Smith Barney building
sold by Terranomics

Broad Street landmark put on market for $1.7M above assessed value

By gloria stravelli

Staff Writer

RED BANK — The stately cornerstone of the borough’s revitalized downtown, 55 Broad St., popularly known as the Smith Barney Building, has a new owner.

The marble-faced structure, whose solidity seems to anchor the business district, has been sold by Terranomics Development, which acquired the circa-1914 bank building for $541,000 in 1996. The building, which is assessed at $2.2 million, had been marketed at $3.9 million.

As of Nov. 30, the new owner of the neoclassic structure is 55 Broad Street Partners LLC, a family-owned venture whose members have roots in the area.

"It caught our eye the first time we looked at it," Thomas Kilduff said of the building at the northeast corner of Broad and Wallace streets.

"It’s the coolest building in Red Bank, and it’s structurally intact," added Kilduff, a partner in 55 Broad Street Partners and vice president of Security Transfer & Storage Co., Wall.

The partnership also includes Kilduff’s father, John Sr., chairman of Security Transfer & Storage; his brother John, president of the moving and storage company and a director of the Eastern Monmouth Area Chamber of Commerce; and his brother Daniel, vice president of Security Transfer & Storage.

"We’re back in Red Bank, so we’ve come full circle," noted Kilduff, who grew up in the Locust section of Middletown and whose family’s moving and storage company was located at 133 Monmouth St., from 1980-87.

"This was a building that fit our criteria," said John Kilduff. "We were looking for an office-type property with a good location that would be income generating and low management. The building at 55 Broad has a single tenant and was renovated recently, so this fit the bill."

The sale of 55 Broad St. is part of an ongoing strategy of reinvesting in Red Bank’s downtown, said Chris Cole, managing partner on the East Coast for Terranomics, which is reportedly negotiating the purchase of a West Front Street property.

"We had it quietly on the market for the last seven or eight months," Cole said.

"All the partners love that building, but we are active developers and we really believe that we’d like to reinvest elsewhere in the community where we can redevelop another piece of property," he added.

"It was the first building Terranomics purchased in the downtown because the partners felt it was the cornerstone, a building critical to the redevelopment, to helping turn the downtown around," continued Cole, who noted that the company hadn’t anticipated the speed with which the downtown redevelopment has proceeded. "We always knew it would be really good, but we had no idea how quickly it would happen."

Terranomics’ holdings in Red Bank include 7, 20 and 40 Broad St., and the recently acquired vintage building at 25 Bridge Ave. near the train station.

The development company owns and manages The Grove and Shrewsbury Commons, both on Route 35 in Shrewsbury, and Brook Plaza 35 in Wall.

Terranomics is slated to move in January from its offices at 7 Broad St. to another downtown location.

RiverCenter, which was slated to take over the Terranomics space, will move instead into an 1,100-square-foot space on the second level of 20 Broad St., above Zebu.

The downtown alliance will vacate offices at 36 Monmouth St. in January.

The Children’s Cultural Center at Red Bank, which shares office space with RiverCenter, will move to 7 Broad St. at that time.

The new owners don’t plan to make any changes at 55 Broad St., according to Thomas Kilduff, who said the partnership acquired the building as an investment.

The acquisition comes with a lease for 71 parking stalls located in the municipal lots to the east of the building.

The Borough Council last week approved the transfer of the lease to the new owners.

"Nothing’s going to change. It’s going to remain with the same tenant," said Thomas Kilduff, adding that Salomon Smith Barney’s 15-year lease remains intact.

When Terranomics purchased 55 Broad St. in 1996, the 9,887-square-foot structure had been vacant for about a year.

The building had been the headquarters of First Fidelity Bank, which vacated it to move to offices south on Broad Street.

The structure was designed by architect Warrington G. Lawrence for the First National Bank in Red Bank. First National was absorbed by Red Bank Trust Co., just as the building was being completed in May 1914, and the combined financial institution was known as the Second National Bank and Trust Co.

"It was one story with a mezzanine, a typical turn-of-the-century bank building," Cole said. "We renovated it as office space and put two new floors in creating three floors with just under 19,000 square feet of office space."

The structure remained vacant for close to a year while Terranomics renovated it and sought a suitable tenant.

Cole said the influx of brokerage houses hadn’t yet begun, with Merrill Lynch being the major brokerage presence until Salomon Smith Barney became the tenant in January 1998.

Terranomics, which had redeveloped properties in the downtown, decided to acquire 55 Broad St. because of its prominence, according to Cole.

"Wherever you redevelop, there are certain critical pieces that need to be reworked to set the tone for redevelopment and encourage other investors," he explained, "and 55 Broad had incredible visibility and presence. It was so important that one of our concerns was that it wouldn’t be developed in a manner that would create positive momentum.

"We feel that if we can buy the best buildings in a community that we’re interested in, eventually they’ll be great assets," Cole said. "It’s not just an investment. We like to be partners with the communities we are involved with. It’s much more to us than an investment and cash flow. It’s about participating in the growth and revitalization of the downtown we’re involved with."

Cole said the sale doesn’t signal a geographic shift in Terranomics’ interest in Red Bank, where the company recently acquired its first property outside the downtown.

"It’s not at all a shift in focus to the west side," he maintained. "It’s just that we’re interested in Red Bank as a whole. We’re not any less interested in the downtown than we are in the west side. We’re looking for pieces of property in good locations regardless of whether they’re on the west or east side."

The Kilduff family has operated Security Transfer & Storage, a commercial and residential moving company, for four generations since its founding in 1916 in Brooklyn, N.Y.

John Kilduff’s grandparents moved to Locust in 1947.

He said he and his brothers spent summers in Locust before moving there with his parents in 1967.

Security Transfer & Storage was relocated to a leased building in Red Bank in 1980, was subsequently moved to Freehold and, as growth continued, acquired a 32,000-square-foot warehouse on Dunroamin Road in Wall.

According to John Kilduff, the original building in Brooklyn was sold, and family members decided to invest in the Red Bank area based on their belief that the borough’s potential is unlimited.

"We sold a building built in the 1930s to acquire this one," he explained. "We all live nearby, and we did not want to be absentee landlords.

"We think we’ve got a great building in a great town," he said. "We’re looking to continue to be a part of the Red Bank scene and story."