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qquinner
Citizen
Username: Qquinner
Post Number: 25
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, September 29, 2002 - 6:55 am: | 
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I read thru some of the old supermarket posts and am still trying to figure out the timing of when the new market is supposed to arrive at the old Shoprite site. How long does the "local investor" group have to develop the site? What are the backup plans? thanks! |
mrosner
Citizen
Username: Mrosner
Post Number: 91
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Monday, October 7, 2002 - 2:57 pm: |
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They are scheduled to meet before the planning board in November. If they get approval, then they have to apply for whatever permits they need. Construction time is probably 12 - 18 months.
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Dave Ross
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 3746
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, October 7, 2002 - 3:12 pm: |
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Why wasn't the Shop Rite allowed to continue (and continue paying taxes) until something had been set in stone for a developer/store? A lot of senior citizens in the nearby housing complexes counted on being able to shop for small items there. |
mrosner
Citizen
Username: Mrosner
Post Number: 92
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Monday, October 7, 2002 - 4:20 pm: |
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It was their choice to close the store. They had promised for many years to fix/clean up the store. They were even forced to change the name from Shop-Rite to Village Markets. It would have been nice if they had just upgraded this store as they did with others that they own, but they decided they did not want to remain in S. Orange.
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Dave Ross
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 3750
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, October 7, 2002 - 4:31 pm: |
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Gotcha. Thanks for info. |
mayhewdrive
Citizen
Username: Mayhewdrive
Post Number: 92
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, October 7, 2002 - 7:55 pm: |
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Mark,
How much did the Village pay to "condemn" the property? |
mrosner
Citizen
Username: Mrosner
Post Number: 93
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 8, 2002 - 10:12 am: |
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Mayhewdrive: First, let's be clear that the after years of promises from the owners of that Shop-Rite that they were going to make improvements and fix up their store, they made a decision to close instead. We forced the process to move forward by condemning the propery. I do not remember the exact cost but the net cost will be the amount of the bond, the loss of the propery taxes and the legal fees. The new developer will be buying the property from the village for the same amount the village paid.
I've said it before and I will say it again. Landlords have a responsibility to maintain their property. Just like you want your neighbor to cut their grass, etc, I expect building owners in the downtown to maintain their property. Obviously, their are some landlords who do not do that and need to be pushed.
Mayhewdrive, you have been extremely critical of the empty stores and poorly maintained properties. This was a classic example of a property that was going to be another empty space. The village took a pro-active position and while the process moves slowly, I think that when compared to what happens when a town lets the landlord sit back and wait for "the right deal" to come along it is an even longer and slower process (I will not mention the name of the site that the village has been patiently waiting to be developed).
One can look at other towns too and see how slowly things take to develop (the old Saks Fifth Ave. in Short Hills to name an obvious one).
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mayhewdrive
Citizen
Username: Mayhewdrive
Post Number: 93
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 8, 2002 - 10:12 pm: |
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Mr Rosner,
Certainly I am not the only who is "critical of the empty stores". Frankly, I am amazed that there is not a greater public sense of outrage and embarassment over the state of our downtown. (Although on another thread on this board, some dissent is starting to be sounded).
I know that Main Street is working hard to make things happen, but I don't understand why it is so undesirable for people/companies to open a business in South Orange. I have lived here for 4 years and the stores west of Sloan street have been vacant this entire time.
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fredsmom
Citizen
Username: Fredsmom
Post Number: 34
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 6:04 am: |
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I'm with mayhewdrive. When friends come in on the train to visit us, I'm beginning to send them to the Maplewood train station instead of South Orange -- for which of course I feel deeply guilty -- so they don't have to walk past the ramshackle ex-store fronts. I have just compounded the problem but I doubt that I am alone. And now, that wonderful oasis with the Blue Moon Diner, Urban Femme, Starbucks etc. has just taken a major hit (or so it seems to me) with the closure of Stony Hill Creamery. There has got to be better way to target and lure good viable businesses, big & small, to town -- there are so many things we don't have around here and folks with money to spend. Yesterday my fax cartridge died and I ended up all the way over on Rt. 22 looking for a Staples-type store. I offer no solutions, but darn it, someone ought to come up with some!! Rant over. |
nsolomon
Citizen
Username: Nsolomon
Post Number: 40
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 2:54 pm: |
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We're having a similar discussion in the Stonyhill Creamery thread....
Mayhew -- I agree with you entirely. And every conversation I have with other South Orangites has the same theme -- utter exasperation over the state of downtown.
So what should we do? Mrosner suggests getting involved in Main Street. It seems to me that we need to somehow either shame or legally force landlords to lower their rents, which one would think would let the free market do its job.
I'm afraid I know nothing about our local government. Is this where the problem lies?
Maybe a discussion here (and in the stonyhill thread) can turn to action?
Nancy |
shoshannah
Citizen
Username: Shoshannah
Post Number: 16
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 8:24 pm: |
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Nsolomon, it's not the rents. As I posted in the creamery thread, it is -- at least in the case of my friend -- the other very onerous provisions of the lease that would have made it incredibly difficult to be a renter in that space. This is something that would be unknown to anyone except those who seek to rent in the community and get as far as obtaining a copy of the lease. |
nsolomon
Citizen
Username: Nsolomon
Post Number: 42
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2002 - 4:26 pm: |
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Shoshannah, I was using "rent" in the sense of an all emcompassing cost. If a landlord requires upkeep of the building's infrastruture, that's a cost to the business/renter, and so I was using the term liberally.
I'm eager to hear more about who these landlords are and what tax program it is that gives incentive to allow storefronts to remain vacant.
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qquinner
Citizen
Username: Qquinner
Post Number: 28
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, October 13, 2002 - 5:48 am: |
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Mayhewdrive--We are also amazed that so many storefronts remain vacant. I wonder if there is another town in NJ that has been "revitalized" that we could look to as a model. Someone mentioned Westfield to me, but I think it has always been "nice." Maybe it just takes forever! |
Elizabeth
Citizen
Username: Elizabeth
Post Number: 52
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, October 13, 2002 - 10:28 am: |
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Be sure to read the long post from Main Street at the bottom of the Stony Hill Creamery thread |
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