Retirement community
sought on Birch Hill site
By sue m. morgan
Staff Writer
JERRY WOLKOWITZ Birch Hill in Old Bridge is still holding shows, but a developer is seeking to buy the club’s property and build a retirement community.
Townhouses, attached ranches and condominiums could eventually replace the Birch Hill entertainment complex, in Old Bridge, if a developer secures a myriad of approvals from multiple jurisdictions to construct an upscale age-restricted community.
Robert McGowan, an executive vice president and attorney for East Brunswick-based Kara Homes, appeared before the township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment last Thursday night to present his company’s use variance application to construct the 285-unit Birch Hill Estates.
The parcel in question is occupied by the 31-year-old nightclub and recreational complex, which continues to operate and host live music acts.
Since last week’s board meeting was about 30 minutes shy of its 11 p.m. curfew, the application was continued to a special meeting scheduled for 8 p.m. Jan. 30 in the Township Council’s chambers.
The Birch Hill entertainment complex, Old Bridge, which has facilities to accommodate day camps, parties, reunions and concerts, including a swimming pool (above l), could soon be replaced by upscale senior housing.
McGowan did present a brief but comprehensive overview of the plan to the all-volunteer board.
The gated Birch Hill Estates would sit on 55 acres — five of which are in neighboring Marlboro, Monmouth County. The proposed construction site is bordered by Route 9 south, Texas Road and Marlboro Road.
Besides the 285 dwellings, the plans call for a 7,500-square-foot community center with a swimming pool, a putting green, two tennis courts, bocce ball courts and other recreational facilities.
To purchase a unit and live in the complex, prospective buyers would have to be at least 55 years old, McGowan said. No children under age 19 would be permitted to live with homeowners in the complex, he added.
The age-restricted community would have an assessed value of $90 million and would pay about $3 million in property taxes annually to Old Bridge, McGowan said. He added that the community would not add children to the school system or otherwise drain any local services.
Apparently aware that the township’s $41.7 million municipal budget for 2003 — approved this week — calls for a 10-cent increase in the municipal tax rate, McGowan told the board that the $3 million in prospective taxes from Birch Hill Estates could help offset that 10-cent tax hike.
"We think now is the time to get this project moving," McGowan said. "Old Bridge needs this kind of ratable now, not five years from now."
The complex would act as a buffer between a Lowe’s home improvement store at Route 9 south and Texas Road in Marlboro, and the nearby residential homes, McGowan said.
In addition, municipal water and sewer lines would be extended to the area north of the Woodhaven development and in the vicinity of Texas Road if Birch Hill Estates were to be constructed, McGowan said.
At present, the Birch Hill site lies within an R-120 residential zone, according to Township Planner Sam Rizzo, who was present at the meeting.
However, the township’s Planning Board has listed the site as part of a commercial-office-industrial (COI) zone in the township’s current master plan, Rizzo said.
Regardless of that designation, McGowan told the board that the proposed age-restricted community would prove to be more profitable as a tax ratable than an office complex would be for the township.
An office complex on the Birch Hill site would be assessed at $44 million, and thus generate less than half of the expected tax revenue of the age-restricted community, McGowan stated.
In an interview with Greater Media Newspapers, McGowan stated that Art Stock, the principal owner of the Birch Hill complex, had expressed interest in selling his property to Kara Homes.
"He’s looking to sell the property," McGowan said.
However, any sale agreement between Stock and Kara Homes is contingent upon the numerous approvals that the applicant must receive before building on the property, McGowan stressed.
Those approvals include use variance and preliminary and final site plan approvals from Old Bridge, as well as from Marlboro, McGowan said. Other approvals must also come from both Middlesex and Monmouth counties and the state Department of Environment Protection, as there are environmentally sensitive wetlands present on the site.
Telephone calls to Birch Hill’s management office for comment from either Art Stock or his daughter, Tara, who co-owns the business, were not returned.
In January 2001, Stock announced that he was putting the property up for sale for $5 million, stating that he wanted "to see what (his) options are." The present Birch Hill complex consists of the nightclub buildings, swimming pool and picnic grounds. Those facilities occupy about 39 acres of the 55-acre site.
If the community is approved and constructed, unit prices would range from $220,000 for the smaller condominiums to $300,000 for the townhouses, McGowan said.
No affordable housing units would be constructed in the complex, he noted. However, Kara Homes would make a monetary contribution to the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) program, he noted. That contribution could be used to help meet the township’s affordable housing requirements with COAH.
The nightclub, which features concerts several nights a week, has been operating without a liquor license since September 2001.
The state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) ruled that Art Stock is prohibited from owning a liquor license due to a 1990 horseracing fraud conviction.
Birch Hill appealed the ruling — and Art Stock filed to transfer the liquor license to his daughter in 2000 — but the club lost the liquor license after the second of two extensions granted by the ABC expired.
The ABC has ruled that Birch Hill will not become eligible for a new liquor license until Sept. 10, unless it is can be proved that someone other than Art Stock has an ownership interest in the site.