Broadway resident must vacate home in 3 weeks
The Lighthouse Mission asks court to order stay of eminent domain
BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer

The Rev. Kevin Brown's building on Broadway in the Long Branch Broadway Arts Center redevelopment zone.

LONG BRANCH - A city minister will have until July to find a new place to call home and a new building where he can practice his ministry.

State Superior Court Judge Lawrence M. Lawson denied Broadway resident Kevin Brown a stay of the city's use of eminent domain to take the building where he lives to make way for the Broadway redevelopment project.

Brown has also been trying to establish a place of worship in the building at 162 Broadway for more than a decade. The building is owned by The Lighthouse Mission and is located in the Broadway Corridor redevelopment zone.

After Brown's rejection from the court, The Lighthouse Mission filed a motion in the appellate division on Friday seeking the court to order a stay of the city's eminent domain action to acquire the Broadway building, according to Brown.

"Right now, I can stay until July 9," Brown said. "There is no certainty that I could remain after that.

Broadway resident the Rev. Kevin Brown

"So I am looking for an alternate place to live here in town," he said, adding, "I do not want to leave, nor does the church have an alternate location to move into, anywhere."

OnMay 9, the city of Long Branch filed an affidavit of taking for Brown's property, which required that the appraised amount for the property of $450,000 be deposited with the court.

But Brown said he cannot withdraw the money because he has yet to be declared a part owner of the property.

"The building is owned by the church," Brown explained. "The church will not take the money because it cannot purchase another similar location [at that cost].

"Everything we have looked at required three times that amount, and quite frankly, our preference is to remain in our building and complete the redevelopment of our building as we started to do," Brown said.

Brown added that he has no savings to use to relocate, and the church has not had any revenue since the music store (that once operated out of the storefront of the Broadway building) closed in December 2007.

"It is the most horrible experience I ever went through and I have been through a lot in my 55 years of life," Brown said. "So, for now, it looks like the city may have the buildings.

"But we will not release our claims against the title," he said, adding, "The fight will continue, even if under the abusive eminent domain laws I have to move out of my home for a little while."

City Attorney James Aaron said that the city now owns Brown's building and come July 9, Brown must vacate the premises or the city will enter a dispossession procedure.

The city has also offered Brown an opportunity to enter an agreement, where he could stay in the building and pay rent to the city up until Aug. 31.

"The $450,000 has been posted in the court," Aaron said. "It is for the purchase of the property from the Lighthouse Mission.

"The Lighthouse Mission has every right to take the money out,"Aaron added.

The city has either acquired or is negotiating a contract to acquire all of the properties in the two-block Broadway redevelopment zone, according to Aaron.

Brown's property, along with Gopal and Kavita Panday's property, Rainbow Liquors, were the last two pieces to the Broadway redevelopment puzzle, according to Aaron.

The city is expected to move forward with the taking of the Pandays' property in July, unless a settlement is reached between the property owners and the city before that time, according to Aaron.

The city was granted approval in April by the state Superior Court to proceed with the condemnation of Brown's and the Pandays' properties in the Broadway Corridor redevelopment zone.

The decision permitted the city to use eminent domain to obtain the two properties in the Broadway zone to make way for the Broadway Arts Center (BAC) mixed-use redevelopment project, according to Aaron.

The Pandays own Rainbow Liquors, and the property consists of two vacant lots and a third lot that includes a twostory building. The first floor contains the liquor store and the second floor is vacant.

Brown has been battling the city for more than 10 years to open the Lighthouse Mission Church at the Broadway location.

Plans for the downtown Broadway zone call for BAC to develop the Broadway corridor, which is the first 9 acres of the entire Broadway redevelopment zone. The corridor extends two blocks from Second Avenue to Memorial Avenue and from Union Avenue to the north and Belmont Avenue to the south.

Principals in BAC are the Katz and Siperstein families. Plans for the project call for the current properties to be razed and replaced with a mixed-use arts and theater district. The project will consist of commercial space, residential and live/work units, office space and parking garages