Morristown officials think a South Street property that has spent much of the past 14 years in foreclosure and bankruptcy courts can be put to better use.
The town council this week authorized the planning board to explore whether the building at 237 South St. should be designated for “non-condemnation” rehabilitation.
Passed by a 4-0 vote, the resolution described the one-acre site near Headley Road as “potentially valuable” for public welfare and “smart growth.” The planning board will review the matter next month and report back.
The property “has remained largely vacant despite multiple redevelopment efforts and faces significant physical deterioration, including water and fire damage,” town Administrator Jillian Barrick said in a statement to Morristown Green after the meeting.
“The Town has worked cooperatively with the property owner,” Barrick said. “No decisions have been made regarding designation or future development, but such a designation could provide additional tools to support collaborative, high-quality redevelopment that strengthens the neighborhood and tax base.”
Non-condemnation means the town cannot invoke eminent domain to take the property. Rehabilitation is a lighter form of redevelopment offering shorter-term tax abatements.
The tract’s owner is South & Headley Associates Ltd., a partnership controlled by Morristown attorney Lawrence S. Berger. It is also the listed address of Berger’s law firm, Berger & Bornstein, and his real estate company, United States Land Resources.
In 2024, records show, the partnership bought the property back from a lender that had taken ownership after years of litigation. The price: $3.25 million.
Berger, whose complex real estate dealings and long-idle properties have stirred controversy in Morristown, could not be reached for comment. Morristown Green also reached out to two attorneys who previously represented Berger, and will update this story as appropriate.
The building’s tangled history is one of several legal threads involving the 83-year-old Harvard graduate, a lawyer in the Garden State for more than six decades.
German investors are suing him over losses on New Jersey real estate. He denies their claims and has asked a judge to dismiss them. In 2022, the state Supreme Court admonished him over his firm’s handling of client funds. And it is not the first time the town has considered action against one of his vacant properties.
In other business, the council advanced plans for new pickleball courts — expected to be completed near the Whippany River by year’s end— and approved limits on parking unused cars and on portable storage containers. Details appear below.
LOST TO THE LENDER, THEN BOUGHT BACK
South & Headley took out a $3 million mortgage on 237 South St. in 2005. The lender began foreclosing in 2012, and the loan was later sold to South Street Morristown LLC, an East Windsor company.
Two bankruptcy cases followed. A 2016 settlement in the first restructured the debt and had the partnership sign over the deed, held in escrow to be recorded only if it defaulted. A second case, filed in 2020, was dismissed. After appeals ended, a judge released the deed to the lender, which recorded it in December 2023.
Less than three months later, on Feb. 27, 2024, the lender sold the South Street property back to South & Headley for $3.25 million. Berger signed the buyer’s tax affidavit. The deed does not explain the terms behind the sale.
LAWYER AND REAL ESTATE OPERATOR
In addition to being managing member of Berger & Bornstein, Berger is president of United States Realty Resources Inc. and general partner of United States Land Resources, L.P., known as USLR.
USLR has run more than 100 real estate projects over 50 years, Berger said in a sworn statement filed this month. He testified in a 2019 ethics hearing that he held a 49.5% stake in USLR and made all its decisions. A German partner held another 49.5%.
About 90% of Berger & Bornstein’s legal work was for USLR and its property companies, according to that hearing record. Bankruptcy filings also show Berger controls South & Headley through the company that serves as its general partner.
ADMONISHED OVER TRUST-ACCOUNT LAPSES
In January 2022, the state Supreme Court admonished Berger, the lowest level of attorney discipline. The order followed an April 2017 overdraft of his firm’s attorney trust account.
State ethics investigators found Berger had borrowed a $200,000 deposit held in that account, with the depositor’s permission. When the money was due back, the firm repaid only $157,000 before writing the check, so other clients’ money covered the gap. The state’s Disciplinary Review Board found the misappropriation negligent, not intentional.
The court found Berger failed to safeguard client funds, keep required records and supervise his bookkeeper. It ordered him to file monthly account reconciliations with the Office of Attorney Ethics for two years.
