N.J. town spending $15K a month to rent metal trailers finally has a plan for town hall

Caldwell now has its municipal offices, police department, and library in a set of trailers off Smull Avenue.

The Caldwell borough council this week voted to purchase a two-story professional building on Bloomfield Avenue and convert it to municipal offices, a move that should allow the town to get rid of the cramped metal trailers that are costing taxpayers $15,000 a month.

Caldwell, looking to move forward from a failed downtown redevelopment plan that has left the town deeply in debt, has offered to buy the office building at 80 Bloomfield Avenue from Z&D Holding LLC for $2.7 million. The Caldwell council voted 5-to-0 for the purchase on Tuesday.

The side entrance of the building at 80 Bloomfield Avenue that the Borough of Caldwell bought for its new municipal hall.

Caldwell Mayor Garrett Jones said buying an existing building to house borough offices, instead of constructing one from scratch, saved taxpayers an estimated $5 million. And accomplishes at least one of the goals of the downtown redevelopment plan to find a new borough hall.

“Tuesday night, I had the best council meeting since I became mayor,” said Jones, who took office in 2023. “I’m really excited.”

Caldwell, a town of just 9,000 residents in Essex County, had big dreams when the administration of the previous mayor, John Kelley, adopted a downtown redevelopment plan at the end of 2020. The centerpiece was a brand-new municipal complex, with a police station, new space for the library, and a restored community center that would generate revenue and be self-sustaining, plus more parking for merchants downtown.

The borough of Caldwell plans to buy this building at 80 Bloomfield Avenue and make it the new municipal hall.

To fund the project, Caldwell took on about $41 million in bonded debt, pushing the town to its debt limit. About $16 million of the new debt was set aside to retire old debt, which left about $23 million to complete the project.

Caldwell officials concede that should have been enough – provided nothing went wrong. But the project got bogged down in planning issues, and a proposed land swap with the First Presbyterian Church fell through due to Green Acres restrictions.

While the project was on the drawing board, Caldwell shut down its old borough hall and emptied out is Carnegie library, a historic building that has been damaged by flooding three times in the past 10 years.

Caldwell brought in trailers for its municipal offices, library and police department, set up in a municipal parking lot of Smull Avenue. Almost all of the library’s collection was put in storage, and the cramped conditions forced Caldwell to begin renting space.

Town meetings are now held in the gym of a local Catholic school, Trinity Academy, and when Caldwell cops arrest a suspect, they lock the person up in West Caldwell.

In August, the council rejected all three designs drawn up by the project architect and fired the firm. A new firm was hired, but the original $23 million has dwindled to about $14 million, according to the most recent borough estimates.

Jones credited Caldwell Councilman Darren Daniolowicz with finding the building at 80 Bloomfield and making contact with the owners. Daniolowicz was on vacation and could not be reached for comment this week.

Jones said the building will have to be renovated but expects it will be ready sometime later this year. Caldwell has already reached its debt limit and can’t borrow more, so the council will have to make every dollar count.

Jones said the library will likely be moved into the community center once that building is restored. But the town still needs to find a home for the police department, which used to occupy borough hall.

“We haven’t figured that out yet,” Jones said.

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Richard Cowen may be reached at [email protected].

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