ROBBINSVILLE: Input sought for municipal offices

Officials seek alternatives after Roma fallout

by James McEvoy, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE — Just over two months after learning Roma Bank would be pulling out of an agreement to construct a building that would have housed municipal offices, township officials are expected to seek some outside perspectives for alternatives.
   At the May 23 Township Council meeting, Mayor Dave Fried said he wants to pursue an RFP (request for proposal) for potential solutions.
   ”As I think about where we’re heading, going forward, we’ve got to have our space, but also a number of people have been coming to us with different ideas,” Mayor Fried said. “We thought it probably made sense to formalize the process.”
   He said the ultimate goal would be to bring two or three proposals for the council to consider at a meeting so the public can be kept in the loop.
   One proposal actually came from Roma Bank, and it would entail the bank selling the property to the township. The township then would try to sell the excess space, but Mayor Fried said he wasn’t comfortable with those prospects.
   ”While that’s interesting, I’m not a 100 percent sure that’s something the township should be involved in,” Mayor Fried said, noting the possibility the township would be unable to sell the space not needed for municipal purposes.
   ”It’s probably not something the government should do; it’s something private enterprise should do,” he said.
   Councilwoman Christine Ciaccio questioned whether relocating the municipal court and Police Department would be part of the proposal. Mayor Fried said if a proposal to that effect came in, the council would be willing to listen.
   Roma’s decision to pull out came about five months after ground broke in October 2012 on a three-story building on Route 33 whose top floor would have served as the new home for the township’s municipal offices.
   The building, which initially was expected to be done in January 2014, was going to be constructed next to Roma Bank’s headquarters at 2330 Route 33 in Town Center.
   Under the deal reached between township officials and Roma, the bank would sell the third floor of the new building — 10,000 square feet — to the township as commercial condominium space.
   Roma then would have retained ownership of the first and second floors, which it would have leased as either office or retail space, Roma CEO Peter Inverso previously said.
   Months earlier, the township authorized spending $3 million, including a $150,000 cash down payment and $2.85 million in bonds, to finance the purchase of the top floor of the building.
   Township officials previously have said while an ordinance for bonds was approved, bonds were not issued.
   Robbinsville now leases 8,000 square feet of municipal office space in the Sharbell building at 1 Washington Blvd. where it has township offices in the basement and on the second floor.
   All of the township’s municipal offices inside the Sharbell building would have been moved to the new office space in 2014, including the mayor’s office, administration, taxes and finance, the municipal clerk, planning and zoning and other offices.
   Council meetings currently held in a portable trailer next to the police station that also houses the municipal courtroom would have been held in the new building.
   In 2005, the township began renting space in the Sharbell building when a mold infestation caused the closure of the former municipal building on Route 130. The old municipal building, which was constructed in 1923, sat empty for seven years until it was bulldozed in March 2012.
   The 2012 annual rent for Sharbell building offices is $160,512 and will increase to $163,279 in 2013, the final year of the lease.