Normally, that would be good news, but the developers aren't happy with some of the conditions that were attached to the approval and are threatening legal action. The developer, ERA South LLC, is a partnership between majority owner Peter Hekemian of the S. Hekemian Group of Paramus, NJ and Michael and David Kasparian of MDK.

ERA South's proposal was for the residential development to start first, with the commercial portion of the project to begin at a later date. That would be dictated by market demand and/or securing an anchor office tenant, with a 10-year window to build the proposed 12-story office tower. Bowing to local concerns that the commercial portion of the project would never be completed once the residential development was done, the planning board approved the overall project with the stipulation that construction start simultaneously on all of the uses.

Specifically, the board's approval calls for ERA South to build 20,000 sf of office or retail space for every 30 residential units as they are completed. By that ratio, the build-out of 399 residential units would be accompanied by about 266,000 sf of commercial space.

"Our take on the ruling was that the planning board was in error and beyond its jurisdiction by linking the commercial development to the residential development, due to a lack of reference to such in the ordinance," Hekemian tells GlobeSt.com. "In any case, we're satisfied that we got an approval, and will now take the required, necessary steps to protect our interest."

Given the stipulation of simultaneous development of the various uses, "we'll never be financed," David Kasparian adds. Local officials could not be reached for comment.