The 660-acre tract at the corner of Route 1 and Quakerbridge Road in West Windsor, which has sat fallow for more than a decade, is once again the subject of development talk. The former home of American Cyanamid, which shares that major highway intersection with Quakerbridge Mall, Nassau Park, and Mercer Mall, will be the subject of a public forum for West Windsor residents on Wednesday, January 30, at 7 p.m. at the Mercer Oaks Golf Course Clubhouse, 725 Village Road in West Windsor.
The hosts will be the owners of the property, the Howard Hughes Corporation, a successor company to the Rouse Corp., which purchased the property in 2004 for $24 million.
Given the size of the tract, even larger than the 350-acre Princeton Junction train station redevelopment area, and given the amount of controversy generated by the mixed-use proposals made for the train station, the owners of the Cyanamid property are not giving any indication that they have any predetermined plans for the property.
The public relations firm representing the owners announced the meeting with a release that said simply the meeting was intended to “introduce the Howard Hughes Corporation to the residents of West Windsor, and to discuss the condition of the former American Cyanamid site (located adjacent to Route 1 and Quakerbridge Road) that was acquired in 2011.”
West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said the company seemed open-minded about the site. “Howard Hughes came to me and asked what I would like to see done with the space,” the mayor said. “I told them that before they talked to me, they should ask the public what they want. I suggested that they hold a public meeting to get ideas from the residents, and then come back to me afterwards.”
Hsueh added that most people do not associate the property with the Hughes company and that the meeting will give the company an opportunity to introduce itself to the community and begin a dialogue about the future of the tract. A company spokesperson said that although there are currently no plans for the site, the forum is the first step in the process of determining its future.
Currently on the tract are buildings amounting to 886,000 square feet, but current zoning would allow as much as 1.5 million square feet of research, office, and manufacturing space. The property would need to be rezoned to allow other uses.
“We want to make sure they come up with a plan that integrates as part of West Windsor,” said Hsueh. “We don’t want to see another Quakerbridge Mall or Nassau Park. It has to be something different. We want them to come up with an approach that takes the infrastructure impact on the community into consideration.”
Since operations at American Cyanamid shut down at the site in early 2000s, there have been several proposals for its development — the most recent of which was a mixed-use center anchored by an upscale shopping mall, but none have come to fruition for various reasons, including the numerous times it has changed hands, owners’ financial problems, and the Great Recession.
HHC is the developer and manager of both residential and commercial properties. The company’s residential portfolio includes four communities with more than 14,000 acres of land remaining to be sold. HHC lists the Cyanamid property on its website (www.howardhughes.com) under “strategic developments,” which it defines as ranging “from highly desirable air rights and surface parking lots to aging properties ideal for redevelopment.” According to HHC, there are about 450 developable acres on the property.
