RED BANK: SKATE SHOP ROLLS OUT OF TOWN
After less than three years in downtown Red Bank, Feet First Skate Shop has closed its doors.
RED BANK: FOOD, AND MORE, IN CHURN
Ivan Lopez and friend outside the newly opened Toro Rojo Parrilla Mexicana on Shrewsbury Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two food-based businesses departed Red Bank last month – one after 21 years, the other after just a few days.
But the shopping and dining scene also saw the quick revival of a vacant restaurant space, the opening of a new Pilates studio and more activity.
Read all about it in this edition of Retail Churn.
RED BANK: PROJECT HEARING DELAYED AGAIN
A Red Bank zoning board hearing on a plan for 32 new apartments at the train station has been postponed yet again.
RED BANK: ROOF’S OFF. WHAT’S UP?
The roof is gone and the rest of a one-story building on a triangular slice of land at 301 Maple Avenue in Red Bank has been gutted. And recently, a bright orange sticker was slapped on one of the remaining windows.
What’s Going On Here? Click ‘read more’ for the answer.
RED BANK: THREE CANNABIS SHOPS LICENSED
Among the three is Monteverde NJ, planning to open at 45 North Bridge Avenue. (redbankgreen photo. Click to enlarge.)
See UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s new Cannabis Review Board has completed scrutiny of its first three applications, and was like totally cool with all of them.
That means three pot shops have cleared all the local licensing requirements, borough officials said Thursday night.
RED BANK: NURTURING FORTUNE’S LEGACY
T. Thomas Fortune, below, and the cultural center dedicated to him in his onetime Red Bank home, above. (Above photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
With an exhibit examining the history of America’s Black press opening October 28 at Red Bank’s T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, redbankgreen presents this feature story, written for CivicStory, about the center’s namesake.
By DEBORAH YAFFE
When the Black newspaper editor and civil-rights activist T. Thomas Fortune moved to Red Bank in the summer of 1901, his arrival was front-page news. “Mr. Fortune is one of the most noted colored men of the country,” the Red Bank Register reported.
But a century later, the elegant Red Bank home that Fortune’s family called Maple Hall stood vandalized and derelict, its brick foundation crumbling, its windows boarded up. Still, the once-grand old place caught Gilda Rogers’ eye whenever she passed by. “That home probably was something really special in its heyday,” she would think.
She wasn’t wrong.
RED BANK: MODERN HOME PLAN APPROVED
The house at 211 River Street, above, is to be demolished and replaced with the structure below. (Photo by John T. Ward; rendering by Catherine Franco. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank bungalow would be replaced by a modern three-story home overlooking the Swimming River under a plan approved by the zoning board Thursday night.
Meanwhile, the owner of a postage-stamp-sized lot will have to wait to find out if a neighbor makes a purchase offer before he can proceed with his plans for a new house.
RED BANK: TWO HOMES ON AGENDA
See CORRECTION below
Plans for two single-family homes, both needing variances, are scheduled for review by the Red Bank zoning board Thursday night.
RED BANK: BOARD OKS NEW HEIGHT LIMITS
Navesink Riverside Residences and Marina (formerly Riverview Towers), center, and the Atrium at Navesink Harbor, to its right, are in the waterfront zone. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s planning board made quick work of approving two pending ordinances Monday night.
At a meeting that lasted just 13 minutes, the board found proposed changes to maximum building heights, and fees paid by developers in lieu of planting trees, did not conflict with the borough’s Master Plan.
RED BANK: COUNCIL SALARIES UNCHANGED
The council meets twice monthly at borough hall, 90 Monmouth Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Salaries for Red Bank’s mayor and council, which haven’t risen in at least 15 years, will remain unchanged at least through the remainder of 2023, under an resolution up for a vote Thursday night.
But whomever the governing body selects to fill the new borough manager post will have the latitude to give them specified raises under a related ordinance that’s also up for a vote.
Here’s a quick look at the agenda:
RED BANK: STATION PROJECT GOES TO BOARD
After months of postponements, the Red Bank zoning board hearing on a plan for a four-story apartment building opposite the train station is scheduled to begin Thursday night.
UPDATE: Yet again, this hearing has been postponed. The borough website says the zoning board meeting has been cancelled and “all applications scheduled for this date will re-notice for a new hearing date.”
RED BANK: SALARY BUMPS & MORE ON AGENDA
The council meets twice monthly at borough hall, 90 Monmouth Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council would clear the way to give itself its first pay bump in at least 15 years under an ordinance up for introduction Thursday night.
