Tag: Town Garage

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Update Town Garage: Controversial Eminent Domain Hearing Scheduled For Friday, 5/16

>Town+Garage
The Honorable Peter E. Doyne will preside over tomorrow’s scheduled Village of Ridgewood vs. Ridgewood 120 LLC eminent domain hearing. The hearing will begin at 9:00 AM in Room 323 of the Bergen County Courthouse.

Village officials are seeking to condemn Ridgewood 120 LLC’s property, located at 120 Franklin Avenue, to facilitate construction of a parking garage/retail complex.

Ridgewood 120 LLC’s principals have filed a counterclaim, which accuses Mayor David T. Pfund, Deputy Mayor Betty G. Wiest, Councilman Jacques Harlow, Councilman Patrick A. Mancuso, and Councilwoman Kim Ringler-Shagin of reneging on several “secret promises” regarding the plaintiff’s acquisition of the property.

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Is the former Town Garage property for sale, again?

Village Council members met behind closed doors on Wednesday evening to
discuss possible options for acquiring 120 Franklin Avenue, formerly home of
the Town Garage. Acquisition of this property is key to the planned
construction of a municipal parking garage at the northwest corner of North
Walnut Street and Franklin Avenue.

It is now rumored that Ridgewood 120 LLC, the site’s current owners, have
offered the property for sale to Village officials at a price much higher
than the $1.265 million paid in November of 2006. Scuttlebutt is that
Ridgewood 120 LLC’s asking price is at least $1.865 million, and possibly as
high as $2.265 million. The current owners have made no improvements to the
property since purchasing it from the Agnello family late last year.

Council members must decide whether to: 1) pay the asking price, or 2) enact
the right of eminent domain, or 3) revise parking garage building plans to
eliminate the need for that parcel. Still unanswered is the question: “How
did Village Council members manage to get themselves in such an expensive
jam? In other words, how was a real estate investment group able to acquire
the Town Garage property from right under the Council’s noses?”