DUI Lawyers in Barrington, NJ

BARRINGTON — Another option for a night out with good food and something to knock back with is set to arrive downtown, joining Tonewood Brewing and the Old Rail Tavern.

Businessman Chris Widell, a Moorestown resident, has waited patiently for the right time and spot to open a full-service restaurant along Clements Bridge Road.

“We’ve had a liquor license for three years,” Widell said Tuesday. “We’ve owned the property for almost a year now.”

At their meeting March 24, members of the borough's planning board approved a proposal to demolish a large house that's approximately a century old, plus a connected one-story store at 111 Clements Bridge Road. The structures have been vacant for a long time, Widell said.

Widell added that his restaurant will be called Bond, as in British agent James Bond.

It’s a playful turn on the fact that the Barrington zip code ends in “007,” he said.

The restaurant will be two stories, Widell said, with construction done in two phases. The first phase is to establish the building footprint.

An opening by mid-summer is the goal, according to Widell.

Planning board Secretary Carol Fultano said she was impressed by the architect's rendering of the prospective restaurant.

"It looks beautiful," Fultano said.

According to borough officials, a request for construction permits had not been submitted as of Tuesday.

Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times. Have a tip? Support local journalism with a subscription

BOND is an innovative food hall and beer garden (with full liquor license) coming to Barrington’s growing Clements Bridge Road downtown commercial district. On Monday the team appeared before the Barrington Planning Board and gained approval for their two-phased plan.

The location for BOND is one property away from The Old Rail Tavern, and directly next to Vito’s pizza.

I chatted with owner Chris today who explained to me the design is a modern urban/industrial look built around a variety of storage containers (for interior spaces), as well as an outdoor beer garden and dining areas.

While the initial construction phase will see the installation of several modified storage containers for its interior spaces, initially the customer areas will be based around an outdoor beer garden experience.

In the first phase BOND will operate as a seasonal warmer weather venue. When the start the second phase effort (Date to be determined) they will be open all year round.

BOND should prove to be an exciting addition to the growing Barrington downtown district which has seen significant new venues open in the last few years.

Already the Barrington Downtown offers the Old Rail Tavern, Tonewood, Garnet Grill, Berri Caffeinated and more, and already is a big draw with people saying “hey let’s head over to Barrington and spend the afternoon”. And now if you add BOND into the mix, the Barrington Downtown will be on everyone’s radar for delicious fun!

BOND Barrington

The first step of the BOND project goes back several years ago when Chris and partners purchased the liquor license from the former Timeout Sports Bar. The Timeout property on the White Horse Pike was redeveloped as a Chipotle.

Chris operates a successful party planning and rental business and his warehouse is in Barrington, so he is very familiar with the town and community… and spent several years researching not only the perfect place within Barrington for his new bar & restaurant venture, but also a design that offered a unique experience to customers in the area.

Even the BOND name has a Barrington connection! The town’s Zip Code ends in 007… which had Chris think of James Bond 007!

And yes the new BOND venue will be all new construction, so you’re likely wondering where is this going?

To be developed at 111 Clements Bridge Road, the property currently has a large building on it which originally was built as a house… but then was later modified with a front squared-off commercial façade.

To develop BOND, the existing building will be coming down, and the team will start with a clear canvas

As mentioned, Chris is looking to develop a modern urban style establishment utilizing storage containers for indoor spaces, as well as offering significant outdoor areas in the design.

Storage container based food and beverage venues are becoming more and more popular in the US. Wildwood added a small segment on one of the piers, Atlantic City is adding a larger storage container venue in it’s Orange Loop development… and the BOND team took a lot of inspiration from the Detroit Shipping Co in Michigan which is known as one of the Country’s top venues in the category.

For the BOND project, it will be implemented in two phases with the first phase focused on opening as an outdoor food hall and beer/bar venue. The first phase will see the installation of several storage containers but in this first phase they will be mostly used for non-customer areas such as kitchen and back of the bar. Bathrooms will also be developed of course.

The second phase will come later and include a full interior space build out which will include indoor dining areas and bars, as well as ADA compliant elevators to the second floor.

Chris tells 42Feeway that knowing the full plan from the start was important because it will enable them to more easily install in advance all of the necessary infrastructure items such as utilities necessary to support the full two-phase project.

