RED BANK: ANDERSON MAKEOVER LAUDED
The former Anderson Storage building in Red Bank was named one of three recipients of a 2020 Monmouth County Planning Board Merit Award Monday.
RED BANK: ANDERSON ‘EVOLUTION’ ROLLS ON
The former Anderson Storage building, above. Below, Chris Cole in the space being readied for Glen Goldbaum’s Lambs & Wolves salon.(Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
With the opening last week week of Sickles Market and Booskerdoo, Red Bank’s Anderson Storage building has all but completed a transformation in the works for almost two decades.
But for developer Chris Cole, who oversaw the project, it’s just another day at the office.
RED BANK: ANDERSON’S LONG VACANCY ENDS
After decades of disuse, a building in Red Bank’s train station district has a stunning new addition – and its first tenant.
What’s Going On Here? Read on… More →
RED BANK: LOOKING UPSTAIRS FOR PARKING
Local officials say the usage mix and vacancy rates of upper floors downtown factors into parking needs and taxes. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
As the Red Bank council goes back to the drawing board in search of parking solutions after last year’s abandoned flirtation with five developers, local officials admit they’ve got a problem upstairs.
They don’t know how much parking to allocate for upper-floor office and residential tenants downtown. Nobody, it turns out, has been keeping tabs.
RED BANK: SICKLES ENTERING LIQUOR BIZ
With a ’boutique’ liquor store now part of the plan, Sickles Market Provisions will take the entire first floor of the former Anderson Storage building on Monmouth Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After a century-plus of operation, Little Silver-based Sickles Market will get into the liquor business when opens its new store in Red Bank, redbankgreen has learned.
RED BANK: SICKLES BREWS BOOSKERDOO DEAL
The Anderson Storage building, where ‘Sickles Market Provisions’ plans to occupy the ground floor. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Sickles Market, the Little Silver grocer that traces its roots back 350 years, has partnered with the fast-growing Booskerdoo coffee-shop chain on its planned foray into Red Bank, the two companies announced Tuesday.
RED BANK: SPRUCING UP A VICTORIAN
In progress in Red Bank’s historic district: a stately Victorian structure is getting a complete overhaul by a reconstructive plastic surgeon, Dr. Negin Griffith, under a plan approved by the borough planning board in March, 2015.
RED BANK: APARTMENT PLAN APPROVED
The upper two floors of the building, which have been vacant for years, will get two apartments each. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A landmark Red Bank building’s upper two floors will be turned into spacious apartments under a plan approved by the borough zoning board Thursday night.
In a rarity in this parking-starved town, the change would reduce the demand for downtown spots, the building’s new owner told the board.
RED BANK: APARTMENT PLANS TO BE HEARD
Two apartment projects — one next to the train station and the other in the heart of downtown — are scheduled to be heard by Red Bank land use regulators this week.
The first, by Denholtz Associates, would create a 45-unit mixed-use building with a parking garage extending from the taxi dispatch office on Oakland Street the office building shown above, on Chestnut Street.
The proposal is slated to be heard by the planning board tonight at 6:30 p.m. For more details, see redbankgreen‘s coverage from August, when the plan was filed. More →
RED BANK: BUILDER PRESERVES OLD HOME
The newly restored structure at 219 East Bergen Place is believed to date back to 1874, says its new owner. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
An investment by a business owner has secured a future for another one of Red Bank’s older homes.
Mike Villane, owner of Lead Dog Custom Homes, recently completed a gut-job renovation of 219 East Bergen Place, where his young business is now headquartered.
RED BANK: SICKLES TO OPEN WEST SIDE STORE
Sickles Market plans to lease nearly the entire first floor of the Anderson Storage building, seen here looking south on Bridge Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Sickles Market, the Little Silver farm market that traces its roots back 350 years, is planning to open a second store in Red Bank’s former Anderson storage building, redbankgreen has learned.
Store owner Bob Sickles told redbankgreen on Wednesday that his company plans to lease nearly all of the 8,000-square-foot ground floor of a building that will have three upper stories of offices.
