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Sign of our times, another farm market closing

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RUtix4me

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Jan 18, 2015
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Sad, but fortunate at the same time.

Other parts of the country, farmland bubble has burst and many farmer's defaulting or
close to it. The Fed Farm Credit Bank funding problems will be one of the next big political
fights in Washington.
 
any one have a ball park on $/acre in south jersey (burlington county)? sounds like it might be the time to grab some land.
 
Is this a real farm or just a Farm Stand. I know Weggmans are big stores plus parking but I can't see them needing the land of a complete farm?
 
While family owned farms are at a big disadvantage compared to govt subsidized large corporate farms, this farm being in Montvale NJ (Bergen County) sits on some of the most valueable real estate in NJ. I'm sure they collected a small fortune from Wegmans in the sale.
 
DePierosFarm500px.jpg


WhiteBus said:
Is this a real farm or just a Farm Stand. I know Weggmans are big stores plus parking but I can't see them needing the land of a complete farm?
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It's what is left of what was a farm. The aerial photo shows what left. Between it and the GSP is the soon to be vacant Mercedes headquartes (moving to Ga.). The condos across the street to the right were farm land until 10 yrs ago. Past the condos are more farmland, and most ironically, the soon to be vacant world headquarters of A&P

Sloan kettering will be taking one building in town and will remotely treat 150 patients a day starting in 2016. But companies are fleeing like cockroaches due to prices. Hertz keft two years ago also.

The family had been selling pieces for 40yrs and buying orchards up state NY, so they should be fine. At one point I would guess they owned all the land in the photo and as much again off to the right side.

There will be 15 stores including a Chipotles.
 
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It was years of legal fights A&P was headquartered in town and sued for years...they went BK and down comes the farm.
 
A&P just closed or sold all of it nearly 300 stores. Why exactly would Wegman's need to buy more property and build from the ground up. But clearly the family was motivated to sell..so if not them then somebody else.
 
1984 said:
A&P just closed or sold all of it nearly 300 stores. Why exactly would Wegman's need to buy more property and build from the ground up. But clearly the family was motivated to sell..so if not them then somebody else.
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This was going on for 7 yrs contract to buy the property executed.....acme gets the crappy old A&P sites. No way A&P would have sold the stores in the home town of their headquarters that long ago.
 
WhiteBus said:
Is this a real farm or just a Farm Stand. I know Weggmans are big stores plus parking but I can't see them needing the land of a complete farm?
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https://goo.gl/maps/55cob9uLWc12

From Google maps is looks like a small farm (where about 1/3 of the land is a farm store and parking) in a mostly commercial/office area. I assume there is room for Wegmans with a small strip mall.
 
RUtix4me said:
This was going on for 7 yrs contract to buy the property executed.....acme gets the crappy old A&P sites. No way A&P would have sold the stores in the home town of their headquarters that long ago.
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didn't realize it started 7 years ago. makes more sense now.

I hear the Wood cliff Lake store right up the street from there already has the Acme Logo on the front of the store. And that is not a crappy old store. I can't believe Acme is back into the NY market in such a big way.
 
I support my local farm by belonging to her Farm CSA (community shared agriculture) every week,starting in the middle of April & ending the week before Thanksgiving I get a basket of whatever she has picked that morning on the farm. Some weeks are better than others & the weather affects what we get but everything is local, organic & helping the small farmer. I also shop at the 2 local farmers markets as well. Ive learned to can & get to use my fresh produce well into the winter. It's the only way to keep the small farms alive....support them.
 
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RUtix4me said:
This was going on for 7 yrs contract to buy the property executed.....acme gets the crappy old A&P sites. No way A&P would have sold the stores in the home town of their headquarters that long ago.
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Contract was about 4 yrs ago, the rezoning discussions were before that. The town has an affordable housing defecit, so people we pushing to make Affordable housing part of the deal. The definition in monttvale is like $450k to meet the standard.

Yeh the wcl A&P is nicer than the montvale store. The wcl store sits on the Van riper farm that went down in the 90's. Across the street from van ripers was tices farm that went down in the early 2000's and is now tices corner anchored by An Apple store. 3 farms, 25 years all gone.
 
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MrsScrew said:
I support my local farm by belonging to her Farm CSA (community shared agriculture) every week,starting in the middle of April & ending the week before Thanksgiving I get a basket of whatever she has picked that morning on the farm. Some weeks are better than others & the weather affects what we get but everything is local, organic & helping the small farmer. I also shop at the 2 local farmers markets as well. Ive learned to can & get to use my fresh produce well into the winter. It's the only way to keep the small farms alive....support them.
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one of the greatest things about being out here in Hunterdon is all the fresh local produce. But you can find that in most places in the Garden State. Salt of the earth. Couldn't agree more.
 
