By KENNY WALTER
Staff Writer
LONG BRANCH — The developers of lower Broadway and the city will finally reignite talks regarding the stalled Broadway development.
Mayor Adam Schneider said last week that Diversified Realty Advisors, owners of 51 lower Broadway parcels, have become current with their taxes, which will enable city officials to begin talking about development plans with the Summit-based group.
“They came in and paid last week, we were pleased,” Schneider said. “What we’d really like to do is make some progress, make sure they know what we anticipate in the project.”
Diversified Realty Advisors, operating as Long Branch Partners, has plans to redevelop the 10 acres in the lower Broadway corridor, where development has been stalled for years.
However, liens were placed on 51 properties owned by Long Branch Partners. The liens were sold during a Sept. 22 tax sale because property taxes were not current.
Of the 51 properties in the tax sale, 18 went to six individual third-party investors, according to Business Administrator Howard Woolley Jr., and Long Branch had liens on 33 properties.
Schneider has maintained he has been unwilling to discuss development plans until the taxes were paid.
The current redevelopment plan, which dates to 2007, calls for the properties to be redeveloped as a mixed-use arts and theater district, with commercial space, residential and live-work units, office space and parking garages.
However, Schneider has stated that the plan is outdated and would likely be amended.
Schneider said city officials met with the developers on June 14 and will continue to do so over the course of the summer in an attempt to hash out an agreeable deal between the two sides.
However, he said a stumbling block remains that the city refuses to officially designate Long Branch Partners as developers of the Broadway Arts redevelopment zone until there is a better understanding on what the project would entail.
“Their position is going to be it is really tough for them to go into the marketplace and start talking to people about leases and coming in as tenants, getting a bank or investors to subsidize or finance the project when they are not designated,” Schneider said. “Our position is until we know exactly what it is going to look like, when and where are you going to put various things and there is some security that you in fact have the ability and the experience to do what you say you are going to do [we are not going to designate you as redevelopers].
“Putting all that together and wrapping it up in an agreement is a challenge because there is still just some things that have to be agreed to in terms of the signage and parking. It is not an easy project.”
Schneider said the relationship between the city and the developer at times has been extremely contentious with talks breaking off completely about a year and a half ago. However, he said at one point the two sides were close to a workable agreement.
“I think both sides understand there was a moment then that we were close to the kind of agreement I’m describing, and if we can get back to that point we will have made significant progress and will be able to get everyone back on the right track and that’s the goal,” he said.
Schneider also warned that despite the positive developments he does not expect an agreement to occur quickly.
It’s going to be a little while,” Schneider said.
In 2013, Diversified Realty assumed the first mortgage on the 51 properties in the lower Broadway zone after the previous developer, Broadway Arts Center (BAC), defaulted in 2010, and foreclosure proceedings were initiated by the mortgage holder. Foreclosure proceedings and litigation stalled the redevelopment for several years.
Shortly after taking over for BAC in 2014, Diversified Realty submitted a check for $412,000, the amount of back taxes owed to the city by the previous developer.