The latest development in our neighborhood's two-decade long effort to prevent a massive townhouse development on Liongate's flood prone Scientific Glass site is: No Development.
The site’s current owner, Arthur Fefferman, reportedly purchased the property in 2003 for 3M. The 104 town houses (scaled back from 124 in the original developer's plans) were to offer 1,500 to 2,200 square feet of "luxury" living for about 700k & up. Meanwhile, comparable townhouses near the center of town are now having open houses for units asking 350K.
An agent from Donovan Realty told me that the asking price for the 12.7 acre property is 13 Million. They also said they have no plans to list it on a NJ MLS. I did a GSMLS(Garden State Multiple Listing Service) search for comparable development spaces on NNJ. Nothing under 7M You'll find many larger CLEAN lots here for a lot less $$. Could it be that they're not listing on the MLS because they can't compete in that market?
Fefferman and the original Scientific Glass owner,are thought to have spent over$100,000 to remediate the former industrial site, but were unable to get it clean enough to received a final NFA(No Further Action) letter from the DEP. This realization -- along with the falling market for new construction -- may have shut him down. A member of The Bloomfield Third RiverBank Association wonders if "the DEP might require continuous monitoring. By whom? And who is going to oversee and enforce this monitoring, the condo association?"
Interesting. There were two developments that were supposed to take place over by us next to Watsessing School and they haven't happened yet either. One had to ask for an extension to their variance awhile back. Peerless Tube has contaminants that need remediation as well. With the downturn in the economy I bet a lot of these developments will never happen.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping that the site would be developed soon.................Iam tired of looking at those decrepit KHovenanian townhomes.
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