Teen Fighting, Property Damage At NJ Complex May Prompt Curfew: Owner

HOLMDEL, NJ — Bell Works developer Ralph Zucker says unruly teens in his building after hours have become such a nuisance that he may have to start closing the building to teens at 9 p.m. (the indoor atrium is open until midnight nightly).

In fact, Zucker is considering an even more drastic step: Nobody under 18 will be allowed into Bell Works in the nighttime hours unless they are accompanied by an adult.

"It would break my heart to have to do that," said Zucker, the CEO of Somerset Development. "I really don't want to have to do that. I just want the kids to be more respectful."

Why is Bell Works' owner considering the new provisions?

Zucker says teens from across Monmouth County — coming in from Middletown, Wall, Freehold and Howell — have discovered his Bell Works metroburb in Holmdel is an ideal Saturday night hang-out spot — and now they're breaking things, starting fights in the main lobby and mouthing off to security guards.

"We've been struggling with this for a while," Zucker told Patch in a sit-down meeting this week, one called by himself and Holmdel Mayor Greg Buontempo to address the issue "head on."

"You think it's a simple idea: Invite the community into your privately owned building. And most of the kids are good; it only takes a few bad apples to ruin it for everybody else," said Zucker.

In coming weeks, Bell Works will likely be making some policy changes in regard to teenagers in the building.

An Issue That's Been Growing 'For Years'

The problems started innocently enough: Zucker built a turf area meant for toddlers, but then older kids started tossing and kicking balls on the turf. People sitting nearby now fear a football to either their cappuccino, laptop or their head.

Then there was the time local kids jumped in the pond out back and came into the lobby soaking wet. Bell Works has outdoor fire pits in nice weather, and Zucker said he witnessed teenage boys picking up the burning stones and throwing them; he personally asked the boys to leave.

And while only the Bell Works lobby is open to the public (the top four floors require card access), teens have started jumping the turnstiles and sneaking onto the upper levels. One of the downstairs bathrooms incurred $30,000 worth of damages when multiple glass doors were broken; to this day, Bell Works has no idea who did it, or why.

"After all, we don't have cameras in the bathrooms," Zucker pointed out.

And then there's the basketball courts.

Word has gotten out that Bell Works has an indoor basketball court that is sometimes open for free play. (The court was originally set up so Bell Works office tenants could start a rec league and play after work.) But now teenagers come from as far south as Wall to play there on Friday and Saturday nights. That's where security guards watched as teens spit on the lobby floor, litter and started fighting with each other.

"When our guards say something to the kids, they mouth off at us, start saying profanities," said Joseph Soto, Bell Works' director of security. "They say, 'we don't have to listen to you; you're not a cop.' A few kids have even wanted to get physical with our guards."

In the past two months, Holmdel Police have increasingly been called to Bell Works because of teenagers.

A Middletown mom said her son and some other boys were made by a security guard to wait outside in 16 degrees last weekend to be picked up. Soto said that officer "is being talked to; we're still investigating that incident."

But Soto said he stands by that this is a "Problem that's been ... growing in the past few years."

"It definitely got worse in the past two years," he said. "I think when COVID hit and kids were locked in the house, there really was nowhere else to go, nowhere else for kids to hang out. So they started coming here. We've seen parents drop their kids off at the door on a Friday night and drive away. Kids younger than 12. We're the babysitter."

'Every Public Space Has Struggled With This'

It seems Zucker has hit some bumps in the road as he tries to navigate the fine line between running a privately owned office building and what has become a very popular public space. In fact, inviting the public inside Bell Works has always been part of Zucker's business strategy.

"A suburban office park is such a mind-numbingly boring place," said the developer. "It's so boring in fact that that's why people get in their cars and leave the suburbs in the morning and drive to work in the city. So when I bought Bell Works, I wanted to bring life within its walls. You need life. And it's worked. We're at 95 percent leased. People across the state rave about how great Bell Works is."

When he bought the abandoned Bell Labs building in 2013, paying $27 million, there were broken skylights and weeds growing in the lobby. Many were skeptical: Who invests in suburban office parks anymore? But Zucker had a vision: Not only offices, but a completely indoor town square.

The Holmdel library moved in; JCP&L relocated their South Jersey headquarters there, leaving Red Bank behind. A wine bar opened, as did virtual golf, an escape room and a Pilates studio. The Holmdel's farmers' market runs there weekly and a Bell Works beer garden is in the works. There are jazz and dance performances and poetry readings and some are petitioning Zucker to let them open a rock-climbing wall. Zucker puts on fireworks in the summer and has a massive holiday party and tree lighting in December.

Bell Works was given a federal tax credit for restoring a historic building, and he pays a 25-year PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) to Holmdel Township.

But neither of these required Zucker to open Bell Works to the public.

"Look, every public space has struggled with this. But we are a private space. I could just close the doors," said Zucker. "I just ask — and I really want to get this message out to the community — Parents: Talk to your kids. Have them show some respect."

Stay tuned for more updates on Bell Works.

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