The review board had recommended a tougher censure, by a 5-3 vote in 2021. It also found conflicts of interest in his serving as lawyer to companies he controlled, and a misleading firm name. The Supreme Court dismissed those charges without explanation.
A LONG FIGHT OVER THE OLD LUMBERYARD
The rehabilitation study is not the town’s first move on a vacant Berger property. In January 2016, the council asked the planning board whether to condemn the former Slagle lumberyard at the bottom of Elm Street, a fenced lot near the train station.
Berger bought the property for $250,000 in 1993, according to records cited at the time. The town had designated it an area in need of redevelopment in 2006 and again in 2015.
Berger said then that condemnation would scare off builders. He pitched an eight-story, 120-unit luxury condo project and asked for more height and density. “The town thinks I should be more flexible. I think the town should be more flexible,” he said.
The town blinked. Wary of prolonged litigation, officials never condemned the land. It remains vacant.
OTHER PROPERTIES
Berger also has had ties to well known destinations in town.
He represented Pazzo Pazzo, the longtime Speedwell Avenue restaurant, and the building’s former owner in bankruptcy court. In 2019, a judge ruled the restaurant had been abandoned in 2017, ending the owner’s option to buy back the building; an appeals court agreed. Court papers list Berger only as the companies’ lawyer. The site is now Valley National Bank’s headquarters.
Berger also was affiliated with the former Calaloo Cafe at 190 South St., next to town hall. State records listed him as an officer of Callaloo Inc., the liquor license holder.
In 2013, the state scheduled an auction of that license over $62,750 in unpaid sales and business taxes. It canceled the sale after the judgments were paid. Town records then showed $254,000 owed on the property in taxes, fees and utility bills, and a tax lien had been held on it since 2009.
The restaurant, last known as Yo & Papa, closed in 2011. In 2016 Berger called the property one of his vacant holdings and said sales of it and the license were imminent. The site is now luxury apartments.
IN OTHER BUSINESS
The council unanimously adopted two ordinances implementing Morristown’s Round Four affordable housing plan. One creates an AH-1 zone for a 100-unit development, with 20 affordable units, at 79 and 98 Mt. Kemble Ave. The other revises the town’s fair housing regulations, including a town-wide 20% affordable set-aside.
Council members Also introduced two ordinances totaling about $15.2 million for the Runway 5-23 safety area at Morristown Municipal Airport. Most funding will come from federal FAA grants, with contributions from the state Department of Transportation and DM Airports. Public hearings are set for Oct. 27, 2026.
The council awarded PS&S up to $77,650 to monitor cleanup of the former Goldere’s Junkyard, where the town is building pickleball courts at the Whippany River “oxbow” at Bishop Nazery Way and Coal Avenue.
The town-owned site, beneath NJ Transit tracks, lies just beyond the river flood plain, Barrick said. She expects construction to finish by December, after which pickleball courts at Lidgerwood Park will return to tennis-only use.
Council President Steve Pylypchuk abstained from the vote, citing a conflict of interest.
Shade Tree Commission Chair Kristen Ace reported that 45 volunteers completed phase one of the Jacob Ford reforestation planting.
The council approved a lease allowing Scotto Properties to use 20 Town Hall parking spaces for $110 per space per month, from Oct. 14, 2026, through Oct. 13, 2028.
Two ordinances passed unanimously. One classifies vehicles left immobile for 14 days as abandoned. The other limits portable storage containers to 30 days and establishes zoning requirements for them.
Mayor Tim Dougherty asked residents to remember the late Matt Rawding, a retired police lieutenant, and the late Lucretia Agee, a member of the Delta Sigma Theta service sorority who helped organize the town’s annual Martin Luther King Day observances, in their thoughts and prayers.
Bill Byrne, an advocate for persons with disabilities, presented the council with the Arc Morris “outstanding peer achievement” award he received this month in Atlantic City.
Council members Chris Russo, David Silva and Tina Lindsey were absent Tuesday.
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