. It remains more of a all-volunteer organization that plans fundraisers, like the wine tasting and Hot Rods & Harleys.As for the plan for the Beverage Shop, I hadn't heard anything about razing it for the parking deck – which at this point is several years away at least, considering the plan to add surface parking where the mound of dirt currently lies. Ideally, the city probably would like to just flip the property to a developer or anyone who would do something with it.
Make it an old fashioned ice cream place. Profit.
It is nice to see that after years, the city has made this property a waste of space. Another good decision to help bail out a group of friends…. Has anyone ever seen this police annex open more then 2 times a year. Seems to go with the non existent police presence in the downtown area.