507 Franklin Avenue

Where this stands: On August 4, 2026 the Board of Commissioners conditionally designated ORO NJ LLC as redeveloper of this parcel for 120 days — through roughly December 2, 2026 — so it can present a concept plan to the Board. The designation terminates automatically at the end of that window unless a redevelopment agreement is executed. No concept plan has been presented publicly, and no application has been filed.

507 Franklin Avenue is a small commercial lot on Nutley's main street. Most residents know it as Bella Luce, the restaurant that occupied it from 2015. It is 0.1791 acres — under a fifth of an acre — in the B-3 business zone, with a building constructed in 1964. 🟢 Source: NJParcels

The township has begun a redevelopment process here. What makes it worth watching is not the size of the lot but the sequence: the company the township designated as a prospective redeveloper had already owned the land for ten months.

The parcel

• Where: 507 Franklin Avenue, Nutley — Block 3100, Lot 38. 🟢
• Size: 0.1791 acres. Building described as commercial, constructed 1964. 🟢
• Zoning: B-3. 🟢 Source: NJParcels
• Assessed value: $1,050,000 — land $458,000, improvements $592,000. 🟢
• Owner: ORO NJ LLC, since September 2025. See below.
• Formerly: Bella Luce restaurant.

🟢 Who owns it, and since when

This is established from the recorded deed, not from reporting.

ORO NJ LLC has owned 507 Franklin Avenue since September 2025. The deed is instrument 2025060313, dated September 23, 2025 and recorded September 24, from JVCC LLC and Joseph Capasso to ORO NJ LLC, for $990,000. Realty transfer tax of $9,459 was paid, and the deed is typed "no exemption from realty transfer fee" — an ordinary arm's-length sale, not an intra-family or corporate-restructuring transfer.

No mortgage was recorded against the parcel by ORO NJ LLC, which suggests an all-cash purchase.

Read in the Essex County Register's PRESS system, which is free and searchable by block and lot. Results are generated by form submission and cannot be linked directly, so cite the instrument number.

The previous sale was April 2015, when 507 Franklin Avenue LLC sold to JVCC LLC for $899,990 (Book 12547, Page 4155). 🟡 JVCC's principals appear from 2015 mortgage filings to have been Joseph Capasso and Dino Vitagliano, who opened Bella Luce in March 2015.

🟡 The property had been marketed at $1.7 million in an earlier offering memorandum, which noted that a purchaser "can add four (4) apartments above with no variance required." It sold for $990,000. Source: archived offering memorandum

🟢 The entities

🟢 The two are formally connected. Both list the same registered agent in the state's business records, and ORO FRANKLIN LLC's registered address is 507 Franklin Avenue itself. Source: NJ Business Records Service

⚠️ A registered agent is not an owner. New Jersey's free records name agents, not members or managers. No individual is publicly established as owning either company. The paid Business Entity Status Report and the liquor-licence transfer application would name them; neither is on the free public record.

The liquor licence moved first. Plenary Retail Consumption Licence No. 0716-32-020-011 — the Bella Luce licence, held by GLO Group LLC — was transferred person-to-person to ORO FRANKLIN LLC by Resolution 348-25, adopted December 2, 2025. 🟢 Source: Resolution 348-25

🟠 The state's own alcoholic beverage licensee dataset still lists GLO Group LLC / Bella Luce as the licensee, effective July 1, 2019 — at least eight months out of date against the municipal record. If you check the state file, you will get the wrong answer.

Timeline

What Resolution 203-26 actually does

🟡 The resolution designates ORO NJ LLC as conditional redeveloper for 120 days from August 4, 2026, "with no notice required" for termination. Its stated purpose is narrow: to let ORO present a concept plan to the Board under Section 4.0(A) of the Franklin Avenue Redevelopment Plan. It is not a redevelopment agreement, and it approves no construction.

The resolution names no address, no attorney, no principal and no proposal.

Notably, it does not assert that ORO owns the property. It says ORO "represents that it is the owner of Block 3100, Lot 38, formerly known as Bella Luce." The deed records show that representation is accurate.

Source: Resolution 203-26

🔵 It cites a plan that does not cover this lot

There are two Franklin Avenue redevelopment plans, and Resolution 203-26 relies on the earlier one.

🟢 Ordinance 3501 says in terms that "DMR Architects prepared a redevelopment plan dated September 2022 … for the Redevelopment Area and the Rehabilitation Area," and lists Lot 38 among the Rehabilitation Area lots. Ordinance 3486 adopted the December 2021 plan for the four Redevelopment Area lots only. Sources: Ordinance 3486, Ordinance 3501

🟢 Resolution 203-26 cites the plan "dated December 2021." That is the version whose own adopting ordinance covered four lots, none of them this one. Either the resolution cites a superseded document, or Section 4.0(A) is being applied from a plan that does not reach the property. Neither reading is reassuring, and the resolution never mentions the September 2022 plan.

