WARETOWN, NJ-This township's land use board has okayed plans for first-phase construction of a town center that will rise on an undeveloped 450-acre tract. That first phase will be the town center's retail component, which will be followed at a later date by a major residential component and other uses. The land use board's approval follows a similar action earlier this month by the planning board.
The retail portion will be developed by Coastal Redevelopment Urban Renewal Partners, a local group. It will be anchored by a ShopRite supermarket, restaurants and a bank still to be named and several other retail buildings, according to Bill Barglow of the East Brunswick, NJ-based Barglow Co., who brokered the deal between ShopRite and CRURP. Barglow expects other tenant signings to fall into place now that the supermarket has committed to the project.
Total retail space involved in phase one will be in the 150,000-sf range, which will be designed as a nautically themed Victorian-style village. Construction is slated to begin later this summer, and the ShopRite store is projected to open in May 2007. "This is by far the biggest commercial project in this community ever," says Mayor Daniel Van Pelt.
The project traces to 2002 when local voters approved a referendum designating the site for town center development. Local officials subsequently won town center designation for the site from the New Jersey Office of Smart Growth, part of the Department of Community Affairs.
The project, which has yet to be officially named, also requires a major road extension to the site. That extension will be funded by a combination of grant money from the state relating to the town center designation, and a fund that local officials are setting up supported by developer fees.
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