Page 19 - RE-NJ March 2022

REALESTATENJTM 17
businesses to the west side. It secured its first tenant more than a year ago when it leased 565 square feet to Melonhead, a juice, smoothie and acai bowl shop that was founded in nearby Sea Bright, and is now drawing interest from other operators as it prepares to open the apartments.
“Once they get the residents in there, it’s going to snowball,” said Pierson Commercial’s Gary Krauss, who leads The Rail’s retail leasing team after initially representing Melonhead.
Krauss said the abundance of parking has
newly approved, 143-unit project at the borough’s train station. It’s also planning 125 units at a similar location in Asbury Park, which is also approved but is still several years from completion.
“The benefit is that there’s sort of
a vibe around train stations and everybody wants to build around them,” Denholtz said. “I don’t think, as a method of getting to work, they’re as important as they were. They get some good activity, but when you talk to (NJ Transit), they really want to activate their lots, bring people within walking distance
and try to get ridership up.”
Even so, the firm’s connection to Red Bank goes well beyond the train station and its development pipeline. It has quickly built ties
to the community by supporting institutions such as the Count Basie Center and the Two River Theater, along with Lunch Break, a locally based food pantry and social service organization.
To that end, Christina Jordan, Denholtz’s director of marketing and leasing, recently joined Lunch Break’s board and has taken a key
role in initiatives such as its gala, technology and a capital campaign for a facility expansion.
“They’re one of those organizations that you just
want to help
out because
they’re good
people,” Jordan
said, adding that
the same goes
for its board
members. “You
just know that
they want to do good things — and I like being around those people.” RE
Christina Jordan
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Gary Krauss
caught the eye of prospective retailers, especially in contrast to Red Bank’s parking- constrained downtown. The building’s 144
spaces includes a dedicated garage for the retail and office uses, while the adjacent NJ Transit lot becomes free to the public after 11 a.m.
The west side also boasts the newly renovated Count Basie Center for the Arts and the recently opened Sickles Market, a gourmet food and garden destination inside what was a long-shuttered, 45,000-square-foot warehouse on Monmouth Street, under a project by the developer Metrovation. And other residential projects are in the works, including a proposed 32-unit building at Monmouth and Pearl streets that secured zoning board approval last summer.
Denholtz, for its part, has
even broader ambitions in Red Bank. It recently broke ground
on a collection of 10 luxury condominiums along the northern edge of town, Southbank at Navesink, which overlooks the eponymous river, having already presold three homes. It’s also added several commercial properties
in the borough since moving its headquarters there, including two office buildings on Route 35 and spaces in the downtown.
The developer, meanwhile, aims to turn “The Rail” into something of a brand that extends to other transit-oriented sites. In Bound Brook, Denholtz is partnering with Redwood Real Estate Group on a