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: AZALEA GARDENS TO RESTART
Construction fencing surrounds RayRap Real Estate’s Azalea Gardens project site at Harding Road and Clay Street in Red Bank this week. The development has been in the works for seven years, though there’s been little activity since half a block of rundown houses and garages were demolished in early 2018.
What’s Going On Here? Read on…
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: PORK ROLL, ASIAN EATS & BREWS
John Yarusi in the newly opened Johnny’s Pork Roll & Coffee. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s ever-changing dining scene continued its rotisserie spin in recent days with three restaurant openings.
Read all about them in edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.
RED BANK CHURN: VEGAN TAKEOUT OPENS
Good Karma Café’s new takeout shop, Karma 2 Go, at the West Side Lofts. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A vegan mecca opens a new takeout shop, a framing business consolidates, and a party-services business holds a moving sale…
Read all about all three Red Bank businesses in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.
RED BANK: FOOD, CLOTHES & MORE IN CHURN
JJ’s Delicasies, at 21 West Front Street, features a swirling logo on the sidewalk out front, thanks to a projector. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
In this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn, one of Red Bank’s hot vegan restaurants is building a separate takeout place, while a 24-hour gym, a barber shop and a cryotherapy spa all have plans to set up shop downtown.
Meantime, two businesses — a restaurant and a women’s clothing shop — have opened in recent days.
RED BANK: RAYRAP PROJECT GETS UNDERWAY
Motorists passing through Five Corners in Red Bank in recent days might understandably have gotten the impression that a vacant house there had burned down and been demolished.
They’d be mistaken. So What’s Going on Here?
RED BANK: TRIUMPH TO OPEN… ‘SOON’
Triumph Brewing won approval to add outdoor dining on the Edmund Wilson Boulevard side of the building, facing the Two River Theater. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
It’s been a couple of years, literally, in development, and yet the only person who can say when Red Bank’s Triumph Brewing Company might open has been steadfastly mum.
Well, finally, there’s some news.
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: RAYRAP HOME PLAN WINS FINAL OK
A yellow border outlines the site of developer Ray Rapcavage’s Azalea Gardens project, with Harding Road at the bottom, Clay Street to the left and Hudson Avenue at right. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Demolition of a house destroyed by fire five years ago could begin as early as this month as the first step toward the creation of a new 18-home community at Red Bank’s Five Corners, developer Ray Rapcavage told redbankgreen last week.
RED BANK: SOMETHING BREWING AT TRIUMPH?
No, that was not a space-age bumper-car ride being assembled outside Red Bank’s West Side Lofts Tuesday. Rather, it was vat-delivery day at Triumph Brewing Company, the long-brewing restaurant and brew pub.
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: RAYRAP CLEARS FIRST HURDLE
Developer Ray Rapcavage, seated at right, and his attorney, Armen McOmber, listen as Hudson Avenue resident Anthony Sposaro endorses the Azalea Gardens project. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A year after his last try was shot down, real estate developer Ray Rapcavage won a key approval Thursday night for a new plan to rebuild a shabby half-block on the southeast edge of downtown Red Bank.
On a unanimous vote, the zoning board granted Rapcavage variances for 18 homes fronted by an English garden on Harding Road between Clay Street and Hudson Avenue.
But he’s not yet clear to start work.
RED BANK: LATEST RAYRAP PLAN IN SPOTLIGHT
The project calls for 16 townhouses along Clay Street, seen at left above, that would face east into an English garden with two freestanding homes. (Photo from Google Maps. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Will RayRap have better luck this time?
A year after his last plan was shot down, real estate developer Ray Rapcavage returns to the Red Bank zoning board this week hoping to obtain approval for new plans to build homes on half a block’s worth of properties the edge of downtown.
RED BANK: RAYRAP SEEKS ‘REHAB’ SITE LABEL
Ray Rapcavage, center above, with his wife, Suzanne, and Hudson Street resident Scott Broschart at the Five Corners site in 2014. Below, a detail of the latest proposal for the site. (Architectural rendering by David John Carnivale. Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Having been thwarted by the zoning board, developer Ray Rapcavage plans to ask the Red Bank council to designate his assembled properties on the edge of downtown as an “area in need of rehabilitation,” redbankgreen has learned.
If granted, the controversial label would enable Rapcavage to avoid a return trip to the zoning board with his revised plan, though he denies that’s his intent.
Rather, it would create a more “expeditious” route to possible construction on the half-block of properties he’s assembled on Harding Road between Clay Street and Hudson Avenue, Rapcavage said Monday.
RED BANK: RAYRAP TO PUSH FOR LAW CHANGE
Ray Rapcavage, seen last month with Harding Road neighbor Kenny Tumia, above. Below, a detail of Rapcavage’s plan. (Architectural rendering by David John Carnivale. Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Hoping to pave the way for his latest plan for a troubled site on the edge of downtown, developer Ray Rapcavage intends to ask the Red Bank council to amend the borough zoning law.
