Misprint raises interest in parcel

Owner looking to donate Lawrence property to charity.

By: Lea Kahn
   When is 1,635 acres really 1.6 acres?
   When a decimal point is accurately used instead of a comma.
   That misplaced punctuation point in an advertisement, which ran in the classified advertising section of a local daily newspaper last week, resulted in a flurry of calls to the owner of a Lawrence property.
   The newspaper advertisement said the property owner wanted to donate the land, which is located on Route 1 at Interstate 295 near the Joe’s Crab Shack restaurant, to a bona fide charity.
   Landowner Anthony Tamburro said he was besieged by phone callers who were interested in acquiring the land for free. However, it is actually 1.6 acres — not 1,635 acres — as the advertisement claimed.
   The mix-up occurred in the newspaper’s advertising department. Mr. Tamburro promptly cancelled the ad, after he received numerous inquiries for a property that was 1,000 times larger than his parcel.
   The partially-wooded 1.6-acre parcel is a buildable lot, Mr. Tamburro said. The land, which is zoned Limited Industrial-1, is assessed at $97,800, according to the Lawrence Township Tax Assessor’s Office.
   "I have owned the land for 40 years, and for years I have tried to do something with it," he said. "I am getting old and I haven’t been able to do (develop) it."
   Mr. Tamburro, who owned land adjacent to the parcel including the lot that now houses the Red Roof Inn, said he had planned to build an industrial park, but the plans never got off the ground. Now, he just wants to get rid of it.