A redevelopment plan commissioned for the north end of downtown would focus on ensuring the financial viability of the Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC).

City Council approved a resolution (AR-253-19) during its regular meeting Monday night to award a $33,000 contract to Red Bank-based Heyer Gruel & Associates for preparation of a redevelopment plan.

City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Robert Landolfi was confident that a redevelopment plan could be completed as soon as the end of next month. The plan would include the recently designated Hamilton Street redevelopment area and surrounding properties but also stretch several blocks in either direction to include publicly held land and buildings on the north end of downtown, Landolfi said in a brief interview after last week’s Redevelopment Agency meeting.

In August, City Council designated six parcels, including the former St. Mark’s property on Hamilton Street, as a condemnation redevelopment area and authorized the preparation of a redevelopment plan for the area. Neighboring areas already are including within the Central Business District Redevelopment Plan. City Council also is poised to acquire three adjacent lots at the corner of Seminary Avenue and Irving Street, where a jazz club once was planned. The nine properties in all would encompass the entire city block from the North Branch of the Rahway River along Hamilton Street and Seminary Avenue west to Gordon Place.

The plan will aim to accentuate the arts center, incorporating many of the public assets in that part of downtown, such as Hamilton Stage, Elizabethtown Gas building, the former Arts Guild building, Arts District Park, and the Union County College (UCC) office space adjacent to UCPAC near Coach Street.

The goal is to assure the viability of the arts center, Landolfi said, by using the public assets in such a way as to attract not only development and arts use but other uses during the day as well. “We want to assure the financial stability of the arts center,” he said because it is vitally important to the rest of downtown.

The 1,334-seat arts center, opened in 1928, underwent a $6.2-million renovation in 2006 after being purchased by Union County. The facility reported total revenue of $1.366 million last year against expenses of $1.342 million.