They don’t even know the location of the subject of an OpEd in today’s (12 Jan 2008) paper.
With last month’s approval by the city Planning Department, developers expect to break ground on the new Rotunda shopping center this spring. The place has languished for too long now, despite its prime location at Roland Avenue and 40th Street
Too bad the Rotunda is located at Elm and 40th.
As if the Giant getting shut down two weeks ago for health code violations wasn’t bad engough, this news from today’s police blotter won’t help:
Armed robbery // A gunman robbed a 37-year-old Hampden woman of her purse containing $40, a cell phone, an ATM card, a debit card and personal identification about 6 p.m. Sunday as she was about to enter her car on the rear parking lot of the Rotunda shopping center in the 700 block of W. 40th St. Less than an hour later, the woman’s debit card was used five times to purchase fuel at various gas stations. Anyone with information was asked to call the district’s robbery squad at 410-396-2455.
I awoke to this image:
of what the proposed Grand Rotunda will look like. Personally I think it looks kind of ugly. Too many different elevations for the various pieces of the structure. While the Rotunda itself is a classic design this on the other hand will look dated very quickly.
Thanks to Mario Lansa, the webmaster for Hampden Happenings, I have been alerted that the Rotunda redevelopment project now has a website: http://www.grandrotunda.com/index.html. I haven’t looked into it much right now but I will later.
Since I was in the area after a trip to Mount Vernon I stopped by Clarendon VA to chheck out Market Common. This development has been used as what Hekemian wants to do with their Rotunda. It is a nice development but I think there are some problems using it as an example of what they want the Rotunda to be.
First off Clarendon is not Hampden. It is a denser and more urban like setting. There are several high rise (5+ story) office buildings in the area. Clarendon and Wilson Blvd (each is one way and they paralell each other) are both pretty dense and long comercial strips. This is deferent from the largely residential nature of Hampden. In this environment Market Common works fairly well.
Market Common from across the street.
That looks pretty appealing no? Here are a couple more pictures:
One more image to look at before I start pointing out some differences between Market Common and what Hekemian has planned.
OK the first difference between market common and The Rotunda that I notice is parking. IN market Common parking is in a parking garage situated behind the development and out of site of everyone (well except in the Container Store where they have windows into the garage). The Rotunda in contrast has a big parking lot fronting the new part of the development much like you would find in a suburban style ‘faux’ main street type development. I’m not sure of the thinking behind this but I’m sure part of it was to ensure that there was plenty of parking for people who would like to shop at the Rotunda. However it isn’t entirely in keeping with the nature of a more urban development.
The second thing youu will not in the images of Market Common is the elevlation of the apartments. They rise approximately 6 stories (4 stories above retail). The original plans that Hekemian presented at the September HCC meeting showed a similar evelation of development for their project. The problem is that only accounts for half the units that Hekemian has planned. (400 unit in total are planned….that is a firm number per Chris Bell). In order to accomodate 200 additional units the Rotunda will need to be building will havve to rise higher. than what you see at market Common and what the plans they showed at the HCC meeting showed.
Another thing that is different between the propoosed Rotunda development and Market Common is how parking is handled. Take a look at the map of the site above and notice how parking for Market Common is tucked away in back in a parkinmg garage. This is in contrast to Hekemian’s plans for teh Rotunda which have suburban parking fronting the new development. As a matter of fact Chris Belll stated in his recent presentation to teh HCC that the number of parking spaces they are providing is more than most suburband zoning requires.
I am eagerly awaiting Hekemian’s promise to have awebsite up with the drawings they presented at the HCC meeting.
So I attendede the HCC meeting on Monday night. It was a worthwhile trip if for nothing else to get some plans and pictures about the proposed Rotunda project from the firm that is developing it. (I will try to get these scanned in and make them available online since it will take the HCC folks weeks/months/ever to get this information out. Although apparently the developer is going to set up a website for the project with this information) The developer also distributed answers to all the question that arose out of the last HCC meeting. I will also be trying to get those up in the near future.
* in the future parking on Chestnut from 36th St to 33rd will be switched to angled parking. This will actually add a good number of spots along this street. Chestnut is also wide enough that this makes sense.
* BGE should be finishing up its work down on 33rd streett within about 2 weeks.
* sidewalks damaged will be completely replaced and not just patched.
* the work being done on the bridge between Hampden and REmington (down near 33rd street) is part of the ongoing sewar project and the City is responsible for it.
* Benn from Atomic Books gave a breif presentation on the Independent Hampden. It was well recieved by the informal show of hands in support of the project. If you want more information I suggest you click that link above as Benn has lots of details there.
