Gateway Retail Shops

[jalopy-5699]

Just curious ... any further word as to what retail shops may be setting up shop in the new Gateway strip mall? To date I've heard Princeton Soup & Sandwich and PJ's Pancake House are planning to move in.

[ideas?!-8o0n]

any confirmation from the Landlord of Gateway on those two food places, love to see them there, but rumors abound....

[alonso-5699]

[anon-7ns6]

[anon-424p]

With CoVID. Not sure who is rushing to lease indoor space and spend the money when you can’t have indoor seating as a restaurant.

[Meryl-5699]

[anon-829p]

I'm sure the existing Cranbury pizza places are happy about that

[anon-8n2s]

Ask Governor Murphy when the developer will know who the tenants are or when they’ll be there. The restrictions of the lockdown have reduced commercial real estate values (especially retail) to a fraction of what they once were.

So undoubtedly the developer is slow rolling the development of the commercial space. Wouldn’t you slow the development of something that was useless/worthless at the moment?

The simple answer to the question of “who is moving in?” is “no one is
moving in until retail is 100% open again in NJ with no restrictions”.

The developer isn’t developing bc good developers don’t focus development efforts on worthless spaces. Tenants aren’t committed because you’d have to be a complete moron to commit yourself to retail space in this state right now.

The liberals in this state and town have the all capacity in the world to enforce and support the “rules” but zero capacity to imagine the impact and make logical connections between the rules regarding current retail operations and a retail development project in their own town. Connect the dots folks. It’s pretty simple.

[anon-pno2]

[anon-42p9]

If you lived here at the time there were a number of meetings and public input sessions. There were three separate land owners and the town was dealing with affordable housing threats. Avalon wanted to build a complex like in Princeton and the town was trying to avoid a huge hit of kids.

One developer came and asked to build a mixed use development and would also contribute to the affordable housing.

It was later discovered that the developer did a number of things that were not allowed and not caught. The PB at that point had no legal point to stand on so the issues were largely allowed.

[anon-2qn2]

how was that (developer did things not allowed) allowed to happen? Do we not have building officials to make sure it's done as agreed? On a related note- do we have such officials to make sure sites are maintained well? The Cranbury Pizza site (now that the property owers opened the sidewalk back up) has debris still all over. There's an AC unit on the front lawn of the Postal office. Do we have services to control these things??

[anon-34so]

[anon-42p9]

In a small town the elected officials are not full time and they aren’t involved in every daily move. To expect that is unrealistic. They rely on staff. If the staff who do different things aren’t out watching the town or just don’t care then it can create problems.

[anon-2qn2]

geez. these are worse answers then I was hoping for. Then yes, the township (as a whole) has no legal recourse. They had complete control, just neglected to use it/ manage the process. Also, not sure they could quantify damages. Come to think of it, the town (and our $) would likely be on the other side of a courtroom (defendant's side) in this matter if a neighbor or anyone had damages and cared enough to file for recovery of them. Maybe the town felt this was less likely then a suit from the developer if they got in the developer's way. So, they likely jusy got out of their way!

[anon-2qn2]

just want to say that I think the development looks great. I was one of the people who attended these mtgs and was against the bad assumptions used for what the devloper & market would dictate for % families. I have not been in the know on what was done since and what was done outside of what was approved... I just happen to glance the site and saw this.

Anyway, even though they were bad assumptions used by the planner and board in that regard, they are beautiful and it is great to have new neighbors and what is a beautiful use of the space (the completed part anyway). It is so great to drive by and see people and families and beautiful homes vs what was there before. Welcome!

[anon-7ns6]

The Old Trenton frontage has been zoned as mix use commercial for decades. Even before Covid, the developers were always interested in the at-market housing because that's the most profitable. The Township needed the affordable housing units to meet State mandates so allowing the at-market housing was always the carrot to force the developer to build the apartments above the commercial space. This is how it's done all over the State and is called Builder's Remedy. If the developer could have gotten away with just doing the townhomes they would have been thrilled. But they have a legal obligation to build the apartments and commercial space and would be released from the bonds until they do.

If anyone actually bought one of the townhomes without an understanding of the commercial space and affordable housing going up over it they really shouldn't have been making any large financial and contractual commitments since they clearly lack even a rudimentary capacity for due diligence.