City Council would take control over the Special Improvement District (SID), relegating the Rahway Arts & Business Partnership (RABP) as an advisory board, under legislation to be approved later this month.
Tag Archives: Rahway Center Partnership
Dornoch updates agency on retail properties
As promised, the remainder of the briefing the Redevelopment Agency received last week from Glen Fishman, managing partner of Dornoch Holdings.
Fishman was invited to provide an update on the firm’s activities and while the “bad news” portion consisted of an update on the lack of activity at The Savoy, the “good news” portion, as it was described, concerned Dornoch filling its rental properties along Main Street.
Temporary surfacing parking eventually will take over the rest of Lot B on Main Street, adding about 100 spaces in a deal with the Parking Authority and Redevelopment Agency. How temporary the parking is likely will depend on when the economy rebounds. The space originally was planned for 152 residential units with retail-residential mix and parking component known as The Westbury.
Dornoch has been able to rent all but two of its buildings along Main Street, Fishman said
. Residential apartments above its properties at 1513 Main St. and 1469 Main St., are rented while they’ve had some interest in the retail components. A New York tenant abandoned 1469 Main St., Fishman said, but a clothing store (headed up by his stepmother) has moved into 1513 Main St. (photo above) while 1501 Main St. has two potential tenants, including a Westfield attorney who may come before the agency and/or Planning Board with changes to the interior, and another tenant who may be interested in the entire building. He’s hopeful to have the spaces filled by February or March.
“People continue to have faith in the town and are willing to spend,” Fishman told commissioners.
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Here’s an idea that might be worth copying. Summit’s merchant association, Summit Downtown, Inc., issues an annual report of sorts, the going vacancy rate and detailing the past year of openings and closings. While Summit may be vastly different in terms of demographics, like Rahway, it also has a Special Improvement District (SID) tax.
Perhaps an effort such as this may be undertaken by the reorganizing Rahway Center Partnership, which is revamping its website, the fledgling Chamber of Commerce, or be included in the mayor’s pledge to market the city.
By the way, Summit reported a vacancy rate of 4.8 percent, 10 vacancies, down from 7.6 percent, 16 vacancies, with 21 new stories and seven expansions/relocations, and five new openings anticipated early this year.
Breakdown of SID taxes
Catching up on some older items during this slow week, the City Council last month approved a 2010 budget of about $130,000 for the Special Improvement District (SID).
Police center to take over Beverage Shop
A police community assistance center is in the works for the former Beverage Shop building on East Cherry Street. The city purchased the property from the Rahway Center Partnership (RCP) this past spring.
“This project is absolutely about involving the community in helping us take what is currently an underutilized and neglected structure and restoring life back into it,” said Police Chief John Rodger, for however long the building is available to use, whether a year or five years.
He hopes to have the exterior “looking like something” by November with the building functional after the new year. The plan for the nearly 2,000-square-foot interior includes a reception area, work area, large conference room or classrooms where programs could be run and a few smaller conference rooms for meetings and counseling needs. “The floor plan is evolving and we will know better as the cleanup continues,” Rodger said.
Routine patrols will be able to complete many aspects of police reporting that currently occurs at police headquarters and non-patrol staff will be assigned to do a portion of their work week there. The center is intended to be a place for “positive police activities,” said Rodger, though he declined to call it a substation. He expects the Juvenile Bureau will be there often as “it’s the perfect place for meeting with parents and children away from the traditional police environment.”
Other uses might include neighborhood watch and business watch groups, child seat inspections and installations, community relations functions, bicycle registration and youth academy, among others. The chief anticipates staffing the location from about 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. while patrol staff will be able to — and encouraged — to use the facility around the clock.
Ideally, Rodger would like to replace the facade with something more modern, similar to Park Square or Dornoch’s renovations on a Main Street property. It all depends on cost, according to Rodger, since the project must be done as economically as possible though it’s still unclear at this point how much it might cost. The department has applied to use some forfeiture funds, which can be used under specific rules, and Rodger said some local businesses already have pledged support, including RSI Bank. “We will be looking toward other business leaders to donate or provide in-kind services to complete this project,” he said.
Related:
Star-Ledger/nj.com story
Home News-Tribune/mycentraljersey.com story
Original RPD press release
Effort to revive chamber of commerce
Nearly a decade after it dissolved, the Rahway Chamber of Commerce is making a comeback. The Chamber will host its first meeting, open to the public and non-members, Thursday at 8:30 a.m. at the Masonic Temple on Irving Street.
City buys Beverage Shop for $80,000
The city will buy the former Beverage Shop for $80,000 — $50,000 less than what the Rahway Center Partnership (RCP) paid for it nine years ago.
Rundown of related redevelopment news
Catching up on a few news items around the Interwebs that relate to redevelopment locally in one way or another:
* Here’s not one but two stories from Hoboken Patch about temporary art studios filling vacant storefronts in Hoboken and “Empty Storefronts: Bad for the Economy; Good for Art.” If that idea sounds familiar, it’s because Mayor James Kennedy mentioned it earlier this year, patterning it after a similar program in Asbury Park.
* There’s also this Crain’s New York piece (“Bronx merchants’ artsy ambitions”) about leaders in the Westchester Square neighborhood of the Bronx turning the area into a “nexus of art and commerce.”
* Also, Cranford narrowly approved expanding its Special Improvement District (SID). If you recall, Rahway did the same, to include the Hamilton Street arts projects, but also shifted management of the SID funds (roughly $140,000 annually) from the Rahway Center Partnership to the Rahway Arts District.
Council approves Hamilton Street arts projects
With at least one proponent invoking the mythical tale of Prometheus, more than a dozen speakers, including labor union representatives, artists and school officials, last night spoke in favor of borrowing $8.5 million for construction of the Hamilton Street arts projects. Two residents questioned the cost and benefit to city taxpayers.
The City Council last night unanimously approved an $8.5-million bond ordinance to build a 1,100-seat amphitheater (above) at the former Hamilton Laundry site and to renovate the Bell Building (below) to house a black box theater. One speaker after the next noted that the amphitheater project is part of the city’s continuing investment in the Arts District and the overall vision for the arts to drive redevelopment, remaking the city as a destination. (Here’s The Star-Ledger‘s take on last night’s meeting.)
The council last night also unanimously approved ordinances to shift management of the Special Improvement District funds to the Rahway Arts District and to negotiate the purchase of 52 E. Cher
ry St. from the Rahway Center Partnership.
Construction of the amphitheater is still on schedule to begin this fall, City Engineer James Housten told the Redevelopment Agency last week. Remediation of the soil can begin now that a case manager has been assigned by the state for the city’s Brownfields sites. Most all of the soil has been contaminated with fluids used in dry cleaning, he said, adding that it can either be trucked away or mixed with chemicals on site to remediate.