* One thing I learned was that the legislation our city couincil representive is working on to set up a chain free Avenue is that this is part of a larger urban renewal bill. Huh? What does Hampden need with that? The market seems to be taking care of that just fine.
* right before the presentation on The Rotunda the person in charge of the “Mayor’s Christmas Parade” came forward to ask the HCC for $250 for the parade. This resolution passed (as fars as I could tell) without objection. It was actually a fun little part of the meeting since between the person asking to be recognized to the voice vote was about 90 seconds.
now on to the Rotunda.
* the current Giant is just 35,000 square feet, and the Rite Aid is just 8,500 square feet.
* The proposed new Giant would be approximately 75,000 square feet.
* there would also be an additional 115,000 square feet of retail associateed with the development. (I assume that includes the current space in the exisiting Rotunda building).
* There would also be 400 living units associsated with the project (some combination of apartments [majority/all] / condos and a smal group of townhouses on 38ths street)
* Giant has put NO money into their Rotunda location for at least 10 years.
* Giant normally re-designs there stores approximately every 3 years.
* Giant is no longer a local company owned ultimately by Royal Dutch Ahold.
* Giant negotiated their original lease (still in efect with more options in coming years) in 1967
* Giant requires at least 300 parking spaces in front of their new stores.
* the residential development is needed to make the commercial spaces afoordable (huh?)
* the retail part of the development has been pretty well thought out for designing and planning purposes. The residential portions of the development as still not completely thought out.
* the current residential portion of the development will be a similar ‘mass’ to the current Rotunda buildingand will rise 1 story above the current structure.
* this only accounts for 200 units….where the other 200 untis will be put still unclear. (options include: build entire structure higher, have a couple town like sections)
*currently planning on 1.5 parking spaces per unit.
* parking for shopping complies with most suburban guidelines for parking requirements.
* currently approximately 800 parking spots on site with some leased to Roland Park Place.
* new development will have 1800 parking spaces.
* ground breaking isn’t expected until Spring of 2007 if all goes according to plan.
Residential units:
* from efficiency to 2 bedroom units.
* pricing range aprroximately $800 to $2,000
* demographics espected the newlywed and the nearly dead. (not looking for any subsidised Sec 8 residents…..all units will be market rate)
* parking spots for untis will be in addition to rent but priced such that it doen’t make sense to not get one.
* Developer is not concerned that a downturn in the current housing market will impact the viablity of this project
* Clarendon Market Common is very similar to what they want the project to look like.
* all old trees currently on the site will likely be razed during construction. New tress will be planted as part of landscaping and a buffer between development and neighbors
* one person noted (correctly) that in the pictures the new development looked more contemporary than the Rotunda and the goal was to blend with the Rotunda.
* Developer has a long history of managing the properties they develop and this will be no different.
* project not etched in stone
* site survery shws bedrock is approximately 70 feet below grade so no blasting will be required
* site survery also show no problems with underground water
* pedestrian traffic is just as important to the development as is car traffic.
* major occupants will be Giant, Rite Aid and the Movie Theater (which he hops would expand).
* retail rents will be fixed amount not fixed amount + % of gross like you find with the typical suburban mall.
* the plans won’t got to Site Plan Review (some city zoning/planning thing I guess) until first or second quarter of 2006
* the developer is supposed to putup a web site for the project in a week or two.
* A few people who live around the site seem concerned about the increase in noise after the development is completed. Particularly if there are restaurants and night life there. Huh? You come off sounding like you want to live in teh nice quiet suburbs not a city.
* Allan Hicks seems to like to a) hear himself talk and b) put himself in a postitoon of controling information. On teh later he wants peoples ideas/concerns/thoughts for the developers to go through him.
* The developers seemed pretty savay with their presetation and in answering questions. The said most of the right things but ultimately they bought a property and want to make money on it. If the Hampden neighborhood gets in the way of this I ams certain they will do what they have to get there way.
With Danielle’s expert help I have found some details out about the company that just purchased the Rotunda:
From opensecrets.org I found out the following:
Samuel P Hekemian Owner
Hekemian Casper LLC
692 E Dr
Oradell, NJ 07649
gave: John Kerry $2,000
MR. SAMUEL HEKEMIAN
REAL ESTATE BROKER
HEKEMIAN & COMPANY, INC.