Architect renderings supplied to 42Freeway show that even in the initial phase one implementation, BOND will have two stories of storage container structures in certain areas, along with the larger outdoor beer garden space.

The phase two implementation really turns it into a modern industrial building, utilizing glass walls as a key component to create the interior spaces.

Right now Chris and the team are focused on the Phase One as you would expect, and hope to get started on the project very soon. My understanding is that since this project is being developed on a Camden County roadway (Clements Bridge) it will likely need to be approved by the County also before development can start.

An opening date is unknown at this time but Chris has a desire to open sometime this summer.

Links and Location

BOND111 Clements Bridge RoadBarrington NJ

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SOUTH JERSEY

Cherry Hill Courier-Post

Barrington Borough officials held a legal clinic for residents of the Barrington Mews on Wednesday.

Residents of Barrington Mews, a subsidized living community teetering on new ownership, have been concerned about potential rent hikes. The facility houses more than 300 senior and disabled tenants.

The hour-long event was held Jan. 29 at the borough hall, where residents in the audience were able to ask questions about tenant rights and tenant-landlord disputes to attorneys with the nonprofit South Jersey Legal Services.

Mews resident Betty Almo said she'd seen this all before when her previous apartment complex sold to new owners that upped the rent to market value.

"It's just greed," she said. "If it was their moms and dads in these places, would they do the same thing?"

Residents at the event were able to open files with the legal service on site to discuss individual concerns about their rents and leases.

In the almost two months that have passed since rumors of a potential sale first spread, blindsiding residents and borough officials alike, Barrington Mayor Kyle Hanson said a lack of communication from the complex's property management has been "the biggest hurdle."

Tenants and local officials said they had no idea that the property owners, who recently filed to extend a tax abatement agreement with the municipality, intended to sell the property.

Though Hanson said potential buyers Axial Partners and Hudson Atlantic had informed the municipality that the sale was scheduled to close Feb. 8, neither AAH Management, which oversees the property, nor supposed buyers had returned various communications about the sale, title deed restrictions or resources for residents.

According to a Dec. 23 letter sent from Barrington Borough officials to residents at the complex, a title search of the property confirmed that the complex has deed restrictions in place that state the property should be restricted to "multi-unit, multi-story senior citizens and handicapped rental complex of a minimum of 100 units."

Hanson's office informed representatives of Axial Partners and Hudson Atlantic that the borough intends to enforce the deed restrictions, but as of Jan. 29 there was still no response.

AAH Management, Axial Partners and Huson Atlantic have been evasive to this publication's previous attempts to obtain comments on the sale.

At the clinic Wednesday evening, several residents expressed frustrations while trying to understand their legal options.

In a letter to the Courier-Post, one resident said tenants were informed that the new owners intend to increase rent by $200 a month for the first year after their leases expire before moving to market rate. The tenant did not, however, have proof of this in writing.

Numerous others said that they had received no written notice of intended rent increases or new lease proposals, and worried about what would happen when their leases expired.

Since the announcement of the sale, Barrington Mews residents and caretakers have faced roadblocks in finding new housing at comparable rates.

Based on rate breakdowns as of December, the one- and two-bedroom apartments are open to residents with an annual gross income of between $16,000 and $55,080. Monthly rent ranges between $581 and $862, depending on the floor plan.

William Welsh, a U.S. Navy veteran, said he's no stranger to dealing with rent increases, something he faced again at a previous South Jersey apartment complex.

While he said he didn't think he would have to be in this situation again, he acknowledged that Veterans Affairs provided him with needed assistance and resources.

"There's a lot of people (at Barrington Mews) that are much worse off than I am," Welsh said, before praising the municipality, saying Barrington Borough officials have "really gone above and beyond" in their efforts to assist residents.

The borough hosted another resource fair for residents Jan. 15, though Hanson said fliers posted in the building's community room advertising the event to tenants had been "quickly removed."

This time, the mayor's office sent fliers and notices directly to each tenant's mailing address.

In response to the praise that he and his fellow municipal officials received from residents, Hanson said he doesn't think they would "quantify it as going above and beyond. ... I think we're just doing what we were elected to do."

Kaitlyn McCormick writes about trending issues and community news across South Jersey for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and the Burlington County Times. If you have a story she should tell, email her at kmccormick@gannett.com. And subscribe to stay up to date on the news you need.