Bank branch approved
on West Front Street
By gloria stravelli
Staff Writer

RED BANK — A new Commerce Bank branch approved for West Front Street will share a parking area and traffic circulation pathways with three adjacent properties, all owned by Red Bank Investment (RBI), L.L.C., and affiliates.

With five of six voting members deciding in favor of the application, the Red Bank Zoning Board of Adjustment has approved Commerce Bank’s application for a 3,669-square-foot branch with three drive-up lanes at 89 W. Front St., just southeast of the intersection with Maple Avenue.

An existing Commerce Bank branch at City Centre Plaza on Water Street, also an RBI property, will relocate to the leased site when construction is completed.

While the bank is a permitted use in the CCD-2 zone drive-up facilities are not, and the application required approval of several variances, including a variance to permit three drive-up lanes at the rear of the freestanding bank building.

Representing Commerce, attorney Peter Carton told Planning Board members last week that the proposed bank site, a 105-by-137-foot lot, is wrapped by mixed use properties at 64 and 68 White St. and 75 W. Front St., and the proposed development of the branch addresses traffic and circulation patterns in the area and reconfigures parking on site to create a common parking area and allow for circulation through the drive-up lanes.

The bank’s 13-space parking requirement will be met within a pool of 97 spaces common to the four buildings, only two short of ordinance requirements, located between the bank and 75 W. Front St. The development plan calls for two driveways on West Front Street, one dedicated to right-turn-only access and egress, one full movement, and two driveways on White Street, one full movement and one dedicated to egress only.

A 24-hour ATM will be located inside the bank vestibule.

The new branch won’t be the bank’s prototype contemporary building. In response to suggestions from River-Center’s Visual Improvement Committee, Commerce agreed to modify the white masonry design it has established as the trademark for its branches. Instead, the bank agreed to VIC’s request that the building facade feature the red brick common to buildings in the downtown district and use brick pavers for walkways. The design will remain decidedly contemporary, to the dismay of several board members who expressed disappointment, but Commerce had not adapted a design that would be more Colonial in character.

Now vacant, the property to be developed was formerly the site of the Thomas Morford Inn, which dated to the 18th century. The two-story structure most recently housed a retail craft shop on the first floor and an office on the second.

Demolition of the historic structure in July by developer RBI touched off an outcry by preservationists, who called for measures to protect the borough’s remaining historic structures from falling victim to the same fate.

According to a bank spokesman, construction of the branch could be completed by early summer.