692 E DRIVE
ORADELL, NJ 07649
gave George W. Bush $1,000
MRS. SANDRA HEKEMIAN
HOMEMAKER
692 E DRIVE
ORADELL, NJ 07649
gave George W. Bush $1,000
Danielle on the other hand found more stuff:
She found a proposal they put together for a river front development in Crawford NJ
Riverfront Development Negotiations Begin with Hekemian Group
RIVERFRONT REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT
She found a link to them getting turned down by Falls Church VA in June of 2004 for a development that the city considered too dense
from:
Oak Terrace Apartments in Hakensack NJ
The problem with these Apts. is the management. A company by the name of Hekieman manages these apartments. Their idea of management is get the rent every month and do spend any money on maintenance. After living there for a while, I decided to move because:
1) I had an old refrigerator that did not work properly, despite repeated attempts (almost begging) to get a new one the manager choose to ignore it
2) Wall painting was losy and they use poor quality paint (because they are cheap). Again the manager decided to ignore my requests for paintings.
3) The bathroom is in a horrible condition, again repeated requests to replace it went ignored. One time the drain was leaking water and I had to hire a private plumber to fix it because they would not do anything about it.They keep the exterior in good shape to attract people, but once you are in …tough luck ..you are on your own..
Do not even think about moving here
Do yourself a major favor.
Carlyle Apartments also in Hakensack
Several years ago this was a good (if always unevenly heated) building, but more recently many tenants have fled. On this date twelve apartments are vacant, although Hekemian has been slashing rent and garage rates by a few hundred dollars a month while imposing maxiumum allowable rent increases on current tenants.
The building has two types of apartments, namely overpriced occupied ones with cracked plaster and old junky kitchens and recently rented deeply discounted ones with new kitchens (just as shoddy, I am told), obvious and unskilled (and temporary) plaster repair, and fresh paint on the surfaces the painters do not skip. At least now different wood stain is used, forcing the refinishers to do the entire floors (including the closet floors that they previously ignored) instead of working around abandoned area rugs and furniture as they used to do. The painters still leave roller strokes all along the tops of the walls because they don’t paint the corners between the walls and ceilings, among other places.
Beware, because a lease at the Carlyle signs you up for incredible lies, belligerence, contempt, complaints about your complaints (you are always told the lie that you are “the only one complaining”), maximum rent increases, and craziness. The roof and garage have leaked for years, damaging tenant property, so Hekemian fixed the leaks in the pool. Now the pool is heated even though they really HATE tenants on upper floors who insist on enough heat for their apartments, and it took years of fighting to get enough hot water . . . instead they’re fixated on the air conditioning even though it has always worked fine. They waste money on tacky redecorating every few years, and their latest screwball priority is an indoor gym.
Tenants are constantly inconvenienced by major repairs because Hekemian hires incompetent contractors and uses the cheapest materials, so everything keeps breaking down. Often we get no notice that the water, heat, or power is being turned off, and it took them a year to get new windows installed properly. The maintenance staff argue about whether or not problems within apartments need to be fixed, and the doormen simply will not relay messages to them if they decide that something is not important. Doormen as well as management think nothing of yelling at tenants over the phone before hanging up on them.
There is discrimination and favoritism. Certain tenants popular with the management can negotiate really outrageous terms while no allowance whatsoever is given to those whom the management would like to drive out.
Since the retirement of a long-term resident manager, they have fired two incompetents, including a really lazy one who stole a set of license plates from the trash, an antique library table from the storage room, and a lot of tools (while selling garage spaces and pocketing the payments) as well as brawled with a staff member and sneered openly at tenants, yet for years they refused to get rid of him. Now they have a manager who will look you in the eye when he lies and insist that he is telling the truth. On the rare occasions when he is here, this guy shows enormous ignorance while bragging about his “years of experience.” He often brandishes a thermometer while insisting to tenants that cool or lukewarm air/water is hot and completely ignores any confrontation that proves him wrong or shows him to have lied.
There is no real maintenance any more, either because they ignore complaints or because they do not know how to fix things, so we called the Health Department when really bad stuff was disregarded (a repeatedly collapsed leaking ceiling, cluster fly infestations, stray cats leaving messes in the garage, for example).
The apartments have small rooms and kitchen stoves on the walls opposite the air vents, so the hoods just blow fumes up to the ceiling. Bathrooms have only a fixture outlet controlled by the light switch and no shelves in the vanities. The heater motors rattle, but the staff cannot fix and will not replace them.
Apart from some really nice tenants and a few good staff members, the ONLY advantage of this building is that the layout makes it quiet, and in addition to standard clauses, the lease has further specific protections against noise. There seem to be few children, no dogs are allowed, and the large numbers of retirees and telecommuters want quiet even during the day. There is, however, noise from the street and for a few hours at a time from small jets coming in to land at a nearby airport.
