Tag Archives: Main Street

library

Agency to sell parcel for $1 million

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The Redevelopment Agency plans to sell a three-quarter acre parcel near the library to a developer for $1 million. Pompton Plains-based Capodagli Property Company would remove a stockpile of contaminated soil in exchange for a deduction on the sale price. The developer has proposed Meridia Water Edge, a 116-unit rental property on the site, just south of the library and adjacent to the Center Circle and Rahway Plaza Apartments, but the project still must be approved.

City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said the city will monitor movement of the soil and obtain estimates to ensure the developer isn’t making money off the deal, but did not have specifics immediately available as to the the cost or deduction. The Redevelopment Agency at its meeting last week awarded a $25,350 contract to Whitestone Associates to monitor the removal of the soil stockpile just south of the library.The stockpile of contaminated soil came from the library construction of the library in the early 2000s.

The Capodagli firm is eager to begin as soon as possible and already has paid several hundred thousand dollars in water and sewer permits for the project, Pelissier told commissioners. The administration also has been meeting with owners of the Center Circle and office condos on the upper levels of the library to keep them abreast of the Meridia Water Edge proposal.

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Apartments, Downtown

The Savoy steel finally coming down?

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In what might be the first bit of good news about The Savoy property in years, the bank behind the project has orders to level the site — steel and all.

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office space

Dornoch building goes on the market

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One of Dornoch’s properties is on the block. The three-story building at 1501 Main St. is listed with an asking price of $599,000, at LoopNet.com. That works out to $120 per square foot for the 5,000-square-foot space, and would be a 16-percent premium over the $515,000 that Dornoch paid for the property in February 2007, according to property records.

The property is assessed at $229,700 and pays roughly $12,500 in property taxes, according to PropertyShark.com.

This past spring, Hillside-based Dornoch was declared in default of its redevelopment agreement on The Savoy and also owns the building that was recently demolished on East Cherry Street, along with several other downtown parcels.

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Uncategorized

Art gallery/tattoo parlor gets approval

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A combination art gallery and tattoo parlor gained approval from the Redevelopment Agency. Times Of Grace would be located at 1417 Main St., previously occupied on occasion by a Jackson Hewitt Tax Service office.

Robert Mankowski and his wife, Hayley, made a presentation to commissioners at the agency’s monthly meeting this week. Both are graduates of the University of The Arts in Philadelphia and have had their work shown around the nation.

Director of Community Development and Redevelopment Agency Secretary Cindy Solomon told commissioners that a resolution would be necessary not for the art gallery but the tattoo parlor planned to go with it. A tattoo parlor is not a permitted use in the business district so a resolution was required by the Redevelopment Agency, similar to when Rose City Tattoos moved in on West Main Street.

The fine arts gallery would be visible from the street but the tattoo parlor would be in the rear of the space and by appointment only, said Mankowski, who would be the lone tattoo artist. He aims to avoid a stereotypical tattoo parlor that people might think of when they think of tattoos (“No neon signs”), but instead draw people inside through the artwork on display.

A couple of commissioners preferred that the art gallery be more prominent than the tattoo parlor in any signage, and that the resolution also specific the limited number of tattoo artists and the fact that it would be by appointment only.

Mankowski, who first hand-draws each custom tattoo, hopes to open the gallery/tattoo parlor later this summer.

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City Council, taxes

Almost $42k in property taxes canceled

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Almost $42,000 in property taxes have been canceled for 2011 in connection with redevelopment projects downtown and the Arts District.

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Apartments, Downtown, Foreclosure

Dornoch declared in default

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The Redevelopment Agency this month declared Dornoch Holdings in default of its redevelopment agreements on The Westbury and The Savoy, which has entered the foreclosure process with Wachovia Bank/Wells Fargo for failure to repay construction financing.

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Apartments, Commercial, Downtown, Retail

Park Square targets June opening

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Corner of Elizabeth Avenue and Main Street

The second building of Park Square, one of the first cornerstone projects of downtown redevelopment efforts, should be ready for occupation starting in  June.

Joel Schwartz, principal with Keasbey-based developer Landmark Companies, appeared before the Redevelopment Agency at its meeting last week to provide an update on the 159-unit complex. He last appeared before the agency in late 2009 for an update.

Schwartz expects the second building to obtain certificates of occupancy one floor at a time — which also was done with the first building — so it should be fully occupied by about September. He said the second building boasts larger windows and more space. One-bedroom units list for starting rents of $1,600, two-bedrooms at about $2,000.

The project first broke ground nearly five years ago (October 2006) and the first building on the Irving Street side, which houses 63 of the units, was completed just about two years ago, beginning leasing in summer 2009. The Irving Street side also has 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space which is fully occupied, with five tenants, and Schwartz said the rental units are 100 percent occupied, with some turnover. The Main Street building, without any retail space, houses the remaining 96 units.

Corner of Elm Avenue and Main Street

Schwartz presented renderings that were part of Planning Board hearings in 2004 and 2005, and compared them to present-day photos of the project, as well as what the 2.4-acre site looked like before construction. He said they took a two-pronged approach: first, to redevelop in the spirit of what had been downtown, and second, to incorporate the best of redevelopment efforts from around the state and country. Some of the areas that inspired Park Square include Princeton’s Palmer Square, Forest Hills in Queens and Lake Forest, Ill. As time goes by, Schwartz hopes the complex has more of a connection with Merck as well as be more actively involved in the day-to-day activity of downtown.

The entire complex has 159 units and 205 parking spaces, including ground level parking on the Irving Street side, and two levels of parking on the Main Street side. [Note: The photos above are from last fall]

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Downtown, restaurants

‘Party place’ Patria gets two stars

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Patria Restaurant and Mixology Lounge received a fairly positive review from The Star-Ledger/nj.com earlier this month. It was described as “fun and savvy, a smart, stylish mix of urban culture, food and music.”

The review gave kudos for some “exciting concepts” as far as the menu — watermelon mojitos and crab cake sliders — and big thumbs up to the desserts, but “for the most part our dinner seemed like a gentrified version of Latin cuisine. It was fine enough, but not as fiery and exciting as the place itself.”

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