RED BANK: HORSE-ERA HOUSE GETS CAR LOT
The circa-1875 office building at Broad Street and East Bergen Place. The driveway to the right belongs to the adjoining property. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The prospective buyer of a historic, high-profile Red Bank property won approval Wednesday night to make an alteration: the addition of a small parking lot out back.
The planning board unanimously approved the creation of a 12-space lot in the rear yard of 286 Broad Street, at the corner of East Bergen.
RED BANK: DRIVEWAY PLAN IRKS NEIGHBORS
Changes to the structure include the addition of an ADA-accessible wraparound porch along the east side, shown in the bottom illustration. The vacant lot next door is shown below. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The planned restoration of a stately Victorian home in Red Bank for use by a plastic surgeon mostly won praise at a meeting of the borough planning board Monday night.
Neighbors and other residents expressed thanks to Dr. Negin Griffith for proposing to renovate rather than raze the building, at 76 East Front Street. But several claimed that moving the access driveway off East Front and onto an adjoining empty lot at the corner of Washington Street would increase car traffic through the historic district neighborhood.
RED BANK: NEW OFFICE FEELS LIKE OLD HOME
With landscaping and exterior detail work still in progress, John Smallwood, below, moved his financial advisory firm into 199 Broad Street last week. (Photo above by Trish Russoniello; below by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
More than a year later, John Smallwood still shakes his head in disbelief when he thinks about the appraiser who advised him to tear down the century-old Red Bank mansion he was about to buy and rehabilitate for use as office space.
For one thing, the comment betrayed astonishing ignorance of zoning law, Smallwood said: with just 60 feet of frontage on Broad Street, a new structure would have to be sliver-thin to accommodate setbacks and access to the parking out back.
More than that, though, was the appraiser’s failure to appreciate both the real and intangible value of the structure, at 199 Broad.
“I was really offended” by the suggestion, Smallwood told redbankgreen. “He just didn’t get what we have here.”
RED BANK: ANDERSON SAILS TO APPROVAL
An architect’s rendering of the proposed Anderson Storage building, as seen from Bridge Avenue. Below, zoning board member Jesse Garrison, left, congratulates developer Chris Cole after the vote. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The second plan to transform the Red Bank’s former Anderson storage building in a decade cruised to approval Thursday night.
The earlier approval, obtained in 2006 and never followed up on, was to convert the long-vacant, 27,000-square-foot structure into 23 condos. This one calls for a four-story addition and other changes to produce a 48,600SF office structure with a stores and a restaurant on the ground floor, a greenhouse on the roof, and a small shop made of shipping containers in the rear parking lot.
The new plan had some tailwind created by its predecessor.
RED BANK: PLAN ‘SPICES UP’ ANDERSON SITE
Metrovation partner Chris Cole with a rendering of the proposed project. Below, a freestanding structure in the parking lot would be be made of shipping containers. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A plan to transform the former Anderson storage building in Red Bank into stores and offices reflects years of thinking about how to integrate it into the surrounding neighborhood, proponents told the borough zoning board Thursday night.
Testifying for developer Metrovation, architect Terry William Smith detailed a plan that he said “honors the integrity and the authenticity of the original building” via a four-story addition with a red brick exterior and lots of exposed wood and steel inside. “We’re not tampering with that,” he said.
Still, the project includes some giddy touches, including a small, freestanding structure made of shipping containers in the center of the parking lot and a century-old greenhouse on the roof.
RED BANK: ANDERSON MAKEOVER RETURNS
The former Anderson storage property on Monmouth Street abuts the North Jersey Coast Line. Below, an architect’s rendering of the remodeled building. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two years after scuttling plans that would have transformed the long-vacant Anderson Brothers warehouse in Red Bank into luxury condos, developer Metrovation is back, minus the living units.
A plan to instead turn the three-story, red-brick structure into two floors of office space above street-level stores and a restaurant is scheduled to be heard by the borough zoning board Thursday night.
