MIDDLETOWN – The last major parcel of undeveloped land in the township is one step closer to being transformed into a bustling center of commercial and residential activity.
During a recent township committee meeting the governing body passed a resolution that entered Middletown into an agreement with Toll Brothers, a Pennsylvania-based residential development group that has been linked to the town center project (now known as the Circus Liquors Redevelopment Plan) for more than a decade.
With this resolution, and pending planning board approval, Toll Brothers will oversee the development of the residential tract of this town center project. In January the Middletown Planning Board adopted a resolution to memorialize the minor subdivision of the project area into two tracts, residential and commercial.
Township administrator Anthony P. Mercantante said Toll Brothers has been approved to construct 350 townhome units on the site, with 70 affordable units located in a pair of four-story apartment buildings.
“The residential portion of the project still has to go before the board for site plan approval and the commercial aspect is coming along too,” Mercantante said in a Feb. 19 interview with The Two River Times. “The developer’s agreement is being worked on now and, like the residential aspect, it should be up for a vote soon.”
The development of the commercial tract, which has been nicknamed the Shoppes at Middletown, will be headed by National Realty & Development Corp. (NRDC), a Purchase, New York-based organization that reignited the town center project in 2015. The commercial portion is zoned to include a shopping center. Wegman’s and a movie theater are already committed to move in.
According to Mercantante, buzz surrounding the project died down around 2008 and remained dormant through a national economic downturn.
However, NRDC showed renewed interest nearly four years ago when it submitted a site plan application for the 119-acre parcel located along Route 35 North from Kanes Lane to Kings Highway East, and abutting the Middletown Recycling Center and Carriage Drive.
NRDC was first approached with the idea of a town center development in 2013 when landowners Mountain Hill, LLC (a private partnership between a pair of prominent township families, the Azzolina and Scaduto families) reached out with a proposal that initially included 460,000 square feet of retail space.
Though the project has received significant push-back from resident groups concerned about environmental consequences and quality-of-life impacts that may occur, Mercantante said the project is essential to the township’s certified affordable housing plan.
“Accommodating lots of units in one property is idea because that’s 70 units we don’t have to disperse elsewhere around town. If we don’t place them (in the Circus Liquors Redevelopment area), we might have to zone three or four other properties in town to make up for these units. This is the most sensible location,” Mercantante told The Two River Times.
Mercantante noted the impetus to include the Route 35 property in the township’s affordable housing plan was a previous proposal, by Toll Brothers, to develop 244 affordable units as part of a 1,200-unit development at the former Bam Hollow County Club and Golf Course in Lincroft.
Mercantante said the township was able to negotiate that proposal away. In 2014 Toll Brothers broke ground on the construction of 190 single-family luxur y homes at the Bam Hollow site.
Mercantante said the density of the initial Bam Hollow proposal didn’t mesh with the look and feel of that part of Middletown, while the Route 35 parcel is a far better fit.
“It’s high density housing near a major highway with a train station and a ferry launch located just minutes away. It will fit with the developments that are adjacent to the property on the other side of Kings Highway East,” Mercantante added, noting the nearby Knollwood Gardens apartment and Kings Landing Condominium complexes.