MrsScrew said:
I support my local farm by belonging to her Farm CSA (community shared agriculture) every week,starting in the middle of April & ending the week before Thanksgiving I get a basket of whatever she has picked that morning on the farm. Some weeks are better than others & the weather affects what we get but everything is local, organic & helping the small farmer. I also shop at the 2 local farmers markets as well. Ive learned to can & get to use my fresh produce well into the winter. It's the only way to keep the small farms alive....support them.
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Yours may be organic, but people should check. I always assumed the one by me was organic, and it is not. After some looking into it, I found that many of them aren't. I think a lot of people may assume the CSA's are organic because they are local. If you look closely, they never make that claim.
 
Ole Cabbagehead said:
Yours may be organic, but people should check. I always assumed the one by me was organic, and it is not. After some looking into it, I found that many of them aren't. I think a lot of people may assume the CSA's are organic because they are local. If you look closely, they never make that claim.
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Brand New advertised Organic Market just opened right on Rt. 202 across from what used to be the Hess Station in Reading/Neshanic Station area for folks in that area. Another one on Rt. 579 near here in West Amwell Township between Rt. 31 and Rt. 518. (limited hours..just Wed, I think)
 
The problem,at least here in NJ , is that becoming "ceritfied organic" requires reams of paperwork and a lot of fees. I've talked to a lot of the farmers at the local farmers markets, West Windsor one in particular. While a lot of them are not certified organic they farm organic. One of the vendors inWW even uses elephant poop she gets from Great Adventure as her fertilizer.
 
MrsScrew said:
The problem,at least here in NJ , is that becoming "ceritfied organic" requires reams of paperwork and a lot of fees. I've talked to a lot of the farmers at the local farmers markets, West Windsor one in particular. While a lot of them are not certified organic they farm organic. One of the vendors inWW even uses elephant poop she gets from Great Adventure as her fertilizer.
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Ahhhhhhhhh Is that why the asparagus has a hint of peanut in it!
 
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MrsScrew said:
The problem,at least here in NJ , is that becoming "ceritfied organic" requires reams of paperwork and a lot of fees. I've talked to a lot of the farmers at the local farmers markets, West Windsor one in particular. While a lot of them are not certified organic they farm organic. One of the vendors inWW even uses elephant poop she gets from Great Adventure as her fertilizer.
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yeah but do we know what they feed the Elephants LOL... wow, Elephant Poop. Wonder if the Tomatoes grow grey and wrinkly ?
 
I'm sorry guys but I have little to no respect for farmers. We saved the last farm in our town. A 75 acre parcel that sat on Farrington Lake. It was one of the most pristine pieces of property with home prices ranging from $500,000 to $2,000,000. The farmer was a single man who never married, he had a brother and two nieces. Through intense pressure we (the township) offered him 7.5 million for the land. It would have been farmed every year and remained undeveloped. Instead the farmer was a pig and entered into a contract with a developer to build High Density housing for 55+ seniors. If the developer could get 350 units on the property the farmer would get 9 million, if he was granted a variance allowing him to build 500 units the farmer would get 10 million. The residents in the area immediately formed a group and we met with a representative of the farm who said the following: Give us the 9 million and you could build an asbestos plant on the property. He went on to say, the only reason your town wants the retirement community is that two planning board members are going to get condo's dirt cheap. Fortunately for the group we recorded the conversation and had an audio tech make a very clear copy. Then we got a major break, a pictures of the two planning board members shaking hands with a developer at a municipal function. We raised 75k for legal fees and threatened a lawsuit. Well, inside of one month the town filed eminent domain paperwork with Trenton and the farm was taken from the farmer at fair market value. Today the land is still farmed, public schools use the farm for field trips and has a thriving garden.
 
it really sucks, growing up I remember all the local farmstands in Hillsborough, now there are just two smaller ones away from the highway. You used to be able to drive anywhere and see farmstand now nothing. We are losing our open space. We are losing our horse industry as Peretti Farms has closed and the great Showplace Farms is closing as well. We don't do enough to preserve our farmland in this state. Sad
 
Green acres is the place to be, farm living is the life for me, land spreading out so far and wide...
 