It would also reset the maximum salaries for the top three unelected positions at borough hall, one of which is open.
Here’s a quick look at the agenda:
RED BANK: THRIVE PLAN GETS BOARD OK
A rendering of the proposed Thrive Red Bank project, as seen from Shrewsbury Avenue. (Rendering by CPA Architecture. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A proposed apartment building for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities won approval from the Red Bank zoning board Thursday night.
Advocates called the approval historic, and said it would allow them to create a model for desperately needed housing for neuro-diverse adults.
RED BANK: LUNCH BREAK SEEKS MURALIST
Attention would-be Gulley Jimsons: a large wall beckons at Red Bank’s Lunch Break, awaiting your artistic vision.
RED BANK: RESTAURANTS IN CHURN
Catch 19 will close and a new restaurant will replace it, its owner says. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
In this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn: piping-hot news of changes at two restaurants in downtown Red Bank.
Though one is closing and the other is newly opened, for the owners of both, the appeal of the Broadwalk seasonal dining and shopping plaza remains strong four years in.
RED BANK: NEW HOUSE LOT APPROVED
Red Bank’s planning board approved a subdivision at 27 Locust Avenue Monday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: LUNCH BREAK TO BUY CHURCH
The purchase includes the Mt. Zion House of Prayer and its parking lot on Tilton Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank-based Lunch Break, already in the midst of a massive facilities expansion, may build a residential project on the site of a West Side church.
The social services organization is looking into using the Mt. Zion House of Prayer‘s property to provide housing for the homeless, Gwen Love, Lunch Break’s executive director, told redbankgreen last week.
Completion of the deal would also mean the end of more than a century of worship on the site.
RED BANK: THRIVE PARKING PLAN QUESTIONED
Seen on a monitor, an architect discusses the design of the proposed Shrewsbury Avenue project. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A proposed apartment project for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities would be the first of its kind in New Jersey, which has a critical need for it, sponsors told the Red Bank zoning board Thursday night.
Board members had questions about parking and unit size, but showed no immediate sign of opposition.
RED BANK: SPECIAL-NEEDS HOUSING PLANNED
Rendering shows the Shrewsbury Avenue side of the proposed building. Access to an interior garage would be at the far left. (Rendering by CPA Architecture.Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
When Karen Fluharty moved her special-needs adult son to a neuro-diverse housing complex in Phoenix two years ago, she was both relieved and devastated. There simply was nothing anywhere near her Rumson home that would allow young Ryan to live an independent life with an overlay of needed support, she said.
“I had to make the choice as a parent, to leave my 19-year-old son, my only child, in Arizona,” she said. “I had to make the choice between the right program and being near family. And no parent should have to make that choice.”
On Thursday night, a nonprofit entity Fluharty created will go before the Red Bank zoning board with an alternative.
RED BANK: BROADWALK PAIR GOES FOR $6.1M
The former home to Coco Pari, and the building next door, with Catch 19, were sold in a joint deal. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A prime bit of downtown Red Bank retail space was part of a two-building sale last month, redbankgreen has learned.
What goes into the vacant storefont of one is among the changes Retail Churn is keeping an eye on.
RED BANK: NOW GOING UP ON SHREWSBURY…
Black construction fencing surrounds a narrow lot Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank.
What’s Going On Here? redbankgreen sneaks a peak through a hole in the fence…
RED BANK: RESTAURANTS CHURN IN… AND OUT
Agra Indian Masala is under construction at the onetime home of Monmouth Music. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two long-vacant spaces in downtown Red Bank are showing signs of returning as new restaurants.
Also in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn: two restaurants that proved short-lived.
RED BANK: APARTMENT PLAN DELAYED AGAIN
A hearing on a plan for 32 new apartments on Bridge Avenue at the Red Bank train station has been postponed again.
RED BANK: POT SHOP BUYS TIME
The Plug Naturals shop would replace a single-family house at 156 West Front Street if approved. (Google Maps photo. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Facing possible rejection over parking issues, representatives of a proposed Red Bank cannabis shop asked for time to revise their plans Monday night.
RED BANK: POT SHOP, BAR PLANS ON AGENDA
Plug Naturals hopes to create a retail cannabis shop in an existing house on West Front Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Plans for yet another cannabis shop and an expansion of a popular bar are on the agenda when Red Bank’s newly reconstituted planning board meets for the first time Monday night.