Keeping with a pattern of falling crime rates throughout the county and state, Rahway’s crime rate dipped 9 percent last year, according to the state’s annual Uniform Crime Report (UCR), released last week.
Tag Archives: downtown
Jeweler to take last Park Square retail spot
Kennedy Jewelers will fill the final retail space at Park Square, moving four blocks from its current location.
Mayor James Kennedy said a 10-year lease is up on his East Milton Avenue and Fulton Street location and the new space, at the corner of Elm Avenue and Irving Street, is smaller, thus more affordable. “I like the street parking and cozier feeling,” he said in an email, describing it as “more ’boutique-ish.'”
Kennedy, who ends his fifth term as mayor at the end of this year, said it will be his fifth location in 32 years.
The other two retail tenants at Park Square are expected to be Davis Financial, a Linden-based CPA firm, and Deisel Training Center, a strength training and tae kwon do facility. The target for occupancy is December while Kennedy Jewelers could be January of February, according to Matt Dobrowlowski of Iozzi-Williams Village Green ERA, the exclusive listing agent. All three of the tenants have signed either four- or five-year leases in the range of $22 to $23 per square feet annually.
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Here’s a cool photo gallery in Crain’s New York, “Musty streets now hot strips,” featuring half a dozen “formerly forgotten streets becoming urban destinations, boasting a growing crop of trendy eateries and boutiques.” How’d they do it? “It requires daring entrepreneurs seizing the opportunities of cheap rents and an underserved market, as well as landlords hungry enough to take chances on unproven operators.”
Foreclosure for 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.
El Bodegon undergoing transformation
The Rail House 1449 to replace David Drake
Restaurant David Drake will be replaced by something called The Rail House 1449. New signage went up in the window earlier this week.
Salon, bakery sought for East Cherry Street
Hoping to fill two vacant storefronts, a local property owner came before the Redevelopment Agency last month for assistance but it looks like the locations will remain vacant for now.
Continue reading Salon, bakery sought for East Cherry Street
Does this building look familiar?
The former Beverage Shop building on East Cherry Street has undergone a transformation of its exterior as plans continue to turn it into a police assistance center.
Police Chief John Rodger hopes to have new signage and awning completed before the holidays while a local electrician’s union will be donating resources.
The heating, ventilation and air conditioning is just about completed and there’s some asbestos abatement to be done, said Rodger, who has been pleased with the pace of progress over the last month to six weeks.
The facade would have been $15,000 if they had to pay for it, said Rodger, and still to be done are things like acquiring classroom and cubicle furniture and installing flooring and a phone system.
Rodger hopes to have the building at least partially in use by January or February and be completely finished by March.
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Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Rahway was downgraded by Moody’s Investors Services, according to a report in Crain’s New York last month, and expects to end 2010 with “sizable operating losses,” like it did in 2009. The rating agency downgraded the hospital’s long-term debt rating and lowered its outlook from “stable” to “negative,” citing declining admissions.
Happy anniversary Rahway Rising
Nov. 1 really snuck up on me this year. I don’t think I expected to still be doing this when I started three years ago, but here we are with Post #373.
I started out looking to post once a week — at least according to the very first blog post. I’ve gotten into the habit of aiming for two to three times a week if there’s something to tell, but it really ebbs and flows: some weeks I can’t find the time to get to the computer, other weeks I’ve got blog posts piling up (at least in my head).
I usually aim to provide some readership data in my anniversary posts but I haven’t had much time to compile anything about the most popular individual posts over the last year. Perhaps you’d like to share some your observations of the changes you’ve seen around town since we started?
We do get about 1,000 visits in a good week, and more than 200 visits during an average weekday. Since we started tracking data on Google Analytics in January 2008, in all, we’ve had 36,000+ visitors, 125,000+ visits and 205,000 page views. Some other current stats:
– 289 e-mail subscribers
– 190 friends on Facebook
– 183 fans on Facebook
– 95 followers on Twitter
All that has translated to maybe a penny a week through Google Ads since we gave that a shot starting in summer 2008. That’s not why I do it (thank goodness!). We’re always open to trying new stuff, even doing the Facebook and Twitter thing, as well as two happy hour events in the past year (and yes, we should do that again soon…). The mission of the blog remains the same: to provide information about what’s going on with redevelopment efforts throughout town, given the dearth of coverage.
I think the most fun for me are the random emails from readers, either inquiring about a certain project or something they saw, offering suggestions, or just a pleasant note to tell me how much they enjoy the blog. Whether you take an active or passive role in this little effort of mine, thanks for reading.