City negotiating with arts district developer

BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

A rendering of the proposed Lower Broadway Corridor arts and entertainment redevelopment zone in Long Branch. Long Branch has entered into negotiations with a potential developer for the Lower Broadway Corridor redevelopment zone.

A resolution was approved at the Nov. 9 City Council meeting, declaring Broadway Arts Center, LLC, Long Branch, as the potential developer for the two-block zone that extends from Second Avenue to Memorial Parkway and from Union Avenue to the north and Belmont Avenue to the south.

The Katz and the Siperstein families, owners of Siperstein’s Paints on Broadway, are partnering with the Pereira family, owners of Pax Construction Co., Broadway, to come up with a potential redevelopment plan to restore the once-vibrant arts district.

“We want to revitalize the whole downtown area,” Katz said. “These two blocks are the worst blocks in the redevelopment area.”

“We want to do a revitalization of what already exists,” said Patience O’Connor, of O’Connor & Co., a Washington, D.C., development and planning firm, which has been retained as developing manger by the Katz/Siperstein/Pereira partnership.

“This block is historically where all the arts in the city were located,” O’Connor said. “We want to bring the arts back.”

The Broadway Arts Center proposal would anchor the block with the Paramount Theater building, which is currently occupied by Siperstein’s and proposes to move the New Jersey Repertory Company, 179 Broadway, into the zone, O’Connor said.

“We want to bring arts, entertainment, retail and residences into the zone,” she said.

The entire Broadway redevelopment zone extends 72 acres from Second Avenue west to the railroad tracks. It is one of six redevelopment zones in the city and Broadway Arts Center is proposing to redevelop a 9-acre tract of the zone.

“As the project gets further in the future, the area may get bigger,” Mayor Adam Schneider said.

The proposal includes the development of 170,000 square feet of retail space, about 550 residential units, cafes, restaurants and theaters, O’Connor said.

A multitiered parking garage with 1,300 spaces is also included in the plan.

Schneider estimates the project would cost around $100 million.

One hundred housing units is proposed as affordable housing, 56 at moderate cost, 296 at market rate and 100 units are proposed to house students from the West Long Branch campus of Monmouth University, according to O’Connor, who said there will be a wide range of sale prices, starting at $180,000.

The area currently is the site of Siperstein’s, which will remain in the city but not in the proposed redevelopment zone, Pax Construction, a cafe , about 60,000 square feet of retail stores, residential units and many vacancies, O’Connor said.

“The area is in strong need of revitalization,” O’Connor said.

She said she has talked to more than 60 possible retailers about locating their business in the zone and 29 have already toured the area.

“We have received some letters of interest from national retailers,” she said, but she would not disclose an exact number.

The city and the developers have the next 120 days to formulate a developer’s agreement, according to City Attorney James Aaron, who said if an agreement is not reached at the end of that time period, the redevelopment zone will be open to other developers.

“I would caution you that we are opposed to what you are doing,” the Rev. Kevin Brown, 162 Broadway, said at the council meeting. “I have a lot of problems with what you have been doing.”

Brown has been trying to establish a place of worship in the building he owns in the Broadway Corridor for the last 10 years and has been unsuccessful.

“You are moving forward to developing a block, and I was not invited to negotiations,” Brown said. “I own property, a church, on the block. Does your plan include a church, a house of worship?”

After the meeting, O’Connor said the land use adopted by the city’s master plan does not have a church designated in the zone.