Luxury Condos – At What Price?

From Atlanticville (Long Branch):

Redevelopment puts life, business on hold
BY CHRISTINE VARNO

Resident becomes activist as eminent domain looms

Long Branch resident James Keelen thought he was living the American dream.

Keelen, 49, began operating his business, Keelen Bus Co., at 142 Belmont Ave., in 1992 and just seven years later, purchased a home next door to his company where he is raising his family.

Keelen found his American dream was short-lived when he learned that both his business and home are located in the city’s Broadway redevelopment zone and could be slated for eminent domain like homes in other zones.

“This is my whole life,” said Keelen in an interview Monday. “Everything I have ever worked for is here, sitting on this property that could be taken from me.

“What if I wanted to give [my company] to my children or sell it and retire?” he asked. “I can’t do it. It is all on hold. They have my life on hold.”
…
Keelen said he is not ready to turn his business and home over to the city and has decided to get involved to protect the property he owns from the prospect of eminent domain abuse.
…
The hardest part for Keelen, though, is planning his future, he said.

“I just want to know what is going to happen,” Keelen said. “I don’t want to wake up everyday and ask if I still have a home and a job.”

While a developer has not yet been designated for the redevelopment area where Keelen’s home and business are located, the city has designated Broadway Arts Center (BAC) as the developer for the first nine acres of the entire Broadway redevelopment zone which extends from Second to Memorial Avenues and from Union Avenue to the north and Belmont Avenue to the south.
…
Redevelopment underway in the Beachfront North, phase II area, known as MTOTSA for Marine and Ocean Terraces and Seaview Avenue, calls for the properties, some of which are slated for eminent domain, to be razed and replaced with luxury condominiums.

Members of the MTOTSA alliance have filed a motion in Superior Court to dismiss condemnation complaints served by the city on 20 residents in the zone and residents are currently awaiting a decision by Judge Lawrence M. Lawson.

In Beachfront South, plans also call for razing the neighborhood and replacing it with luxury condominiums.

The developers of the zone are negotiating with the property owners for the purchase prices of their homes which could result in eminent domain if an agreement is not reached by the July 1 deadline.

These stories about eminent domain abuses are becoming much too commonplace in New Jersey. Why bother even owning property in New Jersey? Property ‘ownership’ doesn’t mean much when local governments can take that property away on a whim.

Caveat Emptor!
grim