The Village at Manalapan, as the project is being called, was introduced before the township committee Wednesday night. As proposed, it would be heavy on the retail, with smaller office and residential components, plenty of open space and a commuter parking facility. No time frame for the project has been announced, pending township committee action on the proposal.

The project has five key elements, according to Richard J. Brunelli, president of the company that bears his name, beginning with a lifestyle shopping center fronting the adjacent Route 33. That portion of the overall project would be anchored by a major bookstore and an upscale specialty department store.

Next is what the developer is calling a Downtown Center, a combination of restaurants, specialty shops and boutiques with a town center streetscape. According to Brunelli, its two- and three-story buildings would have loft-style professional office space and studios, along with a limited number of residential units.

The third element, under the developer's master plan, would be a supermarket-anchored community shopping center. "It would fill the strong need among residents of this section of Manalapan, as well as neighboring Millstone and Monroe, for a conveniently located supermarket," Brunelli explained. And while the community center would be co-anchored by a second major retailer, there's one thing it won't have: "We have no intention of bringing in a home improvement warehouse to the community center or any portion of the site," he said.

The fourth element would be an entertainment area that would include a multi-screen cinema and a "restaurant row." The final element would be public spaces, including a town green, athletic fields and commuter parking.

"The theater would have limited customer parking needs from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the week," Brunelli explained. "To best utilize this available weekday parking, we are proposing a large commuter parking area and a location for buses to pick up and drop off commuters. We plan to work with transportation officials to design this element."

The project's demographics, according to Brunelli, include almost 550,000 people in 190,000 households within a 20-minute drive time. Average household income is projected to top the $105,000 mark in by 2005.