the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, HealthBarn’s lease at the Gate House at Irene Habernickel Family Park will continue for another five years, ending in January 2027. The terms of the lease were not fully disclosed .
Four council members voted to grant a new lease to the business, which has been there since 2016. In what many residents describe as a sweetheart lease deal .
Mayor Susan Knudsen, who continued to insist the business was inappropriately located in a residential area, abstained from the vote.
Not surprisingly many local businesses spoke up for the continuation of the Healthbarn lease after the Feed the Frontlines initiative injected $1 million into Ridgewood’s local businesses and provided 100,000 meals to food insecure folks in Bergen County during the pandemic.
How much of that 1M went towards actually feeding the needy?
2 squad cars were summoned there last night at 7pm. Not sure why.
” food insecure folks”
That’s a catchy phrase.
Whats with all these businesses in a residential area.
There is a property, I beleive in Ridgewood, on the corner of Jackson Terrance, fronting on Morningside, that the owner turned into a parking lot, covered with gravel, and is filled with cars.
Thats a residential area not a commercial parking lot
Who is responsible for enforcing the apparent zoning isssue
you cant just make a residential lot a parking lot.
Zoning issues are being ignored. Getting no response from the powers that be, but god forbid you’re 1 minute late for a parking meter.
Wow. So sad what cowards the village council are. Who is bullying them into this lease?
Is Healthbarn USA the same as the foundation.? I don’t think so
Our mayor is the only one sitting up there with a brain, courage and working for the people not a business owner
Our Mayor is the only one who stands up to the crowds. It’s a business period. It is not the foundation. And feed the front lines is not feeding the front lines justsayin’
I guess the Village cares more about supporting a private business then it does destroying a neighborhood. Something has to give a Habernickle Park have you tried traveling on Hillcrest when sports & the business is session? The village seems to care more about the the noise for the pickle ball courts then the added noise a big business bring into a park. Why is that??
Don’t forget about pickle ball.
Why is the council working so hard to help the pickle ball neighbors and letting them have some tranquility in their own home as they do deserve yet is ignoring that an active business open 6 days a week is in a public park along with sports ( which belong there) that’s why the park was constructed it was not made for a business to be run there.
That’s too bad.
This whole conversation differentiating Healthbarn USA vs. the Healthbarn Foundation is complete bullshit. Yes, there may be legal differentiation between them. But where one goes, so goes the other. If Healthbarn USA is not given a lease in Ridgewood and moves to, say, Paterson, that’s also where any benefit from the Foundation goes too. You don’t get one without the other.
So stop making up some completely fabricated story about these being separate and independent entities; they are not.
Look at the people who have vociferously promoted this travesty and ask yourself if they are the ones who should be deciding the rules.
Can we just get rid of the name “Habernickel” on that park? The Habernickels did NOTHING to deserve a park named for them. Sorry to say but that land was purchased at or slightly above FMV and the Habernickels walked away with a ton of coin from the sale.
Obviously someone does NOT know the difference between a foundation and a business.
So what the above commenter means is if the village didn’t renew the lease for healthbarn the for profit business ( which does nothing for the village ) then the healthbarn foundation ( which was associated with feed the front lines ) would take its non profit efforts elsewhere.hmmmmm. That answers a lot of questions BUT That’s doesn’t sound very charitable and kinda sounds like a bribe. No one really needs that type of charity Very slick I have to say
Business vs foundation. Wow I am so dumb I do t know the difference.
One in Ridgewood and one in Lynhurst wow dumb again I don’t even know what I am talking about. Don’t comment without facts
Such a shame your readers don’t understand all of the good that park brings. Those neighbors that disagree, did you show up at the Village meetings to contest, nope. But I did here hundreds of residents, children and business owners say positive things. It was a landslide and for the readers that don’t understand or appreciate what the sports and Healthbarn brings. Be flexible and kind.
The park is wonderful no one is arguing that fact. Town sports are great again never an argument about that except pickle ball which is getting a lot of attention. But nothing to do with Habernickel A foundation located in Lynhurst that helped feed the frontline again no arguing a business in the park well that’s a whole different story. Know the facts
Obviously a lot of people have their heads so far up their asses that they don’t understand reality. The Healthbarn Foundation cannot support every community everywhere, so it very reasonably chooses to focus its support on the community in which its affiliate, Healthbarn USA, operates. If Healthbarn USA were to be forced into operating elsewhere, the foundation would support its new community rather than Ridgewood. That’s no bribe, that’s a mission-based organization reasonably supporting the community which chooses to support it.
Seriously, in what world does anyone here think that if Healthbarn USA’s lease was not renewed in Ridgewood, that the Healthbarn Foundation would continue to support Ridgewood’s businesses? You make all of these big claims about them being completely separate. Maybe they are separate legal entities, but their functions are inherently related. You have to know that if Healthbarn USA were to move away, any dollars from the Foundation goes with it?
The argument that the business and the foundation are unrelated just doesn’t hold water here.
^^^ yes and that is sad. If ridgewood is so desperate for their support they should continue to support it regardless. So sad they would pull their support. But we don’t have to worry about that now!
All this “support” is costing us WAY, WAY, WAY TOO MUCH!
Stacey Antoine not listed as the principal officer of Healthbarn Foundation until 2017. The first filing year after she got the Habernickle family park for the for profit business Healthbarnusa. 2012 -2017 another name is shown as principal officer of the foundation. What is going on? to the person who said the foundation dollars wont go tof ridgewood unless the lease was renewed yhe million dollars were not foundation dollars. The million came from taxpayers.