Council OKs taking of Broadway Arts properties Building owners: We want right to develop our own properties BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer An overflow crowd filled Long Branch City Hall last week as residents and business owners pleaded with the City Council to vote down an ordinance that would allow the city to acquire properties in the Broadway Arts Redevelopment Zone. But after an hour of public comment at the Feb. 28 meeting, council members voted 5-0 to approve ordinance 5-06, which authorizes the city to take all lawful steps, including the use of eminent domain if necessary, to acquire properties in the zone. "Everyone's eyes are on you," said Gopal Panday, who owns Rainbow Liquors on Broadway. "We've been running businesses in the city for the last 20 years. I would really like to be a part of [the] development." Property owner Bernard Gorcey, who owns a building on the corner of Memorial Parkway and Broadway, also said he would like to redevelop the property himself. "I want to develop it, but the [developers] want to buy it," Gorcey said after the meeting. "[The developers] want to negotiate, but it is not going anywhere." Gorcey purchased the building, which once housed a bank, five years ago and currently has tenants that operate an antique business at the location. Gorcey declined to discuss the amount of money he was offered for his property, but said he is trying to negotiate with the developer and has retained an attorney. Kevin Brown, who owns 162 Broadway in the redevelopment zone, accused the city of abusing its power of eminent domain. "You are looking to take my building away from me," Brown said at the meeting. "This city council should be ashamed of itself for what it did to its own residents." But council members said that although they heard what the residents were saying, the redevelopment of Broadway is in the best interests of the city. "Your statements were heard loud and clear," Councilman David Brown said before voting to approve the ordinance. "We do use eminent domain when necessary. We are not abusing anyone." Councilwoman Mary Jane Celli said, "I heard every word you said. We have a plan. We are going to follow it." And Councilman Anthony Giordano agreed. "We started the redevelopment process 12 years ago," he said. "Here we have a business corridor. At one time you couldn't buy a newspaper or coffee, there were go-go bars and massage parlors. As the oceanfront goes and Broadway goes, so does the economic viability of the city." Councilmen John Zambrano and Michael DeStefano did not comment before voting for the ordinance. Broadway Arts Center (BAC) LLC, designated developer of the two-block zone, has already entered into contracts with approximately 35 owners of the 57 properties in the zone, according to Patience O'Connor of O'Connor & Co., Washington, D.C., the development manger for the project. The Broadway Arts zone extends from Second to Memorial avenues, and from Union Avenue to the north and Belmont Avenue to the south. According to O'Connor, plans are to acquire the 35 properties in April. She added that only seven property owners have not yet entered into contracts with BAC. "We are still in the discussion stages [with the seven]," O'Connor said in an interview in February. "We are sending letters, talking and making every effort we can with these property owners." The ordinances states, the city is "authorized and directed to take all reasonable, necessary and lawful steps including execution of any and all necessary documents, toward the negotiated acquisitions of title to the properties." The city is "authorized and directed to take such steps as are necessary to acquire said properties through eminent domain proceedings." Lori Ann Vendetti, who resides in the Beachfront North phase II redevelopment zone, which is slated for eminent domain, asked council members to vote no on the ordinance and assess how the redevelopment is working. "You have a chance to show the world that you are listening to the public," Vendetti said at the meeting. "Don't keep forcing people to fight you. Everyone knows that Long Branch is the poster child for eminent domain abuse." A civil action brought by a group of residents in Vendetti's neighborhood, which is known as MTOTSA (Marine and Ocean Terraces and Seaview Avenue), challenges the city's use of eminent domain. A motion to dismiss the city's condemnation proceedings was filed in state Superior Court in Freehold and is scheduled to be heard on March 24 before Judge Lawrence M. Lawson in Freehold. William Giordano, a member of the MTOTSA alliance, said at the meeting, "Property is to be treated as sacred or liberty cannot exist. We are losing liberty in Long Branch. "I do not know how many property owners you plan to use eminent domain against, but if you are taking one property of a law-abiding citizen, then it is one too many," Giordano said. "You have a trial in three weeks against us. Let's see what happens. Hold off." MTOTSA resident Denise Hoagland said, "It is pitiful that we have to stand up here and beg for what is rightfully ours. You are not going to stop, no matter what we do, no matter what we say, no matter how much we beg you." Residents from the Beachfront South redevelopment zone slated for eminent domain in the future also commented. "I know what you are going to do and I am so disgusted," Michelle Bobrow, Ocean Boulevard, said before the council voted. "You are making us beg. It is obscene. I beg that you vote against this ordinance even though I know it is a done deal." BAC plans to develop the first nine acres of the entire Broadway redevelopment zone which extends 72 acres from Second Avenue west to the railroad tracks. Principals in BAC are the Katz and Siperstein families, who own Siperstein's on Broadway, and the Pereira family, owners of Pax Construction Co. on Broadway. Plans for the $180 million project call for all properties in the zone to be razed and replaced with what developers describe as a thriving arts district. The zone will be anchored by two performing art theaters, which will be owned by the city. Also planned is 190,000 square-feet of retail, art and restaurant space that will be owned by BAC and leased to tenants, according to O'Connor. There will be 500 residential units, composed of 100 affordable, 56 moderate-income and 296 market-rate, owner-occupied units. The remaining 100 units will be leased to Monmouth University for student housing. The plan also calls for 1,400 parking spaces in the zone, according to O'Connor. The design plans for the redevelopment project are planned to go before the city Planning Board this spring, and construction could start as soon as the summer, O'Connor said.