Ken Gold, a 2004 Columbia High School graduate whose family still resides in Maplewood, is proposing developing a 40-unit mixed-use building near the southeast corner of Springfield Avenue and Vermont Street. Construction would not get underway until 2026.
Gold is the vice president of acquisitions and development at Somerset Development, based in Holmdel, NJ. He and Somerset received a preliminary and informal nod from the Maplewood Township Committee at its August 1 meeting to present a proposal at its September 5 meeting.
The town is also looking to name Somerset Development as the designated conditional redeveloper at that meeting — and will vote on whether or not to engage its planner, Paul Grygiel, to study whether or not one of the properties included in the proposal (8 Vermont Street) meets the state redevelopment criteria.
Gold told the TC that his local roots were the reason for his interest in developing the site at Springfield and Vermont, invoking days spent playing baseball in nearby Maplecrest Park.
“I’m honestly thinking of my parents, who don’t want to leave Maplewood, but don’t want to live in a house and maintain that anymore,” said Gold, who explained that he envisioned three stories of approximately 40 residential units, with 34 being market rate and six affordable, atop ground level retail space with a parking lot below.
“It looks like something that would really work for us,” said TC member Victor De Luca.
No construction would begin on the site until at least January 2026, said Gold, because the Hertz car rental business located at 1649 Springfield is likely to fulfill a two-year option on that property in January 2024.
Somerset closed on the purchase of 1647-1649 Springfield Avenue on June 30. The purchase of 1651-53 Springfield by Somerset, next door to that location, is conditional upon the town’s approval of a redevelopment proposal, Gold said. The house at 8 Vermont Street, which is located directly behind the two buildings on Springfield, was not initially included in the town’s redevelopment plan for the Springfield buildings. Gold said that he plans to close on the sale of 8 Vermont this week and will have to request that the town amend its development plan to include that site.
You can watch the discussion of the redevelopment plan for 1647-1649 Springfield, 1653 Springfield, and 8 Vermont here, beginning at the 1:06:49 mark and ending at the 1:30:00 mark.
“By having 8 Vermont involved, we can put more retail in this project,” Gold said, by creating the building’s residential entrance at that location with the retail locations facing Springfield. He added that the town’s redevelopment plan was outdated and not in keeping with the type of building he hopes to construct on the site at Springfield and Vermont, and that amendments to the existing plan will be necessary. Responding to a question posed by Maplewood Mayor Dean Dafis, Gold said that he will not be pursuing a tax abatement or PILOT [payment in lieu of taxes] agreement with the town.
Gold’s lawyer, Michael Bruno, who was also present via Zoom at the TC meeting with his client, said that the expansion of the development site to include 8 Vermont was “integral to the success of the redevelopment.” Bruno also spoke to the firm’s history of successful collaborations with other New Jersey municipalities, adding that “any town that gets Somerset is lucky to have them.”
Bruno said that should the town approve the redevelopment plan by Somerset, that Somerset would create an escrow account that would allow them to pay the town’s costs for altering its development plan. De Luca questioned the legality of that arrangement, but was assured by the township’s attorney Roger Desiderio that it was lawful.
Desiderio, who is the law partner of Gold’s father, said that he would advise the township about the proposal but would not be directly involved in any negotiations about the redevelopment.
The TC made a motion to prepare two resolutions for the September 5 meeting — one designating Somerset as the conditional redeveloper and the other engaging the town’s planner to review 8 Vermont’s eligibility for including in a redevelopment area — as well as prepare an escrow agreement. The motion was approved unanimously.
In a followup email, De Luca clarified, “The amendments to Redevelopment Area 3 will be discussed more with the developer before they are brought to the TC for action. Amendments will also be reviewed by the planner prior to TC action. It is not expected that on September 5th the TC will take action on the amendments.”
With reporting by Mary Barr Mann.
