Tag Archives: Special Improvement District

City Council

Public hearing Tuesday on SID budget

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The City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget for the Special Improvement District (SID) at its regular meeting on Tuesday (not Oct. 5, as originally reported when the governing body introduced the plan).

The SID budget proposes to raise $131,565.94 in taxes, based on a rate of $3.34 per $100 of assessed value on about 138 downtown properties. The parcels have a total assessed value of $39.391 million.

About 31 individual lots pay at least $1,000 in SID taxes, and among those, at least eight properties would pay at least $4,000:
* Carriage City Properties, $10,923.13 [$8,192.35 for hotel + $2,730.78 for retail space]
*RSI Bank, 1500 Irving St., $9,671.97
* SDI Technologies, 1299 Main St., $7,278.53
* Rahway Office Center c/o Basad Realty Management, $6,220.08
* Raw Realty, 123 E. Milton Ave., $4,025.37
* MM Rahway Associates, 1537 Main St., $4,016.02
* The Center Circle, 1255 Main St., $4,008

This past spring, the City Council shifted the taxes collected through the Special Improvement District from the Rahway Center Partnership to the Arts District. (Contrary to some public perception, however, the Partnership has not dissolved but just no longer has any paid staff.)

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The New Jersey Hot Dog Tour earlier this month included a stop at Rahway Grill on East Cherry Street, where The Star-Ledger/nj.com called it “old-timey…with its screen door, booths, swivel stools, coat racks and Rhapsody II Stereophonic jukebox.” Apparently, their chili was a big hit with the tour.

Check out how the Rahway Grill did in our polls for favorite burger and favorite breakfast place.

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City Council

Council introduces $130K SID budget

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The City Council on Monday night introduced a $130,000 budget for the Special Improvement District (SID) budget, which now funds the Rahway Arts District. A public hearing on the SID budget will be held during the governing body’s Oct. 5 meeting.

The City Council this past spring shifted the taxes collected through the Special Improvement District from the Rahway Center Partnership to the Arts District.

Created in the early 1990s, the SID taxes some 165 downtown commercial properties an additional roughly 7 percent on top of the usual tax bill. The average tax for a SID property works out to about $790.

Among the highest taxpayers to the SID are:
* Carriage City Properties, 1423 Irving St., $10,792
* RSI Bank, 1500 Irving St., $9,556
* SDI Technologies, 1299 Main St., $7,191
* Rahway Office Center c/o Basad Realty Management, $6,146
* Raw Realty, 123 E. Milton Ave., $3,977

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Not at all redevelopment related, but I know some who read this blog also watch “The Amazing Race”. This season, which premieres Sept. 26, will feature a Rahway resident among the contestants.

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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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Commercial, Downtown, Rahway Survey

Rundown of related redevelopment news

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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.

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Arts District, City Council, Downtown

Council approves Hamilton Street arts projects

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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. Cherry 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.

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Arts District, City Council, Downtown

Arts District board to take over SID management

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The City Council will vote next month to shift management of the downtown Special Improvement District (SID) to the Rahway Arts District, a precursor to a revamped Rahway Center Partnership. The ordinance, introduced at the council’s Feb. 8 regular meeting, also would expand the SID to include the Arts District, namely the Hamilton Street arts projects.

The arts district would receive and oversee the funds collected through the SID’s special assessment. The SID, created by the city in 1993, generates about $140,000 annually from 165 commercial properties in the downtown area. Commercial property owners today pay roughly an additional 7 percent to the SID, beyond regular property taxes, according to City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier. For example, a commercial property owner paying about $10,000 annually in property taxes would pay another $700 to the SID.

SIDs were created in New Jersey in the mid-1980s as financing tools by local businesses to provide services as part of a revitalization downtown plan. Commercial property owners “organize and assess themselves in order to pay for the services that are needed.” Cities have used it for things like security, sanitation, graffiti removal, facade/streetscape improvements, marketing and special events.

The future of the Partnership itself is up in the air, with an almost certain transformation in the coming months. Among the options that will be examined, according to Pelissier, is consolidating the Partnership with the Parking Authority. The city will compare the operational costs of both entities and see what’s necessary. The Partnership, he added, could still host its major fundraisers and special events, such as Hot Rods and Harleys, The Taste and a wine tasting event.

SID money would provide funding for programming at the proposed Hamilton Street amphitheater and black box theater, and in general, could be used to “develop activities and programs to encourage the long-term success of the arts community in the Rahway Arts District,” according to the ordinance. The arts district board is made up of downtown stakeholders, including city officials, artists, restaurant owners and a developer, Pelissier said.

The ordinance will come up for a public hearing and final adoption at the March 8 City Council meeting.

*** FULL DISCLOSURE *** I was appointed last month to a three-year term as an “honorary member” of the Rahway Arts District Board of Trustees. Honorary members do not vote and do not have the same obligations as other board members; all are unpaid. I expect to attend meetings whenever possible as a means to inform the community, as my blog has always aimed to do.

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