City Council tabled two ordinances to acquire three lots at the corner of Irving Street and Seminary Avenue Monday night while approving a contract for environmental services on the parcels.

Two measures that were introduced during the council’s meeting in November were tabled. The first ordinance (O-29-19) authorizes the purchase of the property and the second (O-32-19) would appropriate $550,000 for the acquisition. Both were tabled because the administration is still doing due diligence on the purchase, according to Lauren Ferrigno, the city’s public relations coordinator. Barring a special meeting being called, approval of the ordinances could come at the next meeting, to be scheduled in the new year.

The governing body also adopted a resolution (AR-254-19) to award a $9,500 contract to Middletown-based T&M Associates for professional environmental services on the property. The work includes “preparation of preliminary assessment/geophysical survey.” In a brief interview after last week’s Redevelopment Agency meeting, City Administrator Robert Landolfi described the work essentially due diligence ahead of the acquisition.

The three parcels (Block 162, Lots 5, 6 and 7), located at 1646-8 and 1654 Irving Street, currently generate a property tax bill of about $13,000 based on combined tax assessments of $183,700, and are adjacent to six properties that recently were included in a plan for redevelopment. At one point, the property was planned as a home to a jazz club, even garnering Planning Board approval in 2007 before plans petered out and the site was sold to the current owner.

An Aug. 29, 2019 memo from Hoboken-based Stack, Coolahan & Stack valued the property at approximately $515,000.

The 16,552-square-foot corner site is home to a vacant, mixed-use building, with about 91 feet of frontage along Irving Street and 97 feet along Seminary Avenue

“Interior retrofit/renovations have been made by the current owner to use part of the existing building envelope, however, in my professional opinion, that alternative is not the most economically productive choice,” according to the memo by Maurice Stack. “Instead I have determined that demolition of the existing improvement pave way  for redevelopment best reflects the mindset of the most likely buyer in today’s market,” he wrote.

Zoning guidelines permit a three-story structure and density of 50 units per acre, based on parcels of less than 20,000 square feet and Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 3.0. “These guidelines provide a prospective developer with an opportunity to building a highly desirable, 19-unit, mixed-use building supported by ground-floor retail and parking,” Stack wrote.

Sales of land purchased for the same or similar highest and best use have reflected pricing of about $30,000 per unit, subject to approvals. Stack estimated a 10-percent discount to reflect “as-is” valuation, so about $27,000 per unit, at 19 potential units, arrives at the $515,000 price