RU31trap said:
I'm sorry guys but I have little to no respect for farmers. We saved the last farm in our town. A 75 acre parcel that sat on Farrington Lake. It was one of the most pristine pieces of property with home prices ranging from $500,000 to $2,000,000. The farmer was a single man who never married, he had a brother and two nieces. Through intense pressure we (the township) offered him 7.5 million for the land. It would have been farmed every year and remained undeveloped. Instead the farmer was a pig and entered into a contract with a developer to build High Density housing for 55+ seniors. If the developer could get 350 units on the property the farmer would get 9 million, if he was granted a variance allowing him to build 500 units the farmer would get 10 million. The residents in the area immediately formed a group and we met with a representative of the farm who said the following: Give us the 9 million and you could build an asbestos plant on the property. He went on to say, the only reason your town wants the retirement community is that two planning board members are going to get condo's dirt cheap. Fortunately for the group we recorded the conversation and had an audio tech make a very clear copy. Then we got a major break, a pictures of the two planning board members shaking hands with a developer at a municipal function. We raised 75k for legal fees and threatened a lawsuit. Well, inside of one month the town filed eminent domain paperwork with Trenton and the farm was taken from the farmer at fair market value. Today the land is still farmed, public schools use the farm for field trips and has a thriving garden.
Click to expand...

What a socialist mindset. Take what we consider a fair amount or else. How dare you decide to get the most money you can for your personal property! People with your mindset should get hemorrhoids.
 
RU31trap said:
I'm sorry guys but I have little to no respect for farmers. We saved the last farm in our town. A 75 acre parcel that sat on Farrington Lake. It was one of the most pristine pieces of property with home prices ranging from $500,000 to $2,000,000. The farmer was a single man who never married, he had a brother and two nieces. Through intense pressure we (the township) offered him 7.5 million for the land. It would have been farmed every year and remained undeveloped. Instead the farmer was a pig and entered into a contract with a developer to build High Density housing for 55+ seniors. If the developer could get 350 units on the property the farmer would get 9 million, if he was granted a variance allowing him to build 500 units the farmer would get 10 million. The residents in the area immediately formed a group and we met with a representative of the farm who said the following: Give us the 9 million and you could build an asbestos plant on the property. He went on to say, the only reason your town wants the retirement community is that two planning board members are going to get condo's dirt cheap. Fortunately for the group we recorded the conversation and had an audio tech make a very clear copy. Then we got a major break, a pictures of the two planning board members shaking hands with a developer at a municipal function. We raised 75k for legal fees and threatened a lawsuit. Well, inside of one month the town filed eminent domain paperwork with Trenton and the farm was taken from the farmer at fair market value. Today the land is still farmed, public schools use the farm for field trips and has a thriving garden.
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You've got a problem with someone making a decision that is best for them, with their own private property? As if that kind of thinking is isolated to farmers? If you think your thought process is reasonable, please turn in your block R magnet and book the next flight to Russia.
 
RUtix4me said:
Contract was about 4 yrs ago, the rezoning discussions were before that. The town has an affordable housing defecit, so people we pushing to make Affordable housing part of the deal. The definition in monttvale is like $450k to meet the standard.

Yeh the wcl A&P is nicer than the montvale store. The wcl store sits on the Van riper farm that went down in the 90's. Across the street from van ripers was tices farm that went down in the early 2000's and is now tices corner anchored by An Apple store. 3 farms, 25 years all gone.
Click to expand...
What the hell is an affordable housing deficit? Do they mean making wealthy communities accept people who haven't achieved a level of success enabling them to enter these communities via the open market? What an entitled mentality.
 
I remember when Smith Farms,in East Brunswick,sold their land . Broke my heart. Great apples.Especially their Staymen Winesaps.
 
RU31trap said:
I'm sorry guys but I have little to no respect for farmers. We saved the last farm in our town. A 75 acre parcel that sat on Farrington Lake. It was one of the most pristine pieces of property with home prices ranging from $500,000 to $2,000,000. The farmer was a single man who never married, he had a brother and two nieces. Through intense pressure we (the township) offered him 7.5 million for the land. It would have been farmed every year and remained undeveloped. Instead the farmer was a pig and entered into a contract with a developer to build High Density housing for 55+ seniors. If the developer could get 350 units on the property the farmer would get 9 million, if he was granted a variance allowing him to build 500 units the farmer would get 10 million. The residents in the area immediately formed a group and we met with a representative of the farm who said the following: Give us the 9 million and you could buildn an asbestos plant on the property. He went on to say, the only reason your town wants the retirement community is that two planning board members are going to get condo's dirt cheap. Fortunately for the group we recorded the conversation and had an audio tech make a very clear copy. Then we got a major break, a pictures of the two planning board members shaking hands with a developer at a municipal function. We raised 75k for legal fees and threatened a lawsuit. Well, inside of one month the town filed eminent domain paperwork with Trenton and the farm was taken from the farmer at fair market value. Today the land is still farmed, public schools use the farm for field trips and has a thriving garden.
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You must be a huge philanthropist, at least with other people's money. He can get $10M instead of $7.5M, sounds like your town wanted what belonged to someone else on the cheap. Would you take 75 cents on the dollar when you sell your home or business?
 
