Several residents of the adjacent Riverwalk townhouse development appeared before the Planning Board last Tuesday night to question the application and remedy concerns about illicit activity at the site.
Principals of Ratan Rahway, the developer, promised that the new hotel will not 
accept Section 8 (welfare) housing, as is the case with the Kings Inn. As a franchise, the hotel would be expected twice a year to continue to operate under one of the Wyndham brands.
Plans are to renovate the existing rooms, along with turning the tower in a two-story structure. They expect to invest $800,000 to $900,000 in renovations. While the original two-story structure will not be razed, developers said they plan to have a new facade, roof and all new furniture and amenities in each room, along with eliminating the existing floor-to-ceiling windows, which was a concern for some residents. New fencing also will be erected between the hotel site and adjacent townhouse development.
The property (1360 Route 1/Block 304, Lots 5-6) last changed hands in 2004, when it was purchased for about $1.1 million from LTL Hotel Corp. by The Rahway Tower, LLC, according to PropertyShark.com.
Great! I’m looking forward to a place to take my dates after dinner at David Drake. Hotel Indigo is expensive … we all have to make cuts in this tough economic climate.
There are still Ho Jo motels out there? I thought they went out of the biz. Are there any in this area?
I always wondered why people would be willing to buy half-million dollar townhouses right there. The river side is lovely. The opposite side is quite not. Kind of an important thing to think about with that kind of investment, right?
Here’s why those townhouses went for a half-million: it’s 2005, real estate is going up 20% annually, by 2007 they’ll be worth three-quarters of a million, and when the downtown renovation is done by 2010, Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, and all, those townhouses will be close to a million. Paying a half-million for a townhouse in Rahway fits the Greater Fool principle: the absurd price is sustained by the belief that the home can be sold to someone willing to pay even more money at some point in the future (ideally before the ARM resets).
since when was this planned to be a super 8? the last time we went to riverwalk the man in the sales office told us they were planning to build apts there (granted that was over 6 months ago…)
Melanie, I posted about the Super 8 in last April. At that time, I was told that Diversified had been in discussions to build another three dozen units or so on the Kings Inn property, but it was too costly due to environmental issues. I don’t recall if it was waterfront issues (because of the proximity to the river) or soil remediation of some kind.