The long-awaited restoration of the Red Bank train station, named for late mayor and state Supreme Court Justice Dan O’Hern, is on track to wrap up by late August, New Jersey Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder said Thursday. Included in the $1.6 million project are the replacement of the slate roof, repairs to the clapboard exterior and historically accurate restoration of windows and gingerbread trim. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Wet weather has delayed completion of the grade crossing reconstruction at Bridge Avenue and Monmouth Street in Red Bank, New Jersey transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder said Thursday. The crossing, which has remained in operation for trains since the work began two weeks ago, is expected reopen to motor vehicles by Monday, she said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
As reported by redbankgreen earlier this month, the intersection of Bridge Avenue and Monmouth Street in Red Bank will be closed to traffic for about two weeks starting Thursday morning for replacement of the NJ Transit railroad crossing. Expect detours, borough officials said. (Click to enlarge)
The busy intersection of Bridge Avenue and Monmouth Street in Red Bank will be closed to traffic for about two weeks starting the morning of Thursday, April 24 for replacement of the NJ Transit railroad crossing. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Jim Fitzmaurice working on the mural at Juanito’s last month. Below, a detail. (Photos by Dan Natale. Click to enlarge)
By DAN NATALE
An outdoor mural near the Red Bank train station has been getting a wholesale freshening-up in recent weeks. And it’s not the first time.
Painter Jim Fitzmaurice of Rumson has been restoring the mural on the side of Juanitos Mexican Grill, located at the corner of Monmouth and West streets.
A stretch of glass-embedded sidewalk on Monmouth Street is slated for removal. Below, Teresa Manning with a sample of the original glass. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Easily overlooked by the hundreds of pedestrians who walk on it every day, a distinctive stretch of Red Bank sidewalk is about to vanish.
Running along the front of 37-43 Monmouth Street, the century-old sidewalk is inlaid with hundreds of thick squares of purple-tinged glass arranged in neat grids.
For observant walkers, the sidewalk is curiosity underfoot. For the tenants of the building fronted by it, and whose cellars extend underneath it, the sidewalk has been a source of eerie subterranean illumination.
“The light from outside would come right in,” said Teresa Manning, business manager for Rocar Properties, which owns the building.
An architect’s rendering of the facades of the sub shop and barbershop planned for 8 Monmouth. An “exterior dining patio” would be hidden behind the stairwell accessed by the double doors at left. (Click to enlarge)
The prospective tenant of a prominent Red Bank storefront wants to build a sub shop with an open-air patio for customers.
Hidden behind a stairwell. Accessible from the sub shop only. Just seven feet wide. Surrounded by walls three stories high.
A subsidiary of Amboy Bank is seeking approval for an all-residential project at the corner of Monmouth and West streets, below. (Click to enlarge)
On the agenda for a special meeting of the Red Bank zoning board tonight: yet another plan for a major development on the site of a former filling station on Monmouth Street.
Yep, that same place at the southeast corner of West Street that was the subject of not one but two prior approvals in the past seven years, neither of which resulted in so much as a shovel going into the ground.
Amboy Bank, which now owns the property, wants to build townhouse-style apartments there under the name Courtyards at Monmouth. So why not just dust off the approval won by Rumson’s George Coffenberg, who relinquished the project to the bank shortly after getting his approval for a project, also dubbed called Courtyards at Monmouth, in early 2008?
Because in the interim, Red Bank’s governing body changed the zoning laws and included the property in a so-called “train station overlay” zone that allows for buildings up to 50 feet tall and densities of up to 35 dwelling units per acre, up from the prior limit of 25.