6/17/04 Re “years of fighting,” above: I have now learned that Hekemian recently installed boiler controls that caused the hot water to give out frequently during the day and cut the pressure in half. It took another big nasty fight to get back the hot water.
See also the “Very Poor” review of Hekemian under Oak Terrace Apartments. Managers at other Prospect Avenue buildings all know what the company is like: they say that they are renting to refugees who have escaped not only from the Carlyle but also from the Pierre since Hekemian took it over (see the more recent reviews of the Pierre).
3/26/05 Friends still in the building report that an apartment recently had water damage because contractors working upstairs forgot to open a valve when they were done. Someone is vandalizing the garage and elevators by smashing lights and fire extinguisher box doors and ripping off metal trim. The current excuse for a resident manager (the third since the long-term one retired) is leaving on 3/31. No wonder Hekemian is forcing long-term tenants to sign 18-month leases–it’s one way to slow the exodus.
Robert S. Hekemian is
CEO/Chairman of the Board/Trustee at
First Real Estate Investment Trust of NJ
505 Main Street
Hackensack, NEW JERSEY 07602 +1 201 488-6400First Real Estate Investment Trust Of NJ. The Group’s principal activity is to acquire, develop and hold real estate properties for investment. The Group’s investment portfolio consists of multifamily residential properties, retail properties and undeveloped land located at New Jersey, Maryland and New York and also a 40% equity interest in Westwood Hills. The Group’s real estate holdings include eight apartment building or complexes, six retail properties, two single tenant stores, three parcels of undeveloped land. Rental income accounted for 97% of fiscal 2002 revenues; Interest income, 1% and Other Income,2%.
and what does the most recent SEC 8K filing have to say:
Item 1.01 Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.
First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey (”FREIT”) announced that, on July 19, 2005 its 60% owned affiliate, Grande Rotunda, LLC, completed the acquisition of The Rotunda, a mixed-use property in Baltimore, Maryland (See Form 8-K filed on April 7, 2005). The Rotunda is on approximately 11.5 acres and is in close proximity to John Hopkins University. Its current configuration contains about 119,000 sq. ft. of office space, primarily in the four-story main building, and 97,000 sq. ft. of retail space on the lower level of the main building. A Giant Supermarket anchors the retail space.
FREIT is planning a modernization and expansion of the retail space, as well as the development of residential apartments. The contract price for the acquisition was approximately $29.5 million (exclusive of transaction costs), which was financed in part from an acquisition loan in the amount of $22.5 million, and the balance in cash. FREIT contributed 60% of the cash required, with the balance
contributed by its joint venture partner, Rotunda 100, LLC, whose equity investors are principally employees of Hekemian & Co., Inc.
(”Hekemian”). Hekemian is the managing agent for FREIT’s other properties. In order to incentivize the employees of Hekemian to
identify and provide real estate investment opportunities for FREIT, FREIT has agreed to advance, only to the employees of Hekemian,
up to 50% of the amount of the equity capital required to be contributed by them to Rotunda 100, LLC, for this transaction. FREIT will
advance up to $1.7 million to the Hekemian employees (certain of whom are members of the family of FREIT’s Chairman of the
Board), and these loans will bear a floating rate of interest payable quarterly and will be secured by the Hekemians employees’
membership equity interest in Rotunda 100, LLC.Disclosure Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Certain Statements in this Form 8-K may contain information that is, or anticipate certain events that are, forward-looking within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
The Registrant cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those relating to the Registrant’s
liquidity and capital resources, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those described
in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors, including without limitation, the Registrant’s
future financial performance; the availability of capital; general market conditions; national and local economic conditions; particularly
long-term interest rates; the terms of federal, state and local governmental regulations that affect the Registrant; and the competitive
environment in which the Registrant operates, including the availability of retail space and residential apartment units in the areas
where the Registrant’s properties are located. In addition, the Registrant’s continued qualification as a real estate investment trust
involves the application of highly technical and complex rules of the Internal Revenue Code. The forward-looking statements are made
as of the date of this Form 8-K and the Registrant assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the
reasons actual results could differ from those projected in such forward-looking statements.
Like Tracie and Danielle and many others II attended the HCC meeting last night about possible development of teh Rotunda property.
During the HCC meeting a comment was made by either teh HCC president or Mary Pat Clark that the proposed 300 to 500 apartment units was the biggest apartment develpment in Baltimore city. That didn’t ring true with me at the time and in doing some research I found that it was in fact not the case.
Two apartment buildings near by have more than 400 units:
Broadview Apartments with 465 units at
116 W University Pky
Baltimore, MD 21210
and
Marylander Apartments with 507 units at
3501 Saint Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
And for comparision here is what the current Rotunda site looks like:
