Bob Pimienta passes

[just watching]

I was saddened to read in The Record today about the passing of Robert Pimienta, 52, owner of Impact Realty, based in Hackensack. I knew Bob for just under 20 years. 

I first met him when he was a young shark, in his early 30's, representing the Price Club (now Costco) application for Hekemian Company. I remember Bob battling with NJDEP over design issues for the walkway, and I met with him about it. I lobbied NJDEP myself to support his position. NJDEP wanted the detention basins to be built between the walkway and the parking lot, making them nothing more than litter-filled eyesores completely surrounded by concrete and asphalt and of no use to wildlife whatsoever.  Pimienta was right for environmental, aesthetic, and development reasons, AND he won. Hats off to him. There's a nice strip of greenery along the river, between the walkway and the river. Better for wildlife, better for the river, and better for the retail store.  It's true that Costco hasn't done a good job maintaining it, but the original client, Price Club, was maintaining that strip.

I later did business with Bob and his company on several occasions on several different matters. He had great connections with city hall, and could get things done. I had the pleasure to work with him and to know him.

Does anyone know why he passed away.

[Editor]

Realty expert Robert Pimienta, 52
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
BY JUSTO BAUTISTA
STAFF WRITER
The Record

Robert Pimienta of Franklin Lakes, a real estate and public project finance expert whose company, Impact Realty Associates, helped build commercial centers throughout North Jersey, died Sunday. He was 52.


PIMIENTA

Regarded among the state's leading authorities on real estate, Mr. Pimienta was appointed by governors of both parties to a seat on the New Jersey Real Estate Commission, a division of the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance that administers and enforces real estate licensing law.

Mr. Pimienta, who was known as Bob, was president of the commission at the time of his death.

"He was dogged, always a go-getter," said Dianne Diaz, the office manager for Impact Realty Associates, the company that Mr. Pimienta started in 1994. "He even came in to work on weekends."

The company grew quickly, acquiring a blue-chip client roster that included Bergen County, the city of Hackensack, the Bergen County Technical Schools, the Bergen County Board of Social Services, the Hudson County Technical Schools, the city of Jersey City and the Skymark Town Center, a commercial-residential project in Ridgefield Park.

"He was very excited about the Skymark project," said a brother, John Pimienta of Davenport, Fla. "It was a very long, tenuous process, and he was very proud of that. It's in the engineering phase."

Mr. Pimienta's expertise was not limited to real estate. For many developers, he became the go-to guy when it came to economic grants and incentive programs, municipal bond issues, long-term tax abatement programs, Urban Enterprise Zone incentives and Brownfield Redevelopment programs.

A Republican, Mr. Pimienta headed the influential Impact PAC, a political action committee that spread its donations among Republicans and Democrats.

Mr. Pimienta also served on the board of trustees of the Foundation of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and was an executive board member for the Gift of Life America Fund, which provides financial support to needy children. He was also an active member of the New Jersey Association of Realtors and the Eastern Bergen County Board of Realtors.

Mr. Pimienta joined the Army at age 17 because he felt the "need to excel," his brother said. He became a drill instructor and was honorably discharged after six years, in 1982.

In addition to his brother, Mr. Pimienta is survived by a daughter, Tiffany, of Franklin Lakes.

Friends and family are invited to visit Thursday from 1 to 4 and 6 and 9 p.m. at the Volk Leber Funeral Home, 268 Kinderkamack Road, Oradell. A funeral service will be held at the funeral home Friday at 10 a.m. Burial will follow at George Washington Memorial Park, Paramus.

Email: bautista@northjersey.com