Demolition of the former Hamilton Laundry building is expected next month. The City Council last Monday night awarded a $281,000 contract to LVI/Mazzocchi Wrecking of East Hanover after the state Department of Environmental Protection approved demolition permits last month.
Conceptual designs for an amphitheater planned at the site, which abuts the Rahway River, have been presented to the Arts District Council, City Administrator/Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said. Construction is expected next spring, to be completed by summer.
Flood
ing last spring (.pdf) proved too much for the Hamilton Laundry site, which at one point had been considered for a comedy club/black box theater, with Joe Piscopo among the investors. Instead, the focus of the Hamilton property will be a park and 1,000-seat amphitheater. A 7,000-square-foot black box theater and 9,000-square-foot performing arts space will focus instead on the nearby Bell building and Elizabethtown Gas property. The Redevelopment Agency is targeting the nearby Shami Apartments on Hamilton Street for 80 units of affordable housing for senior citizens and artists.
Once the amphitheater is completed, funding would be sought to retrofit the Bell building, which might be completed by summer 2010.
I’d love to see what the Hamilton development plans look like. It should be interesting to see how that area turns out.Does anyone else think that the plan to create affordable housing for seniors and artists is an odd mix?The Shami Apartments should be renamed the Shabby Apartments – they look pretty run down. Anything would be an improvement over what’s there now, but I wonder exactly how that’s going to be structured.
Matthew is right again about the “shabby” apartment complex, what a mess that is.Ive seen better kept projects! With the planned senior complex on the church property nearby-it would make sense to make it all artists.
Question, what ever happened to the Essex Street Riverfront Park that was supposed to be finished this spring?
And wasn’t the Riverfront Park supposed to be built with some sort of grant money?
I am a real estate investor and have been attracted to Rahway since 2000 because of all the redevelopment. When, if at all, do you think other house flippers, investors etc., will invest in the sreets around teh Downtown area, because those streets are pretty rundwon, do you think the $$$ will spread and attract personal redevelopment also, and also increase the value of property in a 3-6 block radius of the station??Thanks,Tony
Tony – I don’t think we’ll see many real estate “flippers” anytime soon, in Rahway or anywhere else.I think downtown Rahway (and Rahway as a whole) is trending upward and that in the long-term Rahway real estate will do well as the town continues to improve. But I’m talking about long-term improvement, not short-term real estate speculation. That’s a game I don’t play.In the short-term, I think all the new condos and apartments being completed in the next year will satisfy the short-term demand for more housing downtown, and after those are populated I suspect we’ll slowly start to see more interest in residential redevelopment of some of the run down areas near downtown.This prediction is worth exactly what you paid for it 🙂
The face of Rahway has changed in the past couple years. And it is continuing to change for the better as we speak. And I have no doubt that the downtown developments and businesses will be successful. However, downtown residents primarly include young people and empty nesters. In order for the value and demand for the housing market in Rahway to increase at a faster rate it really depends mainly on the school system since houses attract families. I think the schools will change for the better but that will be a long term lagging indicator of improvement.
Good point, Scott. The public school system is Rahway’s biggest impediment to attracting new families and increasing the overall value of real estate in town. I’m hopeful that the school system will improve, but as you said, that will be a lagging indicator. I’d expect to see steady incremental improvement in the school system from this point forward, but I think it will be at least 10 years until Rahway’s school system goes from a negative factor to a neutral factor for prospective residents; and if Rahway is lucky, 20 years from now the school system might be a net positive for the town. That’s the time frame I see for the school system in Rahway.Are there any parents with kids in the Rahway public school system out there who can comment firsthand on their experience has been?
Is the old fart mr stien alive? he use to own the laundy. what a basterd he was. wanted to be waited on hand and foot. cheapskate to,lol. they should burry him under the new ampatheater. he poluted that property real bad. owed a lot of back taxes the tax cheat,lol. would have been nice if joe could have had a club there.
matthew, Rahway HS has the “Vagelos Scholars” program which provides financial aid grants to graduating RHS seniors who plan on attending the nation’s top colleges. Every year, RHS sends a student or two to an Ivy or comparable institution. I also recall reading an article in your former employer’s paper that mentioned a far larger percentage of RHS students take AP classes than in Linden and Roselle.
Completely off-topic, but as there are no open ended forums (hint hint), I might as well add this to the most current post. Does anyone know what’s going on in that Dornoch Mgmt Building on Main St, where it’s detached leading to the River Place and (former)Back Porch Grill parking lot? Seems like in the last week or so, the offices have filled up and there are rock posters on the wall (Dark Side of the Moon!) and a bunch of young whippersnappers manning the phones seemingly every time I walk past. This evening, around 6:45 the upstairs level had a bunch of people sitting up there appearing as if they were going through some sort of training or seminar kinda thing.
Hey Larry, I saw that too and was wondering the same thing.
I just walked by and they had film trucks outside and one of the store fronts had black bags over the windows.A commercial of some sort or some such thing.ev
Actually a friend of mine just landed a part in the movie that is being filmed in Rahway. It’s supposed to be about a Rock Band. Not sure who is directing it but that is the office where the producers are.