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Piscataway said:
What the hell is an affordable housing deficit? Do they mean making wealthy communities accept people who haven't achieved a level of success enabling them to enter these communities via the open market? What an entitled mentality.
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Take that one to the state its called COAH. The state has a calculator on compliance. It says voluntary, but try getting state funding for anything if you are not in it.

http://www.nj.gov/dca/services/lps/hss/
 
bac2therac said:
it really sucks, growing up I remember all the local farmstands in Hillsborough, now there are just two smaller ones away from the highway. You used to be able to drive anywhere and see farmstand now nothing. We are losing our open space. We are losing our horse industry as Peretti Farms has closed and the great Showplace Farms is closing as well. We don't do enough to preserve our farmland in this state. Sad
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Over 218k acres have been preserved through the Farmland Preservation Program, so they are trying.

I agree its a shame we cannot save more open land though. I hate to see farms and farm stands close as well.
 
The issue with "Certified Organic" is not the paperwork (which is indeed onerous) or the daily practices. The issue is that land that was once "traditional" has to go through a multi year "cleansing" process to meet "Certified Organic" requirements.

A farmer can use organic practices but not yet be in compliance with the number of years his/her land has to be free of non-organic practices.
 
This has been going on for 70 years since the end of world War two. The lack of any really intelligent land use policy is why we have endless low density suburbs with little open space and zoning laws that don't allow for what is most needed in suburbia today: medium density housing to allow filled in towns to expand their housing and first time buyers to get into the market.
 
The town of montvale did nothing to help this farm. They charged something like $700k a year in taxes for this property per year. On a farm this size how is that even feasible to make a profit. The town of montvale and it's residents drove this closure.
 
RU31trap said:
I'm sorry guys but I have little to no respect for farmers. We saved the last farm in our town. A 75 acre parcel that sat on Farrington Lake. It was one of the most pristine pieces of property with home prices ranging from $500,000 to $2,000,000. The farmer was a single man who never married, he had a brother and two nieces. Through intense pressure we (the township) offered him 7.5 million for the land. It would have been farmed every year and remained undeveloped. Instead the farmer was a pig and entered into a contract with a developer to build High Density housing for 55+ seniors. If the developer could get 350 units on the property the farmer would get 9 million, if he was granted a variance allowing him to build 500 units the farmer would get 10 million. The residents in the area immediately formed a group and we met with a representative of the farm who said the following: Give us the 9 million and you could build an asbestos plant on the property. He went on to say, the only reason your town wants the retirement community is that two planning board members are going to get condo's dirt cheap. Fortunately for the group we recorded the conversation and had an audio tech make a very clear copy. Then we got a major break, a pictures of the two planning board members shaking hands with a developer at a municipal function. We raised 75k for legal fees and threatened a lawsuit. Well, inside of one month the town filed eminent domain paperwork with Trenton and the farm was taken from the farmer at fair market value. Today the land is still farmed, public schools use the farm for field trips and has a thriving garden.
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This makes no sense. You have no respect for farmers because one wouldn't sell his land to the town for less than fair market value?
 
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beaced said:
I remember when Smith Farms,in East Brunswick,sold their land . Broke my heart. Great apples.Especially their Staymen Winesaps.
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Is that the parcel on Milltown Road just off 18 ? I lived on Herbert Dr in the early 80s when it was an orchard. Shame it's now a cookie cutter development
 
Piscataway said:
What a socialist mindset. Take what we consider a fair amount or else. How dare you decide to get the most money you can for your personal property! People with your mindset should get hemorrhoids.
Click to expand...

There's a fine line between trying to get an honest dollar for your property and being a greedy douchbag. I think with respect to this story its the latter. You were probably Halper fan given your handle and your comments in this thread.
 
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