🔵 There is a further wrinkle that may partly explain the confusion: Ordinance 3571 records that Resolution 217-23, on September 19, 2023, asked the Planning Board to investigate Lots 31–36, 38 and 39 as an "Additional Redevelopment Area," and that the Board recommended designation on November 15, 2023. So Lot 38 may sit in both areas by now. Resolution 203-26 does not mention that either. Source: Ordinance 3571

🔴 The plan itself is not published anywhere

We have not been able to read Section 4.0(A), because neither version of the Franklin Avenue Redevelopment Plan is online. The township's own adoption notice for Ordinance 3501 says the plan "may be reviewed in person at the Office of the Township Clerk … or by submitting a request to Eleni Pettas, CMC, Municipal Clerk." 🟢 Source: adoption notice

So the document that decides what can lawfully be built on this parcel — permitted uses, height, density, parking, and any time limit — is available only by asking for it. Everything on this page about Section 4.0(A) is therefore Resolution 203-26's characterisation of the plan, not the plan's own words. As the resolution puts it: "no application for development may be submitted to the Planning Board unless and until the prospective applicant has: (i) been designated as the redeveloper of a subject property within the Study Area; and (ii) a proposed project design, or concept plan, has been submitted and approved by the Board of Commissioners."

We have asked the Clerk for both versions by date.

🔵 Three further problems with the document

• The operative clause does not match the recitals. The recitals place Lot 38 in the Rehabilitation Area (Lots 21, 23–27, 31–36, 38, 39–43). The Redevelopment Area is only Lots 28, 29, 30 and 37. But the "NOW, THEREFORE" clause designates ORO NJ LLC as redeveloper "of the Redevelopment Area" — an area that does not contain this parcel. Which designation the Board believes it made is unanswered.
• A date is wrong. The recitals date the 2020 area designations to "November of 2020." Resolutions 286-20 and 287-20 were adopted December 1, 2020.
• Another date is wrong. The resolution dates the Planning Board's recommendation to "July 24, 2020." Ordinance 3501 puts the Board's finding at November 4, 2020, on investigation reports dated November 2020.
• The vote is not evidenced on the posted copy. The Record of Vote grid is blank and the clerk's certification is unsigned — this is the meeting-packet version, not a certified adopted copy. Adoption on August 4 is reported and consistent with the agenda, but the August 4 minutes have not been posted, so it stays 🟡.

🔵 Open questions

• What does the designation add, given ORO already owned the land? A conditional redeveloper designation is normally how a municipality selects among interested parties, or gives a developer standing to negotiate. Here the designee had held the deed for ten months. What the township gains, and what ORO gains, is worth a plain answer.
• Who actually owns ORO NJ LLC and ORO FRANKLIN LLC? No individual is on the free public record. The licence-transfer application filed with the township must name every member with an interest — that is a records request, and it is on our list.
• Which area is this parcel in for redevelopment purposes — Rehabilitation or Redevelopment? The resolution says both.
• Has a concept plan been presented? The 120-day window closes around December 2, and a presentation to the Board would be a public meeting.
• What does the Franklin Avenue Redevelopment Plan permit here? Section 4.0(A) is cited in the resolution. We have not yet obtained the plan itself.
• Was Resolution 203-26 adopted unanimously, and were all five commissioners present? The posted copy does not say.

What happens next

A conditional designation is an early step, not an approval. If ORO presents a concept plan the Board finds acceptable, the next step would be negotiating a redevelopment agreement — which would itself be a public action. If nothing is executed by roughly December 2, the designation ends on its own and the township is free to start over.

Nothing here has been decided, and nothing has been proposed publicly.

Related

• 275 Kingsland Street (ON3) — the township's other active redevelopment matter, and the one drawing residents to meetings.
• 🟢 The township already retained a planner for this redevelopment area. On December 16, 2025 the board awarded Resolution 359-25 to FAR Planning LLC for "technical review services in connection with the Franklin Avenue Redevelopment Area," running through December 31, 2026, not to exceed $15,000. FAR Planning's principal, Francis A. Reiner, PP, LLA, was named at the August 18, 2026 meeting as working with the township's redevelopment counsel, and separately holds the ON3 planning contract (Resolution 360-25, $75,000) and prepared the Kingsland Street Redevelopment Plan. Source: December 2025 contract awards
• Note that Resolution 210-26, adopted the same night as 203-26, is a different FAR Planning contract — a $50,640 land use evaluation of the Washington Avenue, Park Avenue, Chestnut Street and East Centre Street corridors. It does not cover Franklin Avenue.