Casola brothers each buy Chase farm tract
Conover farm goes
for $2.7M; Schenck farm, for $1.8M
By darlene diebold
Staff Writer
HOLMDEL — Two brothers have acquired the two Chase Bank tract farms that were auctioned Dec. 13 by the State Agriculture Development Committee (SADC).
After spirited bidding, Carmine Casola, Cream Ridge, acquired the 96-acre northern Conover farm for $2,720,000, and Antonio and Kim Casola, Holmdel, acquired the 94-acre southern Schenck farm for $1,795,000. Carmine and Antonio Casola are brothers.
The property is located in south Holmdel on the east side of Holmdel Road, between Route 520 and Roberts Road.
Five people bid on the Conover farm, and there were three bidders on the Schenck farm. Minimum bids were $1,415,000 for the Schenck farm and $1,440,000 for the Conover tract. Bidding was done in increments of $10,000.
In separate interviews after the bidding, both Casola brothers said they were happy with their purchases.
"I am very excited with the purchase," said Carmine, who also owns farms in Colts Neck, Marlboro and Millstone and intends to use the property for nursery stock. "It’s a fair price for the property, especially in Holmdel."
"We are really happy with the farm," said Antonio, whose newly acquired tract includes a historic property that is deed-restricted.
His wife, Kim, added, "The price was good."
Asked about his plans for the property, Antonio commented, "We’ve been farming on that land for 10 years now," and will continue to grow nursery stock and vegetables.
They plan to expand their local operations, which include nursery, greenhouse, landscaping and pick-your-own, as well as hay and straw production, according to the SADC.
Antonio, who owns other farms, including one on Route 34 in Holmdel, purchased a second preserved farm from the SADC on Dec. 14, a 73-acre Springfield Township, Burlington County farm, for $345,000.
Theo Hadjitheodosiou, Holmdel, who bid on both properties, said after the auction that he was disappointed but wished the winning bidders the best.
"The land is so beautiful there. I would have moved into either of the homes with my family and hired people to farm the land. I think that they got a good deal. I had a number in my head that I would not go over, and the purchase prices exceeded that. They are both very lucky," he said.
Before the auction started, Rob Baumley, director of the SADC Farmland Preservation Program, said, "The purpose is to get two very important productive farms back into the hands of private individuals who will farm these properties for many generations."
As with all SADC farm auctions, there were conditions on each of the properties. Both parcels were sold "as is" and are to be used only for agricultural uses. SADC will hold the development rights for each of the farms.
The deed restrictions state that "agricultural use shall mean the use of the premises for common farm site activities including, but not limited to, production, harvesting, storage, grading, packaging, processing, and the wholesale and retail marketing of crops, plants, animals, and other related commodities." The deed also states that no activities are to be permitted which would be "detrimental to drainage, flood control, water conservation, erosion control, or soil conservation."
When broken down further, there are separate restrictions for each of the farms. On the southern Schenck farm, there is a historic facade easement, which prohibits demolition, alterations or additions to the exterior of the two-story colonial home, which was built in the early 1800s and is considered eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The house can only be used for single-family residential purposes.
On the northern Conover farm, the historic home can be replaced, but there are restrictions. The SADC has to approve any demolition and rebuilding, and if a new home is built to replace the existing one, it cannot exceed 4,500 square feet.
On both farms, existing buildings may be improved upon, and new buildings may be built, as long as they are "consistent with agricultural uses."
The Township Committee recently attempted to pass an ordinance to preserve the Conover farm structures, but it was pulled by a majority of the committee after complaints from historic homeowners in the township. Committeeman Larry Fink said that the SADC saw the historical significance of the Schenck dwellings, but not the Conover ones.
In a Dec. 1, 2000 letter, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Dorothy P. Guzzo states that the combined properties are eligible as a rural historic district for the state and national registers of historic places.
Guzzo said the two tracts are historically significant because of their continuous usage as agricultural farmland, including their "contributions to the farming methods of the region, the pattern of land use representative of traditional practices unique to a community and building styles representative of the rural vernacular design."
Up until the 1998 destruction by fire of a rare Dutch American barn complex on the Schenck Farm tract, that farm was considered a "keystone to the agricultural history and Dutch settlement influences in eastern Monmouth County."
"The fire was a tragic loss to the country’s heritage of early farm buildings," according to a Monmouth County Historic Sites inventory update in 1999.
Earlier this year a small Schenck farm out building, which some believed had been slave quarters, was inadvertently destroyed during a cleanup of the site.
The significance of the Conover farm, according to the Monmouth County Historic Site Inventory, "rests on the combination of 19th-century farm buildings, agricultural setting, scenic natural features, and the large unsubdivided land area of the property itself. Together these elements constitute a valuable example of the disappearing historic rural landscape in Holmdel and eastern Monmouth County."
The property includes a farmhouse, barn and large corn crib. When asked after the auction what he planned to do with the house, since there is no historical facade easement, Carmine responded, "I only just bought the house five minutes ago; I have not even signed the documents. I do not know."
When the auction was complete, a visibly happy Baumley said that the money raised from the auction will go back into the agency’s coffers for buying and preserving more farms.
The SADC, with cost-sharing assistance from Holmdel and Monmouth County, paid $8.66 million for the 190 acres of farmland in June as part of the larger preservation of the 417-acre Chase Bank tract. The Chase property was preserved through a partnership that involved the Green Acres Program, the county, township, Monmouth Conservation Foundation, Friends of Holmdel Open Space and the SADC.
The 227-acre eastern portion of the tract will be managed by the Monmouth County Park System. That piece was purchased for $10.4 million by a partnership that includes the township, the county, state, and the Monmouth Conservation Foundation.