Deal brings revenue, new ‘transit village’

Toll Brothers, E.B.

agree on redevelopment

of town-owned land

BY VINCENT TODARO

Staff Writer

East Brunswick officials have struck a deal with Toll Brothers that will bring offices, businesses and several hundred new homes to the township, along with millions of dollars in revenue.

When officials announced the deal for the redevelopment of the Route 18 property known as the Golden Triangle Monday, some embraced the news as cause for celebration; others chalked it up to a victory for the developer.

The sale of the township-owned site will see Toll Brothers paying more than $35 million, which is about $5 million more than originally proposed. It also calls for the construction of up to 402 housing units, which is about 200 more than was proposed a year ago.

The deal will allow the town to close a gap in the municipal budget that has become a contentious topic at public meetings since last fall. Township officials shifted county grant funds earmarked for a park purchase into the budget so they could fill a $4 million gap, and it has been said that a similar budget gap could be expected this year, effectively doubling the deficit.

The Toll Brothers deal also calls for a new municipal parking deck that could include five levels with as many as 1,500 parking spots for commuters.

A future community center township community center to be built on another property is also included in the deal.

Once built out, the proposed Golden Triangle redevelopment is expected to bring the township at least $2 million per year in property taxes, according to officials.

The Golden Triangle site is currently home to Sam’s Club, Jason’s Furniture, the Route 18 Market, which lease the land from an affiliate of the township, and a municipal park-and-ride lot. The three businesses are not expected to be part of the redevelopment.

In a presentation to the Township Council Monday night, Mayor William Neary outlined several aspects of the deal.

He said the condominium units would be expected to sell for between $400,000 and $500,000 and will “attract active adults and younger couples with no children who are looking for a transit village lifestyle rather than a Blue Ribbon school system.”

It is expected that the condos would be purchased by seniors and young couples who do not have school-aged children. These occupants are commonly referred as DINCs, or dual-income, no-children couples.

In exchange for allowing the housing, the township received an additional $5 million from Toll Brothers to go toward a community center, Neary said.

The community center could be built on the Heavenly Farms property, which was recently purchased by the township, but no decision has been made. The matter will be reviewed by the Future Municipal Land Use Committee, according to Township Council President David Stahl.

Neary said that, for each of the next five years, the developer will pay at least $4 million to East Brunswick and that money will be go towards tax relief and resolving the budget issues. Beyond that, the township will reap a minimum of $2 million in property taxes per year once the development is complete.

“It will expand and enhance our commuter parking facility. It will provide a creative and modern commercial and residential transit center like no other in the history of our township,” the mayor said.

Many details of the redevelopment plan remain to be determined, including the square footage of the office and retail components. The office space, in particular, could be subject to market conditions at the time that the redevelopment plan begins to take shape. An initial plan submitted by Toll Brothers last year included 250,000 to 287,000 square feet of retail space and 250,000 square feet of office space.

Republican Councilwoman Christi Calvano was the only member to vote against the agreement with Toll Brothers. She said she was never happy about the housing element of the plan and feels the township could have gotten a much better deal had it concerned itself more with bargaining leverage. Toll Brothers knew that the township needed to make a deal due to its budget issues, something that she believes backed the town into a corner during negotiations.

She also argued that the budget fix is short-term, as proceeds from the sale will be spent on patching municipal budgets through 2009. She said there has been talk of tax abatements for businesses that eventually locate in the at the Golden Triangle site.

Calvano wasn’t alone in arguing that the Democrat-controlled governing body approached the deal as a way to save the municipal budget.

Camille Ferraro, a resident who frequently attends council meetings, was angered that the plan includes twice as many housing units as was originally discussed. The units will be built on the same amount of square footage as the original proposal.

The original idea that the housing would be age-restricted also no longer stands, a fact that did not sit well with another resident, Joseph Iaria.

As part of the deal, however, Toll Brothers has agreed to pay $20,000 for each school-age student who moves into the new units and attends the township’s schools, Stahl said. That is a one-time payment only.

“You turned around and made this a residential community,” said resident Michael DeLucia. “You people sold the town down the river. We don’t need more residential housing.”

The deal’s reference to a community center that would be used by a variety of township groups also drew criticism.

Robert Tagliente, a former Republican council candidate, asked where the community center would go, and Stahl said it would not be built at the Golden Triangle property.

“So, we’ll have to use up valuable open space,” Tagliente replied.

Neary said the township was “convinced by experts that the economic climate was right to optimize the property’s value.”

“We now know that big box retailers like Sam’s [Club] do not pay the high rents charged for property on Route 18, making it unlikely that when their lease expires in 2008 we will be able to reach mutually acceptable terms,” he said.

Councilwoman Nancy Pinkin said she was pleased that “big box” retailers are not being included in the Toll Brothers redevelopment proposal, which calls for a more village-type atmosphere with stores and restaurants people can walk to. She pointed out how some big box retailers do not even provide health insurance for their employees.

Another point of contention was traffic, which some said will greatly increase as a result of the redevelopment. Stahl said that the new development would bring traffic, but there remains a question of how much.

The council took action on the matter Monday by introducing an ordinance to convey the 32-acre site to Toll Brothers and by approving a resolution regarding the agreement with the builder. A public hearing on the ordinance has been scheduled for June 6.