ROBBINSVILLE: New digs?

Town eyes purchasing space for municipal offices in Town Center

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
   ROBBINSVILLE — The Township Council will hold a public hearing and vote July 12 on an ordinance authorizing the mayor to negotiate a contract to purchase 10,000 square feet of space for municipal offices in a commercial condominium building Roma Bank will build on Route 33.
   The ordinance, which was introduced at the June 28 council meeting, authorizes spending $2,009,250 to finance the purchase of the office space through the sale of municipal bonds. The purchase price is preliminary and, according to the ordinance, does not include “fit-out” costs, which are expenses related to interior partitioning, floors, ceilings, electric and mechanicals.
   The township now leases 8,000 square feet of municipal office space on various floors of the Sharbell building at 1 Washington Blvd. Under the terms of a three-year lease signed last year, the rent for 2012 is $160,512.
   Roma Bank has presented the town with the opportunity to own, not rent, the top floor of a new three-story office building it will break ground on in August, Mayor Dave Fried said last week. The new building, located next to the bank’s headquarters at 2300 Route 33, should be completed in January 2014, he said.
   ”It will save us money in the long haul . . . after we’re done paying off the bonds, we will actually own the property,” Mayor Fried said.
   The project also will bring in tax ratables for the town because the new building will have 20,000 square feet of retail and office space beneath the township offices, he said.
   ”I think we will be in a good position to own an asset, spur a new ratable and really serve our residents better,” Mayor Fried told the council.
   Roma Bank President and CEO Peter Inverso said Tuesday that the bank only intended to sell the top floor and would retain ownership of the condominium space on the first two floors, which would be rented out as retail and office space.
   ”We prefer to rent, but because of the cost-efficiencies to the township of owning versus renting, we are making an exception for the third floor,” Mr. Inverso said. “It’s a win-win for both sides because it gives us a prestigious occupant.”
   Township Attorney Mark Roselli said the ordinance authorizes the township to “take the first steps” toward negotiating a final agreement. The $2,009,250 figure in the ordinance is preliminary, he said, and once the final agreement is negotiated, it must come back to the Township Council for approval, he said.
   Asked on Monday if state law requires the contract to be put out to bid, Mr. Roselli said that it does not. The state’s local public contracts law requires goods and services to be publicly bid, but it specifically excludes real estate purchases, he said. Another statute, the local lands and buildings law, requires the governing body pass an ordinance authorizing a real estate purchase and allows it to negotiate for the best price without public bidding, Mr. Roselli said.
   Mr. Roselli said “just to be safe,” he had emailed the state Department of Community Affairs about the situation, but still was awaiting a reply.
   The town has been leasing space in the Sharbell building since 2005 when a mold infestation following flooding forced the permanent closure of the Route 130 municipal building. The township later decided it would be too expensive to repair the 1923 building, and it was demolished in March 2012.
   An initial attempt to find a new home for municipal offices backfired and was abandoned last year, but, ironically, the publicity it generated is what gave Roma Bank officials the idea to make their own proposal to the township, Mayor Fried said.
   In 2010, the township moved its finance and tax departments out of a former police substation building in Foxmoor and into the Sharbell building where other municipal offices already were located. The plan at the time was to sell the township-owned Foxmoor property at 2100 Washington Blvd. to a developer complete with preliminary approvals for a 48,000-square-foot office building and a guarantee the township would become a permanent tenant in the building.
   Township officials saw the plan as an inexpensive way to get new municipal office space, but Foxmoor residents were outraged and mobilized against the plan. In the end, the mayor agreed to remove the old police substation building from the 6-acre site and turn the land into preserved open space. This left the town once again without a plan for a permanent home for its municipal offices.
   The silver lining in the whole episode was the controversy caught the attention of Roma Bank officials and led to the current proposal that will give the township a way to own, not lease, space for its municipal offices.
   ”I think this is a good example of how the public and private industry can work together to create a win-win for everyone,” Mayor Fried said.
   The public hearing and adoption vote on the ordinance is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., July 12 in the municipal courtroom trailer.