Shopping
Raritan council rejects redevelopment plan for ‘decrepit’ shopping mall
RARITAN BOROUGH – The Borough Council has unanimously rejected a redevelopment plan for the Raritan Mall at the corner of Route 206 and Orlando Drive.
The vote at Tuesday’s Council meeting was 5-0. Councilwoman Joyce Melitsky, citing health reasons, had resigned earlier Tuesday. Melitsky was in her second term.
The redevelopment plan called for 276 apartments, 42 of which would’ve been affordable, and 31,000 square feet of retail space on the 12.2-acre property that once housed a supermarket, a pharmacy, a bank, a video store and other small stores and restaurants, including Subway.
The conditional redeveloper was its owner, Raritan Mall LLC, of Bayonne.
The proposal, as posted on a real estate site, envisioned the apartments in an L-shaped building where the shopping center was located with the proposed retail space by the highway where the vacant bank and battery store are.
Raritan Mall LLC had agreed to pay $350,000 for improvements to Orlando Drive. The developer also agreed to work with the borough and Somerset County to facilitate the transfer of Orlando Drive to Somerset County.
Raritan Mall LLC also agreed to remediate and perform the environmental cleanup of the property that was once a landfill.
The shopping center lost its primary tenant in 2016 when the Stop & Shop chose not to renew its lease. A redevelopment study says that no new tenant has been found for the space “despite efforts from the municipality to attract a suitable replacement.”
Since that time, most of the 15 units in the main L-shaped building and three units in a smaller building on the highway are vacant or “have fallen into a state of disrepair,” the report states.
The façade on the bigger building, according to the report, has “become exceptionally decrepit with vandalism, graffiti, bird excrement, broken glass, exposed nails and mold prevalent almost everywhere.”
The property is entirely within a flood hazard area from the nearby Raritan River.
Raritan Mall LLC purchased the property in October 2020 for $5.6 million from Raritan Center SPE Owner, part of the Fortress Investment Group in Manhattan.
Fortress acquired the property when a previous owner, RAIT Financial Trust, of Philadelphia, went bankrupt and sold its assets to Fortress.
Like neighboring Somerville, Raritan in the last decade has seen a boom in apartment construction because of its location on the Raritan Valley Line of NJ Transit and its strategic location in Somerset County near major highways.
The borough has approved a redevelopment project next to the northeast corner of the Raritan Mall that proposes 75 apartments in a four-story building.
Raritan Crossing LLC, part of Larken Associates of Branchburg, wants to demolish the former Granetz building that now houses Retro Fitness, Dollar Tree and Hunterdon Health Urgent Care and construct the new building for the apartments and underground parking.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
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