MATAWAN, NJ-C-Town Supermarkets has obtained site approval and is set to start work on building out a vacant 11,000-sf former Foodtown supermarket at 126 Main St. here. The store would be C-town's 14th unit in New Jersey. Site approval included a variance that reduced a zoning requirement for 70 parking spaces to half that number.

Construction on the vacant asset awaits building permits, which Steven Hanna, president of the Matawan C-Town, hopes to have in place by the end of next month. Hanna projects a formal grand opening approximately four months after the permits have been obtained. C-Town is a White Plains-based cooperative of independently owned and operated stores, numbering nearly 200 in a half-dozen states from Rhode Island to Pennsylvania.

The proposed C-Town would mark the return of grocery retailing to Downtown. The former Foodtown was shuttered a decade ago in the face of competition from larger supermarkets operated by Stop & Shop and Shop-Rite in nearby Aberdeen. Most of C-Town's existing stores are in urban locations, with the operators of the various stores focusing on grocery deliveries and customer pickup, according to company officials.