The ground-floor retail and commercial space at Carriage City Plaza (CCP) has gone through a few tenants since it was constructed in 2008. Original plans (pre-recession) had a restaurant in mind. Eventually, a dry cleaner and coffee shop came and went and the lone tenant among several spaces is an Edward Jones investment office.
Continue reading ‘Destination’ retail tenants sought for Carriage City
As many as 85 to 90 percent of the 160 rental units in Sky View at Carriage City Plaza are typically occupied, according to Joe LoMonaco, manager of 80 E. Milton Ave., LLC., which acquired the property last fall when it had the loan assigned to it during the foreclosure process.
Time for another fun, completely unscientific blog poll. What do you think?
Hotel Indigo has plans to re-launch its restaurant, explore the possibility of expanding its meeting space, and finally get its long-anticipated rooftop bar off the ground.More than 100 properties successfully reduced their tax assessments for 2011, securing reductions in their property tax bills totaling $117,704.
The tax appeal amounts were approved by City Council at its November meeting, following property judgments by the county Board of Taxation. The 104 properties successfully reduced their collective tax assessments by more than $2 million, from $16.74 million to $14.7 million. Included among the reduced assessments were two dozen Riverwalk townhouses and two units at Carriage City Plaza. These judgments were appeals that reached the county level, and could be appealed to the state Tax Court. In all, the city received about 200 individual property appeals this year, according to Tax Assessor Richard Kulman.
The number of appeal judgments approved are twice as many as the 52 settled at the county level in 2010, which were twice as many as 2009. The totals do not include the tax appeal settlement with Merck. The pharmaceutical giant had its assessments for 2010, 2011 and 2012 reduced as part of the settlement.
Averages among the 100+ properties, followed by high/low, were:
Original assessment: $162,551 — $82,800 / $305,700
New assessment: $142,729 — $61,200 / $250,000
Reduction: $19,822 — $2,100 / $47,900
Appeal amount: $1,143 — $121 / $3,211
Here’s a Google Docs spreadsheet with all the properties and details on the assessments and reductions. If that’s not cool enough, here’s a link to a Google Map of all 104 sites (which can also be found below). [It was pretty tedious and laborious to put together, so it’d be great if you could click the link to at least make me think it was worth the time and effort…].
In case you missed last week’s drama between the City Council and Mayor Rick Proctor, Sunday’s Star-Ledger had an editorial about the ongoing debacle (“Rahway mayor’s overreach may cost him his job”). In addition to calling Proctor’s veto of an anti-nepotism ordinance “tone deaf,” the 258-word piece essentially said the council is trying to push Proctor out by reducing his salary.
The top 10 taxpayers in Rahway make up about a fifth of the city’s total assessed value. As part of an $11.65-million bond sale in the spring, the city put together a slew of documents on the city’s debt and tax assessments for ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.
Details of the bond sale, as they relate to redevelopment, will be included in an upcoming post. For now, here are the top 10 property taxpayers in the city (here it is an Excel file, maybe easier to read), followed by the total assessed value of their property (or properties):
Merck & Co., Inc. — $249,669,700Carriage City Properties, LLC — $27,128,400Park Terrace at Rahway, LLC — $6,684,500Giacobbe Investments Corp. — $5,762,400Alard Realty Enterprises — $5,477,900Renaissance at Rahway, LLC — $5,362,800Woodbridge Plaza, LLC — $4,329,500Rahway Industrial Site — $4,296,900Ninette Group — $3,659,600New Jersey Bell — $3,576,279TOTAL — $315,947,979
In some cases, like Merck and Giacobbe Investments Corp., the total figure includes multiple parcels, while for others, it’s just one property, like Renaissance, Park Terrace and Woodbridge Plaza.
“The city’s tax base has experienced, what we consider, limited, but stable, growth; it increased by just 2.1 percent since fiscal 2007 to $1.55 billion in fiscal 2010,” according to the S&P report. It considered the city’s per-capita market value of $134,775 “extremely strong.” Officials expect a tax base reduction for the subsequent year, according to the report. While the tax base is diverse with the 10 leading taxpayers accounting for 21.2 percent of assessed valuation (AV), Merck alone accounted for 17 percent of AV in fiscal 2010. Total assessed valuation is $1,486,291,000 in 2011, down 3.8 percent from $1,545,974,600 in 2010, according to the report.
Primarily due to a tax appeal by Merck (the first in more than 20 years) and to a lesser extent the economic downturn, the tax base will likely decline by 4 percent to $1.49 billion in fiscal 2011, according to the report. The city has settled the tax appeal and will repay about $1.6 million over the next three years.
There are a few more interesting (at least to me) statistics within the documents, as well as details of the bond sale, that I’ll post soon.
ABC 7 News‘ Neighborhood Eats paid a visit to Rahway recently, checking out Patria Restaurant and Mixology Lounge on West Main Street. A 2:41 report on the new eatery aired Friday, featuring a tilapia dish.
With foreclosure looming for Carriage City Plaza, one two short sales in the building went on the market two weeks ago within the past month. A check of Realtor.com shows at least four units in the 16-story building on the market by owners.
About 62 of the 222 units were sold since the building opened in 2008. Another 72 leased were through the developer — Carriage City Properties (CCP)/Silcon, Inc. — leaving 88 units unsold or not leased. All 160 units owned by CCP — not the 62 owned by individuals — are expected to go into foreclosure, along with the hotel and retail space on the first three floors.
Meanwhile, New York City-based Spandrel Property Services was named this week to manage the remaining unsold units being marketed as rentals in Skyview at Carriage City Plaza.
Foreclosure proceedings will begin on Carriage City Plaza, a 16-story hotel and condo project that was the centerpiece of redevelopment efforts the past decade. Of the 222 units at Sky View at Carriage City Plaza, 62 units have closed and another 72 leased, leaving 88 units.