Rug mill apartments get set to welcome new residents

Staff Writer

By dick metzgar

Rug mill apartments get set
to welcome new residents

FREEHOLD — The first of the new apartment dwellers could be in residency in a section of the renovated old A&M Karagheusian rug mill on Jackson Street by the end of this month.

Developer Matt Gallagher, of Ridge-wood, principal partner of Rug Mill L.L.C., which is developing the rug mill property, said the first of the occupants of 104 rental units in the Family Towers section in the former factory will be able to move into their new homes by the end of August or in early September.

Gallagher said the 96 units of the Senior Towers are also near completion and will be ready for occupancy later this year.

"We have been getting applicants for the apartments on the upper floors of the old five-story building steadily for a number of weeks," he said. "I think we have about half of the family units filled already."

The Family Towers apartments consist of one-, two- and three bedroom units. The Senior Towers apartments will have one bedroom.

"In the Family Towers we are renting the one-bedroom units for $467 per month, the two-bedroom units for $566 and the three-bedroom units for $658," Gallagher said. "The one-bedroom senior units will be rented for $466 and $516 per month."

The rug mill project calls for the bottom floor to become the new home of the borough’s police department and municipal court operations. The police and court currently operate out of a building at the corner of Hudson and Bennett streets which is the former Bennett Street School.

Gallagher said the municipal facilities should be ready for occupancy by the early part of next spring.

"We are waiting for the delivery of some necessary materials to complete construction of the municipal facilities," he said.

Another part of the rug mill project, approved by the Planning Board earlier this year, is the construction of an 11,500-square-foot retail building on the portion of the property bordering the west side of Center and Jackson streets.

All of the old structures on that part of the property, one of which was the old Rothschild Shirt Factory and the first of the rug mill buildings, were demolished to make way for parking and, most recently, the retail building.

"We should begin construction of the retail building in the very near future," Gallagher said. "We hope to have it completed by the end of the year."

He said no tenants have been found yet to occupy the retail center.

"There is nothing firm yet," Gallagher said, "but we hope we will find some kind of retail business that will be convenient for occupants of the new apartments on the other side of Center Street."

The developer said most of the parking areas on both sides of Center Street that will accommodate both buildings are nearly finished.

"Most of the paving has been completed," Gallagher said. "We will have about 350 parking spaces."

The A&M Karagheusian rug mill operation, one of the largest in the world, operated on the site from 1903 until the early 1960s when the firm abandoned Freehold and moved its operation down south.

Various smaller manufacturing ventures operated out of the building until 1992, when it was vacated. The structure had badly deteriorated by that time, although the building was determined to be structurally sound.

The borough completed the purchase of the rug mill property in 1997 for $150,000. Rug Mill L.L.C. took over ownership of the property in 1998 for the purchase price of $750,000.