Rapcavage tells redbankgreen he’ll appear at Wednesday night’s semimonthly council session to ask for a change to allow builders to construct units with up to three bedrooms without having to seek a use variance.
RED BANK: RAYRAP RETURNS WITH NEW PLAN
Ray Rapcavage, seen below on Hudson Avenue opposite his properties, including a house destroyed by fire in May, 2012. Above, a rendering of the proposed project, with an English garden fronting on Hudson and 16 condos backing up against Clay Street. (Architectural rendering by David John Carnivale. Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Seven months after his proposal for homes at the Five Corners site in Red Bank was shot down by the zoning board, developer Ray Rapcavage has filed completely overhauled plans with borough hall.
The new plan reduces the number of proposed homes on the site — fronting on Harding Road, Clay Street and Hudson Avenue — to 18, from 22. It includes a large English garden of winding paths out front, whereas the last plan had no open space.
And most critically for Rapcavage, the plan doesn’t need any variances, he tells redbankgreen.
More →
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: JUICING UP WEST SIDE LOFTS
The West Side Lofts, as seen from West Front Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
In keeping with its resemblance to a stack of shipping containers, Red Bank’s West Side Lofts project is packing them in.
Since opening last spring, all 90 of its residential apartments have been leased. The West Elm furniture and housewares store has opened, taking one of two anchor spots. The second anchor, Triumph Brewing Company, is expected to open its restaurant in coming months.
And to close out the leasing spree, the project’s developer is bringing in two local small businesses, redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn has learned: Freshica’s Juice Bar and Rumson Personal Fitness.
RED BANK: WHAT’S NEXT FOR RAYRAP SITE?
The zoning board shot down a plan to build 22 townhouses and condos on a parcel bound by Clay Street, Harding Road and Hudson Avenue, throwing the future of the site into uncertainty. (Google Earth image courtesy of Ray Rapcavage. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
It’s hard to avoid the use of the word “eyesore” when talking about the RayRap site at the Five Corners in Red Bank.
With a vacant lot that was once home to a gas station; the burned husk of a house destroyed by fire; and another notorious for having once been spray-painted black — windows, shingles and all — it’s easily one of the borough’s least visually gratifying parcels. The fact that it sits on a heavily traveled street bordering the downtown and a residential area only heightens the effect.
So now that the zoning board has shot down a plan to develop the site with 22 new homes, what happens? Are we stuck with an eyesore forever?
RED BANK: ZONERS ZAP RAYRAP PLAN
Resident Bill Brooks studies a RayRap exhibit prior to the zoning board hearing. Below, a rendering of the proposed six-unit condo building that would front on Harding Road at Hudson Avenue. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
After a half-dozen hearings over 16 months and numerous revisions, a plan for 22 condos and townhouses on the edge of downtown Red Bank failed to win zoning board approval Thursday night.
Board members told developer Ray Rapcavage that though they appreciated his flexibility in accommodating the concerns of nearby residents, he hadn’t gone far enough.
“It’s just too dense,” said board chairwoman Lauren Nicosia, whose motion to reject the plan was backed by all but one other board member. More →
RED BANK: BURNED BREAKFAST
A reported structure fire with an entrapped resident at the recently opened West Side Lofts luxury apartments in Red Bank turned out to be an unattended frying pan (seen at right) left on an active stove early Saturday morning.
Volunteer firefighters responded to the 6:08 a.m. alarm and aired out the second-floor unit after retrieving its lone occupant, who appeared uninjured. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: RAYRAP TRAFFIC PLAN RAPPED
Planning consultant John Jahr addresses a question from Hudson Avenue resident William Hartigan as builder Ray Rapcavage props up an exhibit Thursday night. Below, a view of the six-unit condo building fronting on Harding Road, which was to have been a greenmarket. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
For the fifth time, developer Ray Rapcavage has revised his plans for a residential development on the edge of downtown Red Bank, this time to accommodate complaints that eight homes on Hudson Avenue were too close to the street.
But nearby residents voiced concerns at a zoning board hearing Thursday night that the 22-unit project would worsen traffic and parking on an already busy and narrow street.
RED BANK: RAYRAP PLAN ON ZONING AGENDA
Developer Ray Rapcavage is scheduled to return to the Red Bank zoning board Thursday night with his proposal to build 22 homes on a block bounded by Harding Road, Hudson Avenue and Clay Street. Hearings on the original plan began in August, 2014, with a nine-month interim during which the proposal was revised.
Another project, the proposed 35-unit Element, opposite Riverside Gardens Park at 55 West Front Street, was also to have been heard, but has been rescheduled for December 10, according to a revised board agenda. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
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