Businessman proposes trade

By Jeanne Starmack

The nightclub, now a half-burned eyesore, sits on eight acres the city could sell.

CAMPBELL — A business owner wants to acquire 22 city lots in exchange for demolition work — including taking down a burned-out nightclub on U.S. 422.

Cosmo Iamurri, owner of Pro Quality Land Development on Wilson Avenue, has proposed the swap to the city. In exchange for the lots, which comprise four acres at Madison and Jackson streets near his business, he’ll provide $12,000 worth of demolition work. He would like to use the property to expand his business, storing materials there, he said.

He’ll fence it and keep it clean, he added.

“It’s vacant property, and they’re dumping stuff there,” he said. “It’s terrible.”

The city has agreed to the swap, pending legislation approving it that is not yet official.

The former Essence Lounge on Route 422 has been empty for many years and was burned in an arson in May. It was also known in the past as Sharkey’s.

The city owns the eight acres the club sits on and hopes to sell the property once it’s cleaned up.

The property is on a list of buildings in Campbell to be demolished with federal neighborhood stabilization funds. It is not among the first 12 properties, out of 137, to be demolished with those funds. Those 12 properties were to be taken down this fall, but now they’ll likely be demolished in February, said Lou Jackson, Campbell city administrator.

If the city uses Pro Quality’s services to tear down the old lounge, other properties can be added to the demolition list in its place, Jackson said.

The city also would like to use Pro Quality’s services at a burned apartment building on Bright Avenue at 13th Street. That property has asbestos, though, and it will cost between $20,000 and $30,000 to get rid of it, Iamurri said. He said he won’t do that abatement.

Campbell Mayor George Krinos said that council is considering what to do about the asbestos, which could be a health hazard, before it finalizes the property-for-services swap. He said the Bright Avenue property has an owner, and the city is trying to get the owner to pay for asbestos abatement. Iamurri said his expansion could also create five jobs. He said he might sell materials and hire more office employees.

Iamurri also had offered $7,000 for the property instead of the demolition work. The city chose the work.