RED BANK: CHURCH PLAN WINS FULL BLESSING
Developer Bob Silver, below, hugs congregants of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, above, after gaining approval to convert the 62-year-old structure to offices. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The proposed conversion of First Church of Christ, Scientist in Red Bank into an office complex was praised to the heavens Thursday night, even by a couple of neighbors who’d previously expressed wariness about it.
Developer Bob Silver, who previously converted a Christian Scientist church in Montclair into offices, won kudos for preserving one of Broad Street’s architectural gems while yielding to concerns about traffic. His project, dubbed “Two Eleven Broad,” was also lauded for “saving the home” of a shrunken congregation, which will continue to use a portion of the building, and for touches including electric-car rechargers and bike racks.
Silver is “the best possible neighbor that the neighbors could want,” said abutting property owner William Hartigan of Hudson Avenue, whose concerns about the plan were spotlighted by redbankgreen earlier this week.
RED BANK: CHURCH PLAN UPSETS NEIGHBORS
William Hartigan notes the proximity of a church garage to his family’s outdoor dining area. Below, the church as seen from Broad Street; the wing at the left would get a second story. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
It’s a story as old as the concept of property rights: a couple settles into their dream home, and then the folks next door do something on their patch of heaven to disturb the idyll.
When William and Kathryn Hartigan moved to Red Bank from Jersey City four years ago, they never imagined that the church that abuts their Hudson Avenue property would be anything other than a house of worship, quiet and unnoticed except for the bells pealing in the steeple on Sunday mornings.
But the proposed conversion of First Church of Christ, Scientist on Broad Street into an office complex has Hudson Avenue neighbors alarmed about traffic, and the Hartigans about the impact on their dream.
RED BANK: GATE MAIN ISSUE IN CHURCH PLAN
Hudson Avenue resident William Hartigan discusses the church’s plan for fencing at Thursday night’s planning board meeting with neighbor Kevin Moss. Below, a rendering of the proposal. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The proposed conversion of a steepled Red Bank church into an office complex – with provision for a dramatically shrunken Sunday worship space – drew a full house to the planning board Thursday night.
Nearly all the concerns and objections to the plan for the First Church of Christ, Scientist house of worship on Broad Street were focused on one element: a gate on the Hudson Avenue side of the property.
Allowing for the gate, instead of sealing off access to Hudson, would surely result in more traffic on the residential street, neighbors said.
RED BANK: SWAPPING PEWS FOR CUBICLES
On the Red Bank Planning Board agenda Thursday night: the First Church of Christ, Scientist, at 211 Broad Street wants to turn a good portion of its worship space into offices for rent.
The plan also calls for an addition to an existing one-story wing and other changes at the site, which would be rebranded as “Two Eleven Broad,” with about 1,500 square feet dedicated for church use. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
LITTLE SILVER: BASEMENT FIRE INJURES ONE
The fire, at a vacant building formerly used by a landscaping company, broke out in the basement, officials said. (Click to enlarge)
A volunteer Little Silver firefighter suffered a minor injury while combating a smoky basement fire on Conover Place Monday afternoon, the Asbury Park Press reports.
The unidentified firefighter, one of more than 50 from four towns who responded to the 4:30 p.m. alarm, was treated on the scene for a leg injury, Fire Chief Andrew Smith told the Press.
RED BANK ZONERS NIX TRAINING OFFICE
Shore House consultant Pauline Nicholls, board president Susan Sandlass and attorney Phillip San Filippo at the zoning board hearing. (Photo by Sarah Klepner. Click to enlarge)
By SARAH KLEPNER
Red Bank officials Thursday night rejected a request by a nonprofit to provide job training to people with mental illnesses at a facility on Maple Avenue.
The borough zoning board, taking up an appeal, unanimously agreed with borough Planning Director Donna Smith-Barr’s earlier determination that Shore House would need a variance before it could offer its services at 135 Maple, amid a stretch of onetime elegant homes that now serve as offices for lawyers, architects, doctors, and other professionals.
“I like your program,” board chairwoman Lauren Nicosia told Shore House representatives. “I just don’t like it there.”