By John Burton
RED BANK – The long delayed redevelopment of what is commonly called the Anderson building on the borough’s west side may be moving forward.
The aging and deteriorating red brick multistory structure, located at the western end of Monmouth Street and Bridge Avenue will become a commercial and retail project – if it eventually wins borough approval, according to the application submitted by developers to the borough department of planning and zoning.
Undertaken by developers Metrovation Anderson, LLC, the project would entail renovating and expanding what had been a commercial use building to accommodate retail and restaurant use on the first floor and offices on the second, third and fourth floors. The finished product would be 48,850 square feet of space.
The long-existing billboard, located on the site, will remain unchanged, according to the application.
In May 2007, the developer won zoning board of adjustment approval for a plan that would have converted the former Anderson Brothers Moving and Storage building
into first-floor retail space and 17 one-bedroom and six two-bedroom condominium units on the remaining three stories.
“It’s a completely different plan from what we had originally,” said Chris Cole, a principal with Metrovation Anderson from his Washington State office this week. The developers decided to abandon the original residential-heavy plan because, “with the economy deteriorating,” shortly after winning approval “it just didn’t make sense to do residential in that location,” Cole said.
The structure is more than 100 years old and has been vacant for roughly 25 years, by some estimates. Cole purchased the property in the early 2000s from the Gemini Group, a real estate group headed up by Robert Rechnitz, founder and executive producer of the Two River Theater, 21 Bridge Ave., according to Cole.
“We’re going to basically rebuild it the way it was,” retaining the building’s brick exterior, Cole said. “It’s always been an iconic building on the west side.”
Cole is also a principal in the group constructing the West Side Lofts residential and retail project, located at the intersection of West Front Street and Bridge Avenue, a short distance from the Anderson site.
Metrovation, headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., with Cole as managing partner, has been responsible locally for constructing other projects, including The Grove and Grove West shopping centers in Shrewsbury and the Brook 35 Plaza and Brook 35 West shopping centers in Sea Girt.
No date has been set for a public hearing on the proposed Anderson project.
If approved, it would take about 18 months to construct, Cole said.
