Tag Archives: Park Square

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Chess Mates opens on Irving Street

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Excuse the recent hiatus, we’ll catch up on a few things this week.

Several new stores opened downtown within the last few months, among the more prominent ones is Chess Mates, the second retail tenant in the Park Square development on Irving Street.

The grand opening originally was scheduled in March but was postponed and finally opened in mid-June. Chess Mates occupies the second retail space in Park Square, next to Eyes On You, and has a three-year lease for about 1,000 square feet.

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Something else to catch up on: The Star-Ledger’s Munchmobile is on a pizza run again this summer and it stopped by Rahway a while ago, offering its impressions of Brooklyn Pizza. The Race Street pizzeria got a C+ with comments ranging from “perfect amount of garlic and cheese” to “average” and “soggy.” The sauce, crust and sausage “still need work” but they endorsed the white pizza.

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City Council

Obvious who developers support in Dem primary

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A quick look around town will show you who developers are supporting in next week’s Democratic primary. Campaign signs appear in the windows and on the buildings of several properties owned by developers: the sales office of SkyView at Carriage City Plaza (above) and the former Dornoch offices (still owned by Dornoch) at 1513 Main St. (right).

and the building on the corner of East Milton Avenue and Main Street (below), purchased in 2008 by Landmark Companies, which is building Park Square, the 159-unit rental project at Elizabeth Avenue and Irving Street. CORRECTION: I’ve been told the space the corner of East Milton and Main was rented by the Proctor campaign and is not an endorsement by Landmark.

The June 8 primary will be the city’s first contested primary in about 20 years. City Health Officer Rick Proctor, also a county freeholder and the municipal Democratic chairman, got the backing of the local party, while former Housing Authority chairwoman Renee Thrash is running off the line. Three at-large council seats are up, with incumbents James Baker, Sal Mione and Nancy Saliga challenged by Yvonne Wesley, Lynn Parker and Grace Jacquet. The Republican primary is uncontested, with local GOP chairman Patrick Cassio running for mayor with council at-large candidates James Grady, Kevin Retcho and Jeff Spatola.

Mayor James Kennedy, a Democrat, decided not to seek re-election this year after five, four-year terms. He plans to remain as unpaid executive director of the nonprofit Rahway Arts District, which now receives funding generated by the Special Improvement District (SID).

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Apartments

Renaissance project taking shape

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Another month, another milestone for Renaissance at Rahway on East Grand Avenue.

After breaking ground last fall, the 88-unit complex continues to make progress. The image at left was taken last week.

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Rahway plans to install public art downtown, including sculptures and murals, among other things, so I thought this recent story about public art in and around Summit might be relevant.

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A little late on posting this but: Landmark at Rahway, LLC, the developer of Park Square on Irving Street was fined $85,000 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for stormwater pollution issues from 2008 and 2009 that have since been corrected.

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Commercial, Downtown, restaurants, Retail

Casa Borinquen grand opening Friday

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Casa Borinquen will have a grand opening on Friday after several months of interior renovations.

Specializing in Puerto Rican fare, the restaurant will replace Taste of Portugal, which closed in 2009 after more than two years at the East Cherry Street location. At one time the space housed the popular Eat To The Beat Cafe.

Casa Borinquen is family owned and operated by Rahway residents. I met the co-owners while I was strolling downtown on Sunday and they were putting some finishing touches on the place.
The building is among several East Cherry Street properties owned by Dornoch.

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The grand opening of Chess Mates, originally scheduled for March 1, was postponed. No new grand opening date has been set, but construction has been delayed due in part to the recent inclement weather.

The chess cafe will occupy the second retail space in Park Square on Irving Street, next to Eyes On You.

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Commercial, Downtown, Retail

Recent retail roundup

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There have been quite a few retail tenant changes of late — and more to come next week.

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Apartments, Downtown

Irving St. side of Park Square 90% leased

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About 90 percent of the units at Park Square are occupied with 57 of the 63 units in the Irving Street building leased, according to rental manager Nilyne Fields.

 

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Rahway

A look back at 2009

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What kind of a year was 2009 in redevelopment? Perhaps up-and-down might be the most accurate description.

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City Council

City’s assessed value up $25 million

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The city’s assessed value rose by $25.3 million this year, up about 1.67 percent to $1.546 billion. That translates into roughly $1.2 million in property tax revenue. The bulk of the increase came from Carriage City Plaza Properties (CCP), assessed at around $19 million, and paying $978,000 in property taxes.

[12/12 update: Got an email from a rep at Silcon saying the Carriage City Plaza project is responsible for the entire additional $1.2 million in property tax revenue; $978,000 from Carriage City Properties + property taxes paid by individual unit owners. Trying to get some clarification from the city tax office, probably come Monday].

[12/15 CLARIFICATION: According to the city tax office, Carriage City Properties and the individual condo units — both sold and unsold — were assessed at a combined $24,146,600 ($5,414,500 for sold units + $18,732,100 for CCP portions and unsold units) and paid property taxes of approximately $1,182,941.94 ($265,256.36 sold units + $917,685.58 CCP and unsold units.]

During a discussion on the municipal budget at last month’s City Council meeting, and a question about potential future revenues, City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier told the council two significant projects should provide future revenue. The city tax assessor is in the process of adding the assessment for Park Square, which begins its Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) this year, he said, and Renaissance at Rahway, which is scheduled to be completed in about 12 months.

City taxes are expected to remain about the same thanks in part to $1.6 million in sewer utility surplus plugged in as revenue. The $41.3-million municipal budget is up about 4.5 percent, with the amount raised from taxes up 3.5 percent, to $29.7 million. The average assessed home ($133,000) paid about $2,276 in municipal property taxes last year, and Chief Financial Officer Frank Ruggiero expects roughly the same amount next year. He described a recent nj.com story about the budget wildly inaccurate and residents can expect tax bills for the first two quarters to be similar to the last two quarters.

A public hearing and final approval on the budget is scheduled for Monday during the City Council’s regular meeting.

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