Red Bank — Count Basie's Hometown on the Navesink River

A Navesink River Arts Town -- Count Basie, a Walkable Downtown, and Two Real 2026 Projects

Red Bank is this site's thirty-second New Jersey market, the first market built in this batch, immediately after Little Silver. It sits on the southern bank of the Navesink River in Monmouth County, roughly 24 miles south of Manhattan, at an elevation of 43 feet. The borough is genuinely small -- 2.15 total square miles, 1.75 square miles of land and 0.41 square miles of water, or 18.98% water -- and it is not an oceanfront town. This page is written to be honest about that from the start: Red Bank's own beach access runs to the ocean towns of Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach, both a short, normal car drive away and both already built out on this site, rather than to any beach within Red Bank's own borders.

Red Bank's governance history is its own distinct arc. It was formed as a town on March 17, 1870, carved out of parts of Shrewsbury Township. For a brief stretch, from February 14 to May 15, 1879, it was renamed "Shrewsbury City" before reverting. It was incorporated as a borough by act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 10, 1908, and it transitioned to a Faulkner Act council-manager form of government on July 1, 2023 -- a real, recent change in how the town is run. The name itself traces to the reddish soil along the Navesink River: an 1736 land-sale record references land "on the west side of the highway that goes to the red bank."

Population has grown steadily across the last three census counts: 11,844 in 2000, up 3.1% to 12,206 in 2010, then up 6.0% to 12,936 in 2020 -- a population density of 7,408.9 per square mile, 63rd statewide and 4th in Monmouth County. A July 2025 estimate puts the population at 12,896. Census Bureau figures for the 2020-2024 range put the median home value at $504,900, median monthly mortgage cost at $2,809, median gross rent at $2,026, and median household income at $97,477, across 5,983 households with a 50.1% owner-occupied rate. No exact current (2026) home price beyond that median, no confirmed current property-tax rate, and no confirmed flood-insurance premium figure specific to Red Bank were found in this research pass -- treat any cost content here as illustrative only, and New Jersey has its own real state sales tax and its own distinct property-tax structure, not a no-sales-tax framing borrowed from any other state.

What most distinguishes Red Bank from every other New Jersey market on this site is its arts identity. William "Count" Basie (1904-1984), the jazz pianist and bandleader, was born and raised here; the Count Basie Center for the Arts hosts major performances, and a bronze bust commemorates what would have been his 100th birthday in 2004. Compositions including "Red Bank Boogie" and "The Kid from Red Bank" reference his hometown directly, and jazz musician Eddie Jones is another notable Red Bank figure. The Two River Theater, a few blocks from the Count Basie Center, opened April 30, 2005, has hosted performers including Hasan Minhaj, and is where Bruce Springsteen filmed his 2005 VH-1 Storytellers special. Filmmaker Kevin Smith is also tied to Red Bank: his films Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back are partially set here, and his comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, at 65 Broad Street, was featured in AMC's "Comic Book Men." Other notable residents include actress Natalie Schafer (Gilligan's Island), literary critic Edmund Wilson, and science fiction author Frederik Pohl.

Downtown Red Bank centers on Broad Street, home to retailers including Tiffany & Co, Urban Outfitters, and Garmany, within a Broad Street Historic District that also includes Monmouth, Front, and White Streets. A downtown section closes annually for outdoor dining, and the Red Bank RiverCenter special improvement district, authorized around 1991, manages downtown redevelopment. Annual events include a Sidewalk Sale dating to the 1950s, an International Beer, Wine & Food Festival, a farmers' market, an indie film festival, the Red Bank Guinness Oyster Festival, a Halloween parade, and holiday lighting with free concerts that have drawn up to 7,000 attendees. As of 2022, the largest employer was Riverview Medical Center (1,450 employees), followed by Super Foodtown and Colliers Engineering & Design; Red Bank hosts 11,325 jobs, though only 12% of employed residents both live and work locally, 47% work elsewhere in Monmouth County, and 14% commute to New York City -- a genuine commute this page does not overstate, aided by the North Jersey Coast Line's electric service to Long Branch and diesel service to Bay Head.

Two real, current (2026) stories anchor Red Bank in the present rather than in a purely historical narrative. The historic train station property is being redeveloped by Denzar at Transit LLC, owned by Denholtz, a Red Bank-based real estate firm; Phase 1 (the North Parcel) calls for 175 apartments (20% designated affordable), roughly 15,750 square feet of ground-floor commercial and restaurant space, a 331-space parking garage, and a public plaza, with a potential second phase bringing the total toward 400 apartments. NJ Transit's Board of Directors approved a master development agreement and a 98-year ground lease, and the Red Bank Planning Board held a public hearing and site-plan vote on July 6, 2026, described as "the final hurdle" before Phase 1 can proceed -- construction could begin in 2027 if approved, though no confirmed final approval outcome beyond that scheduled vote was found here. Separately, the reimagined Marine Park, on the Navesink River, held its grand reopening on June 27, 2026, featuring a "Jakes Law" inclusive playground and a new riverfront lawn area. Red Bank has roughly 4 miles of waterfront with historically limited public access, and a long-term plan exists to create a continuous accessible waterfront walkway, though no completion date or cost for that broader plan was confirmed.

Put together, Red Bank is a river town, not an oceanfront one -- but it is a river town with a genuinely rare combination of a world-famous jazz birthplace, a working professional theater with a documented Springsteen connection, a walkable historic downtown, a filmmaker's hometown comic shop, and two real, dated 2026 infrastructure stories, all a short car drive from the ocean beaches at Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach. No exact current (2026) property-tax rate, flood-insurance premium, or final train-station approval outcome is invented on this page; confirm each directly with Red Bank Borough, Monmouth County, the State of New Jersey, NJ Transit, FEMA, and a licensed local insurance agent before making a purchase decision. Nothing here is legal, tax, insurance, or financial advice.