The End of a Lease and a Holmdel Legacy?
- Kin Gee
- Jun 23
- 3 min read
For over 100 years, the DePalma family farmed the land on Centerville Road, near the railroad tracks and Route 35. The farm provides flowers to school fundraisers in Holmdel and Hazlet, and hosts class trips to teach children how vegetables grow, allowing them to pick out flowers for Mother’s Day.
In addition to the long-standing farm history, the family has ties to the Walling family, which has several members who served in the American Revolution and has deep agricultural roots in Holmdel and surrounding towns. Unfortunately, all that may come to an end in December 2025 due to the Township Committee’s decision to put the farm out to bid.
Due to an inheritance dispute, the DePalma family sold the farm to Holmdel Township in 2000 but was allowed to continue to farm under a 25-year sale-and-lease-back arrangement. This was the first of its kind of deal for the acquisition of farm land by the Township. There was tremendous time pressure due to the inheritance dispute and the urgent need to pay estate taxes. As a result, DePalma indicated that the unique deal was made within a two-week time, lightning fast for any kind of real estate transaction, let alone a sale-leaseback arrangement.
Mayor Brian Foster said that the Township paid $4.3 million for the property at the June 13, 2025 Township Committee meeting. However, according to Donna Orecchia, Patrick DePalma’s fiancée, “For the first time, the township decided to purchase property and they gave an offer and (the family) took a lesser offer than a builder.”
The original lease was for 25 years, ending on June 30, 2025. Patrick DePalma explained that this was the first farm sale-leaseback transaction for the township in a compressed time frame. They probably could pick any time frame for the lease as long as it’s not perpetuity and agreed to 25 years. It could have been for 30 years or 40 years.
At the time, DePalma said that the family was told verbally, the lease could be extended without going to bid. He currently wants a 5 to 7-year extension to make up for the losses from deer eating his crops before the township agreed to put up a deer fence on the property.
Aware of the lease end date and wanting an extension, DePalma contacted then-Township Administrator Jay Delaney in 2024. Delaney had told DePalma that there shouldn’t be a problem with extending the lease. However, Delaney abruptly left his office in January 2025 and DePalma was not notified of a decision made not to renew his lease until a letter was hand-delivered a month later.
At the June 13, 2025 meeting, Township Attorney Michael Collins made the argument against a lease renewal, saying that the lease of real property to a private party is subject to bidding to avoid favoritism, improvidence and extravagance, corruption and secures for the public, the benefits of unfettered competition. However, in his February 11, 2025 letter to DePalma, Collins indicated that the relevant part of the Local Lands and Buildings Law may require a competitive bidding process. It is not clear when Collins’ interpretation of the law changed from “may require” to his current advice of requiring a competitive bidding process.
At the Township meeting, Sarah Biser, attorney representing the DePalma family on a pro bono basis, points to a statute that encourages farm land and preservation of open space that allows prior owners of the property to continue to farm the land until the “real property is needed for public use.” According to Biser, the Township could extend the lease temporarily if it chooses to do so.
Biser has indicated that she will take legal action, including possibly seeking a temporary restraining order against the bidding process.
The DePalma family started an online petition to save the DePalma Farm and Greenhouses and, as of June 23, 2025, has gathered over 700 signatures.
Many residents moved to Holmdel for its bucolic nature, including the farmland and open space. The Township Committee has recently taken steps to continue preserving open space, including the 2024 acquisition of the parcel of land containing the Horn Antenna, a national historic landmark.
Stay tuned. It will be interesting to see whether the Township will end the lease and a Holmdel legacy for the DePalma family without a short extension.
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