By Sunayana Prabhu
EATONTOWN – New York City-based developer Kushner Companies held a ceremonial groundbreaking May 9, kickstarting construction on a transformative $500 million project to redevelop the aging Monmouth Mall.
Several posters depicting the finished Monmouth Square were displayed during the groundbreaking ceremony outside the vacant former JCPenney store which will soon be replaced with newly constructed residential apartments. New Jersey State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-11), Eatontown Mayor Anthony Talerico, joined by his fellow council members, principals from Kushner Companies and members of the Kushner family, stood shoulder to shoulder shoveling heaps of dirt into the air, celebrating the end of a nine-year process and beginning the redevelopment.
Nicole Kushner Meyer, president of Kushner Companies and daughter of the multigenerational company’s founder Charles Kushner shared some of her “cherished memories” of Monmouth Mall. “Family gatherings at AMC on the eve of Thanksgiving, purchasing my son’s first shoes and first backpack here at Monmouth Mall and nonetheless getting both my daughters’ ears pierced here at Claire’s, not once but twice. These memories are not about the experiences within those walls, but they represent the essence of community, family and shared joy.”
Construction is now in full swing. The developer is set to return the former enclosed two-story mall to its original open-air shopping center design to create a community hub with residential integration.
“What’s old is apparently new again,” said Michael Sommers, chief development officer for Kushner, at the Monday event, noting that his team will be “turning the common areas of the buildings inside out and bringing the property back to its original open-air configuration.”
When it opened in 1960, Monmouth Mall was a 600,000-square-foot open-air shopping center. In 1975, the mall was enclosed and expanded to its current 1.5 million-square-foot space, which is now being reduced to 900,000 square feet.
The reduced footprint will be packed with retail and restaurant spaces, including a Whole Foods Market, an expansive public green space, pedestrian pathways, 1,000 luxury apartments and medical offices.
To make way for the new construction, demolition of the existing spaces has started. The former Lord & Taylor space will be the first department store to be razed. The store closed its location in 2018 before filing for bankruptcy. JCPenney, which moved into the virtual marketplace, shuttered its Monmouth Mall location in 2022; it will also be demolished. Whole Foods Market is slated to move into space currently occupied by Barnes & Noble, which will be relocated to a new retail building in the town center. The remaining retailers, including AMC Theaters, Macy’s and Boscov’s will remain open during construction.
“I’ll be crystal clear here: Brick-and-mortar retail is not dead, boring retail is dead,” Sommers said. Kushner first became involved in the project in 2002 “when the company owned the property in partnership with Vornado Realty Trust,” Sommers said. In 2021, “Kushner bought the outstanding debt, becoming the sole owner of the real estate.”
Sommers thanked Talerico and the borough council for their partnership during the lengthy approval process to get the “tricky” redevelopment project underway. As a major redevelopment, the Monmouth Square project is expected to generate significant property tax income for Eatontown once construction is complete. The Eatontown Borough Council designated the property as an area in need of redevelopment for non-condemnation purposes in April 2021, declaring nearly 500,000 square feet – out of the total 1.5 million square feet of retail space – underutilized. On April 26, 2023, the council adopted and set forth the Monmouth Mall Redevelopment Plan.
Last year, the borough of Eatontown approved a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT), a tax exemption for the next 30 years to Kushner Companies based on the developer’s testimonies during borough council meetings that the mall’s property value had declined over the past few years, placing a heavy tax burden on Kushner, one of the largest taxpayers in the borough. Advocates agreed that a PILOT was needed to kickstart the adaptive reuse of the space which would also generate new revenue for the borough from the property.
The addition of 1,000 new residential units and retail/ commercial space will expand the borough’s tax base.
“Things change. And in order for Eatontown to change with the times and remain economically vibrant and fiscally sound, you must change with it,” Talerico said. “The negotiations between the borough and Kushner were positive and amicable. They really were,” Talerico said. “This gives me confidence for the future.”
Monmouth Square, located at 180 Route 35, near Garden State Parkway Exit 105, will be a mixed-use property. Whole Foods Market has already signed on as an anchor tenant for the new retail component. Kushner also plans to attract boutique fitness, home goods, services and other experiential retailers. The apartments will be developed under Kushner’s new Livana lifestyle brand and feature a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom homes, a 40,000-square-foot clubhouse with a fitness center, a spa and wellness space, a juice bar and café, a coworking lounge, media room, library, pickleball court, half basketball court, golf simulator, children’s room, pet spa and more.
Redevelopment of the mall is expected to take three to four years and is the developer’s second of three groundbreakings slated for Monmouth County this year. Besides the mall, the developer broke ground on a mixed-use residential and retail development in Long Branch last month. The project will deliver 299 rental residences, a SuperFresh grocery market and a neighborhood café in the downtown. The developer is also expecting to break ground in a few weeks on a multifamily residential development in Colts Neck featuring 15 three-story buildings with 360 residences.
The article originally appeared in the May 16 – May 22, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
