FROM THE MADISON EAGLE (Recorder Community Newspapers)
10/12/2006
By SALLY CAPONE Staff Writer
MADISON – For the second time in a month, Rocco Iossa Jr. came before the borough’s Historic Preservation Commission on Tuesday night to seek its endorsement for his plan to demolish the former Savoy Theatre on Central Avenue and build a four-story mixed-use retail and residential building, with market rate units on the top three floors and parking underneath the building.
As requested at the commission’s Sept. 12 meeting, Iossa and his architect, Kevin Settembrino of Saddle Brook, brought a report from a structural engineer and the Madison Fire Department to the Oct. 10 meeting at the Hartley Dodge Memorial building on Kings Road.
The report from the engineering firm DiStasio and Van Buren of Mountainside noted that the building had dislodging mortar joints and a cracking foundation, and that with no lateral bracing, high winds were of great concern.
In summary, the 94-year-old building, which has seen no upgrades over the years, has lived beyond its usefulness, according to the engineering report.
“This is an opportunity for the borough to take a fresh look at the building,” Settembrino said, adding that the building has been without a tenant since a Napa auto parts business moved out in August.
According to the Madison Fire Department’s report, Iossa’s plans for the 3,500 square-foot building would require the installation of a fire suppression system.
“This not a unique enough situation to make me want to demolish the building,” reacted Historic Preservation Commission member Janet Foster, echoing her comments at the September meeting.
When Iossa argued that the building takes up only 35 percent of the property and would therefore be a financial loss to renovate, commission member Cheryl Munkel took issue.
“We’re about the building and wanting to keep it; we’re not about the financial aspect,” she said.
“But your mission statement does refer to helping investments in the downtown,” Iossa pointed out.
“But not by taking historic buildings,” Munkel replied.
Settembrino noted that he and Iossa were voluntarily coming before the Historic Preservation Building before filing an application for a demolition permit because they wanted the commission’s opinion.
“If the building comes down, we have more to say about what goes up,” Munkel observed.
Commission Chairwoman Dana Larsen said that more time was needed to deliberate the issue, and suggested that Madison Borough Engineer Robert Vogel take a walking inspection through the building.
“I’d feel more at ease if someone from the borough were involved,” Larsen said.
Munkel noted this was the first time the commission was confronted with the demolition of a historically significant building.
“This is a precedent-setting moment for us,” Munkel said. “This is the first time somebody wanted to demolish a ‘key’ building.
“If you demolish it, it opens the door up for every building in the same condition to come down,” she said.
According to the Historic Preservation Commission, the building lies within Madison’s federally designated Historic Business District and is listed as a “key contributing building” to the district. Therefore, the exterior of the building is subject to the authority of the Historic Preservation Commission, and any changes require its approval.
At the commission’s September meeting, Settembrino and Iossa, who owns the building, presented their plans for 21 Central Ave., the former Savoy Theatre, Madison’s first movie theatre, built in 1912.
Copies of the proposal for a new four-story multi-use building that would replace the existing structure were given to commission members and reviewed, along with photos of the site.
The proposed new building would have commercial stores on the first floor and residential condominiums on the three upper stories, advancing Madison’s master plan goal of increasing housing units in the borough, according to Iossa.
Iossa said he would preserve many of the elements of the historic building with historic documentation, and by using some of the architectural designs of the original building in the new structure.
Iossa and Settembrino will meet with the borough’s Technical Coordinating Committee on Wednesday, Nov. 8, and then with the Planning Board, they said. The matter will be on the Historic Preservation Commission’s agenda for its meeting Tuesday, Nov. 14.
Constructed in 1912, the building on Central Avenue had a few good years as a vaudeville house and then a movie theatre before it was closed in 1926 because of competition from another movie theatre in town. Since then the building has been used as temporary warehouse space for the Great Atlantic Tea Company and by Sam Goody’s, before Napa moved in 29 years ago.