Perusing some tax and property records yielded an interesting morsel of information about Brookside at Rahway, the 50-unit apartment complex on St. Georges Avenue that opened last year.
Continue reading Rental building added $2m to assessed value
Tag Archives: fire
Bond ordinance increased for building removal
The City Council this month unanimously approved an amendment increasing a bond ordinance by $85,000 for work related to the demolition of an East Cherry Street building last year.
At its Jan. 9 meeting, the governing body amended an ordinance from $200,000 to $285,000 (an increase of 42 percent) for work that included demolition of 65 E. Cherry St., which occurred in May (after the facade collapsed last February) and was paid for via a $75,000 emergency resolution in June). The ordinance also included funds for improvements to Lot B on Main Street.
City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said the increase was needed for additional engineering costs to shore up the sides of the neighboring buildings, and ensure that when the building was removed, the adjoining basements were not affected. The city has placed liens on the work for the property, he added.
Developer Dornoch Holdings purchased the property for $65,000 from the Parking Authority and more than four years ago had proposed renovations to the Planning Board but those never went anywhere.
A year after the big apartment fire
It was a year ago today that a fire destroyed a three-story, 50-unit apartment complex on St. Georges Avenue. Brookside at Rahway was under construction and nearly completed with leasing was expected to begin later in the year.
Police determined the fire was arson within a few days, but it wasn’t reported as such until one of our follow-up inquiries in March. Police Chief John Rodger said last week that it remains an open investigation.
Demolition of the three-story structure began about three months after the fire and work began anew in late September. In August 2009, trees were cleared at the 5-acre site to make way for construction, which began the first time around in August 2010.
Brookside at Rahway has since been nearly rebuilt, with leasing expected to begin in the spring.
***
The idea of public art is always intriguing, so I thought this piece from The Atlantic was pretty cool about an effort in Budapest, Hungary (“An Artistic X-Ray for Buildings in Budapest”). A local art collective commemorated buildings that had been razed for new construction by painting a mural of what appears to be a black-and-white X-ray of what once stood there.
It reminded me of some of the old artifacts and other signage found when some Main Street properties in Rahway were razed several years (namely a Marks Harris (.pdf) on the side of the building facing Lot B that’s been painted over white). Click the link above to see the images, it’ll really give you a sense of what I’m talking about.
Work begins again on Brookside apartments
Reconstruction of Brookside at Rahway, the St. Georges Avenue apartment complex that was destroyed by fire in January, began earlier this month.
Work on the site originally began in summer 2009, with construction starting in earnest the next year, and the 50-unit rental complex was nearly completed when the fire, an incident local police concluded was arson, occurred. Demolition of the three-story structure took several weeks in the spring. No word on when completion might be expected.
UPDATED OCT. 11: Jim Sisto of Fanwood-based United Excavating/Sisto Realty, which is building the project, said boxes started getting placed on the site Sept. 12 and are expected to be finished this week. He’s hoping to open for business by April 1.
***
In case you somehow missed it, here’s the story this week from nj.com detailing an ethics complaint filed by City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier against Mayor Rick Proctor, in which Pelissier alleges the mayor encouraged him to hire his wife.
East Cherry Street demolition tab = $75,000
The City Council tonight approved an emergency contract for the demolition of 65 E. Cherry St., which occurred last month. Frank Lurch Demolition Co. of Asbury Park was awarded the $75,000 contract.Continue reading East Cherry Street demolition tab = $75,000
Demolition expected this week
 |
| Monday |
Demolition started this week on an East Cherry Street building, almost six years after a fire destroyed much of it. The Fire Department responded last Wednesday afternoon to a report of the back corner of the second floor collapsing into the first floor, according to this report on mycentraljersey.com.
 |
| Wednesday |
The two-story building at 65 E. Cherry St. has been a vacant eyesore since a beauty supply store went up in flames in the summer of 2005 and in February, the first-floor facade collapsed into the structure.
At one time, Dornoch Holdings, which acquired the property from the Parking Authority for $65,000 and had plans to renovate it, presenting plans in November 2007. Dornoch owns several East Cherry Street properties, along with a couple of dormant developments on Main Street.
The City Council approved a $200,000 bond ordinance in April that included funds for the demolition of 65 E. Cherry St., as well as improvements to create an interim parking lot at the former Westbury site on Main Street.
***
Could repairs to the NJ Transit Train Station be forthcoming? Yellow tape surrounded the center stairs a few days ago, and since been replaced by fencing. Perhaps that means repairs are coming soon — or maybe the fencing was installed in time for Saturday’s Hot Rods & Harleys. The stairs have been closed for more than a year.
Police confirm St. Georges Ave fire was arson
 |
| (Taken about 7 a.m. today) |
Rahway police today confirmed that the Jan. 4 fire that destroyed a St. Georges Avenue apartment complex under construction was arson.
“We determined it was an arson within a few days but weren’t prepared at that time to release that information,” Police Chief John Rodger said in response to another of our inquiries. He declined to go into further detail about the investigation. “Other than telling you that it was declared an arson, there isn’t a lot I can discuss about the fire,” he said.
 |
| (Taken about 7:30 p.m. today) |
The 50-unit development, dubbed Brookside at Rahway, broke ground more than a year ago and was nearly completed, with leasing expected to begin as early as this spring. Instead, demolition of the three-story building started this week and could take as much as a month to complete. Jim Sisto of Fanwood-based United Excavating/Sisto Realty said he plans to rebuild after the structure is demolished down to the foundation and steel.
Demolition of fire-damaged apartments to begin
Almost three months after a fire gutted the nearly-completed Brookside at Rahway apartments on St. Georges Avenue, demolition is scheduled to begin Thursday on the three-story structure.
The plan is to demolish down to the foundation and steel and eventually start the process of rebuilding, according to Jim Sisto of Fanwood-based United Excavating, the firm behind the development of the 50-unit rental complex. Once demolition gets under way, he expects it could take about a month, weather permitting, to take down the structure. If anyone is able to take some photos or video of the demolition, feel free to share.
A four-alarm blaze tore through the building on the morning of Jan. 4. The cause of the fire is still unclear. Police John Rodger said as recently as today he had no new information that he could share. Sisto said he hasn’t gotten any answers from authorities or insurance companies as to the cause of the fire. He believes the cause must be arson given how meticulous he said he keeps his job sites, and there was nothing on site that would have sparked a fire.
UPDATED 3/24: Updated portions in italics.
***
A pretty cool idea recently reported in The Wall Street Journal: “Construction info on the go — New codes on building permits provide Smartphone users with city data”. New York City’s Department of Buildings has started to bring “Quick Response,” or QR codes, similar to bar codes, on all permits for buildings undergoing any type of construction in the city. The information already is available on the city’s website but the QR codes will provide instant access to “a condense mobile version of the Buildings Department webpage, which provides permit and violation history for every building, and already received more than one million views a day.