SOMERVILLE, NJ-It has been in the works for several years, but the local planning board has just signed off on a proposal by Edgewood Properties for a $66-million redevelopment project in the Downtown area of this Somerset County seat. The project has been delayed by a combination of parking and traffic issues, what to do with existing retailers on the site and other problems.

The Piscataway-based Edgewood will redevelop the existing Downtown Somerville shopping complex into mixed uses. Downtown Somerville, which dates back to the 1980s, was essentially an attempt to turn a couple of Downtown blockfronts into a suburban-type strip shopping center, but the property has struggled for years.

"This will bring new jobs, rateables and sought-after shopping experiences," says Jack Morris, president of Edgewood Properties. "The project could bring in$2.1 million in annual property taxes," adds Somerville Mayor Brian Gallagher. "As a taxpayer, when you look at $2.1 million, how can you say no?"

Downtown Somerville will become Somerville Towne Center. The project, which is looking at a five-year development time frame, will include 136,000 sf of retail space, with an existing Pathmark supermarket incorporated into it as the anchor tenant. A restaurant and fitness center will also be added to the mix.

The project will also include 73,000 sf of office space, 265 luxury apartments and two parking garages. And as part of the plan, Davenport Street will be extended one block, through the middle of the site, to facilitate traffic by linking up with Veterans Memorial Drive.

Somerville Towne Center is the latest of several retail and mixed-use projects Edgewood has under way in the Garden State. Its largest is Garden State Park in Cherry Hill, where it is in the process of turning the site of the former race track of the same name into 500,000 sf of retail, including a 135,000-sf Wegman's, along with more than a million sf of office space and some 1,500 residential units. The firm's other projects include Brick 70 Center, a retail complex in Brick; New Brunswick Town Center in New Brunswick; and Park 70 Plaza, a regional shopping center in Brick.