In case you missed it, the infamous tower at the former Kings Inn motel is no more, having been demolished last month. The hotel itself is no longer a Kings Inn but a newly renovated Super 8, one of more than a dozen brands within Wyndham.
Continue reading R.I.P. Kings Inn tower, hello Super 8
Tag Archives: hotels
New Home2 hotel set to open by next month
Almost two years after breaking ground and some five years after originally getting approval, a new extended stay hotel just off Routes 1/9 is expected to open in the next several weeks.
Construction delays pushed back the opening by some six months, according to a person answering the phone at the forthcoming 92-unit Home2.
Home2 Suites by Hilton is an extended stay brand of Hilton and the corporate website indicates a Nov. 15 availability.
The four-story facility will be located at 667 E. Milton Ave., adjacent to an existing 74-room Best Western on Paterson Street.
The 4.4-acre property has changed hands over the years and the application has come before the Planning Board a number of times for amendments and such.
Plans were approved for a Sleep Inn but the property then changed hands in June 2008 and a plan came about to bring in Candlewood Suites.
In December 2009, the Planning Board approved an amendment to a previous plan, at which time members were informed that the hotel would be a Homes2 Suites and not a Candlewood Suites.
Meanwhile, the Kings Inn motel has been undergoing extensive renovations and could be forthcoming as well.
Plan is to demolish tower at Kings Inn
The not-so-iconic tower at the Kings Inn motel on Routes 1&9 will have to live on via the Internet — its claim to fame found in this video for a once-popular 1990s hip hop song — because its days are numbered.
Hotel Indigo leaving, could convert to apartments
The 102-room hotel within Carriage City Plaza will lose its corporate flag next month and the condominium association will consider whether to convert the hotel space into another 68 residential units.
Continue reading Hotel Indigo leaving, could convert to apartments
Home2 Suites coming along on Route 1
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| View from East Milton Avenue |
A new extended stay hotel is taking shape off Routes 1 and 9, with signage recently going up for the Home2 Suites by Hilton.
New hotel finally breaks ground off Routes 1/9
A new hotel just off Routes 1&9 finally broke ground last month.
A four-story, 93-unit Candlewood Suites gained approval from the Planning Board in March 2009, which was later changed to become a Home2 Suites by Hilton extended stay hotel. Originally, the plan was to construct a Sleep Inn just off Routes 1&9 at the corner of East Milton Avenue and Lennington Street.
The vacant 4.4-acre site was acquired in June 2008 for $2.35 million and currently pays about $6,000 in property taxes as two parcels (Block 338, Lots 3.01 and 3.02).
The city continues to see increased revenues from the local hotel tax enacted almost a decade ago. About $55,000 was realized in the transitional year 2011 budget, covering July to October 2011. Pro-rated, that would be about $110,000, compared to $103,000 in Fiscal Year 2011, $99,000 in 2010, $58,000 in 2009 and $36,000 in 2008, according to municipal budget documents.
The state imposes a 5-percent hotel tax and municipalities are allowed to impose an additional levy of their own of as much as 3 percent. The hotel tax was created during the McGreevey administration in 2003 and Rahway enacted the local tax effective Nov. 1, 2003.
Improvements spotted at Kings Inn
It looks like some long-awaited improvements got under way this month at the Kings Inn Motel that ultimately will turn it into a Super 8.
It’s been almost a year since the Redevelopment Agency reassigned the redevelopment agreement on the site along Route 1&9. The plan at that time was to turn the building into a Motel 6 but is now back to a Super 8.
Director of Community Development Cynthia Solomon confirmed that the permits have all been approved but no word on a timeline for completion.
A Howard Johnson had been planned to replace the Kings Inn two years ago before that plan fell through and at one point there was a proposal for an addition as a Super 8. (Thanks to all the eagle-eyed readers who tipped me off to the activity at the Kings Inn site.)
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A story in NJ Biz last month detailed how a Newark nonprofit uses GPS-based bar code system to allow staff, and the public, to send alerts on damaged downtown improvements. It also can “help users locate parking garages, stores, restaurants and parks in the area.”
Motel 6 now planned for Kings Inn
Under new ownership again, the Kings Inn Motel plans to become a Motel 6.
The Redevelopment Agency last week reassigned the redevelopment agreement from Ratan Rahway, LLC to Rahway Tower, LLC. Attorney Frank Regan told commission
A new individual has acquired the interests of Ratan Rahway, which has a contract to acquire the property from Rahway Tower, according to Regan, and eventually may take its name as well.
The properties associated with Kings Inn (Block 304, Lots 5-6/1360 Route 1) were acquired for about $1.2 million in September 2004 by Rahway Tower, LLC. Barry Rosner, a Somerset-based CPA listed as a principal of Rahway Tower, declined to provide any details over the phone, saying only that he’s not involved in Rahway anymore.
There’s been occasional speculation that the state Department of Transportation (DOT) has interest in purchasing the property, but a spokesman confirmed last summer that it does not.
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The Rahway Rising Facebook fan page reached 100 fans last week — woo hoo!