Town Sells Old Police Station Site for $1.75 Million
The deal with Petrucci Co. for redevelopment and purchase of the property includes a $140K credit from the town for affordable housing and up to $500,000 for asbestos removal and demolition.
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Tuesday evening, Mayor Victor DeLuca announced the long-awaited sale of the former police station property at 125 Dunnell Road.
The property was sold to J.G. Petrucci Co. of Asbury, NJ for $1.75 million dollars. Tuesday night, the Township Committee approved the "redevelopment and property disposition agreement" with Petrucci. The agreement requires that Petrucci develop the site as 50 units of multi-family housing within the strictures of the Redevelopment Plan for the site approved by the Planning Board and adopted by the town in 2009.
The deal with Petrucci for redevelopment and purchase of the property includes a $140,000 credit from the town for affordable housing and up to $500,000 for asbestos removal and demolition.
The next formal step in the process: Petrucci expects to have its site plan before the Planning Board for approval in November.
The town has long sought to sell the property after the relocation of the police department to the new police building on Springfield Avenue in 2008. The redevelopment plan process was a contentious one, with some residents forming a group called "Save Memorial Park." The group felt that proposed redevelopment parameters would allow for a building out of scale with the neighborhood abutting Memorial Park.
Previously, the town entered into exclusive negotiations for the sale and redevelopment of the property with Mark Built Homes of Union, extending the exclusive negotiating period twice before ending discussions. Disputes over which party would be responsible for environmental remediation seemed to plague discussions about the disposition of the site.
The town announced a new round of requests for proposals for the property this past spring, selecting Petrucci for exclusive negotiations in June.
Petrucci will present preliminary plans to the community in an informal meeting on Thursday night, October 6, at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall. Petrucci already held an informal meeting with Board members of the Maplewood Village Alliance special improvement district on Sept. 14.
Petrucci proposes to build a 50-unit apartment building that will include a mix of 38 one-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom units. The plan is for 46 market rate units and four affordable housing units. The proposed building is four stories high, with ground floor parking and three residential stories above.
There will be 60 on-site parking spaces — meeting the 1.2 per housing unit requirement in the redevelopment plan approved for the site. The building will aim to attain LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. The units will all be rental; however, the units all have individual utility hookups to make for easy conversion to condominium units should the condo market improve.
No tax abatement will be granted for the development. As a rental property, the building will pay an assessment to the Maplewood Village Alliance Special Improvement District.
Lauren Bright Pacheco
8:16 am on Wednesday, October 5, 2011
To which elementary school will this apartment building be zoned?
Sandy Block
8:21 am on Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Does anyone, these days build apartments with garages? All of my friends living in apartments have either had their cars broken into and damaged or stolen, or know a neighbor who have this happen to them. Many of the older apartment complexs have garages, but very few of new construction have such a "luxury" !
Stephan Kolodiy
9:37 am on Wednesday, October 5, 2011
As per the article, the first floor of the building will be parking and the other 3 will be residential. So it looks like this apartment building will have a garage of sorts, or indoor parking (unless they leave that area open).
Louis Toledo, Martial Arts & Kickboxing Instructor
2:27 pm on Wednesday, October 5, 2011
50 apartments in a three story building, I don't see it.
Ken Houghton
3:17 pm on Wednesday, October 5, 2011
60 parking spots are required?? That's almost one for each BR. If the ground floor is (all) parking, that's about 200ft^2 (20x10) each, so we're talking 12,000ft^2, conservatively. And that's the spaces themselves; not room to maneuver. So call it 15,000ft^2.
So each room (again, rounding and approximating) is going to be a little more than 70 sq ft. (7 x 10), assuming you're not using the NYC definition of "BR."
With a maximum height of 50 feet, you're talking roughly a 10' high garage and 3 floors each 12' high, with about 18" of space between the lower ceiling and the upper floor. (Or, possibly, 1' for floors 2 and 3 and 2' for the bottom floor to the "garage.")
Not exactly luxury dwellings from a sound perspective.
I'm assuming the answer to Lauren's question is "Jefferson," since the building will be on the North side of Dunnell. But consider that the rest of the Tuscan parents-- who have already seen one round of disenfranchisement--are asking it as well.