Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried recently sat down with the Robbinsville Advance recently to talk about issues impacting the township’s past and future.
The first part of the Q&A resulting from that interview ran in the March issue of the Advance and addressed impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the township, police and public safety and the 2022 municipal budget.
In the second part of the interview, which appears below, Fried talks with Advance editor Bill Sanservino—who has lived in Robbinsville for almost 30 years—about the status of the Robbinsville Town Center development, the Foxmoor Shopping Center, and the state of commercial real estate and its impact on township revenues.
The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. The Q&A will continue in the May issue of the paper.
Town Center
Robbinsville Advance: How are you feeling about progress in the Town Center and what people can expect to see in the future?
Dave Fried: I feel good about Town Center. It had became a challenging project—the state talked us into building a project that they were going to help provide dollars for. They said they were going to give us infrastructure money for it and they were going to help us do a bypass.
We move forward with all of their recommendations, thinking we had a deal and then they didn’t live up to any of their end of the bargain. So, we wound up basically having to go it alone.
Considering that, taking their advice on the concept that it would be a walkable community, and we wouldn’t have as many cars as we thought we might have was a huge mistake.
That’s why we have some of the parking challenges that we have in Town Center. We will fix that on the south side of the project. I think now that the north side of town center is completed, we will continue to finish up the south side of town center.
I do not envision us building all of Town Center South as originally planned. I feel we’ve already put some portion of it into green space, and we’ll continue to do that. I’d like to see a community pool on the south side of Town Center, so it will be nowhere near as big or as dense as the north side, but I do think it needs to be completed.
I think Route 33 should also be completed so that it looks like it makes sense from both sides. My goal is to have that happen in the next 12 months. We will be able to truly have a good project plan for the south side of Town Center and then maybe start construction next year on the remainder. But again, with a very different design, a much smaller scale, and with a lot of green space in the back.
RA: Do you anticipate any more residential there?
DF: I think you have to have some residential to make it work, to make it look like it makes sense with the south and the north side. There should be some commercial with residential apartments on top that don’t generate a whole lot of kids, and it probably some light residential in the back.
And followed up with perhaps, I would like to see a community center, a community pool, and also some green space— maybe a nice park. So yes, some residential, but light residential just to kind of make it all make sense.
RA: Last time we talked, which was probably about two years ago, there was talk about the construction of a connector road in Town Center South. Is there a still plan for that?
DF: We have two main roads in Town Center South. One going east west—from Walgreens and you should be able to take it from there all the way out to Route 130 going south.
The second would be a sort of north-south road, which would go from where the new Kuo Social restaurant is and heading straight out toward Route 130—and again, giving you the access to Route 130 South.
So that’s the idea which would take some of the traffic out of Town Center. It takes some of the traffic from having turn onto Route 526 and going out through Main Street to Route 130. Instead they’ll be able to go straight out. So that should alleviate some of the traffic.
The third thing that we have in the works—and unfortunately COVID has slowed us down—is a right-hand turn lane onto Route 130 at the gas station on Main Street.
About 75 percent of the traffic heading east is actually trying to make a right onto Route 130. So adding a right hand turn lane by the gas station in there should alleviate a lot of the congestion on Main Street. And hopefully, that will be under construction this spring. We’re just waiting for our final approvals from the state Department of Transportation.
RA: That’s definitely a problem in town center, and the not only backs up on Main Street, but also onto Route 33 into Hamilton as well.
DF: Exactly. We get that cleared up, and that will be a big difference.
The other challenge, obviously we have, is the westbound movement, which happens by Dunkin Donuts—the folks piling up there to make a left.
If I could get people to use the bypass, then that traffic would actually alleviate itself. But old habits die hard, and for some reason people like sitting through three cycles of a traffic light, instead of just going down one light and using the bypass.
RA: What are your feelings about the way the Foxmoor shopping center has come a long? I know you had some plans for redevelopment, but it all depended on who was eventually going to become the owner. Well, the new owner opted give the center a facelift and keep it a strip mall. I drove through the center the other day, and it seems like they have been pretty successful in filling a lot of the vacancies within that the center with a pretty diverse selection of stores.
DF: It’s not how I would have done it, let’s put it that way. But it works surprisingly well. Clearly they know their business and they’ve been able to fill the stores.
They’re easy to work with and we really haven’t had any challenges with them. So yes, I would have liked to see some different things, but at the end of the day, my job is guidance, not telling people what to do, and they definitely made it work.
The center is profitable for them now and they are in the process of renovating the parking lot and some of the buildings, and they’re doing some improvements. So we’re pleased that it’s that’s moving in the right direction.
RA: Is there still a plan for Planet Fitness to locate within the old Marrazzo’s supermarket space? I know there were some people who weren’t happy with that and would have preferred something like a Trader Joe’s.
DF: Planet Fitness is under construction there as we speak. I think COVID slowed them down. I think you’d be surprised. Those who live in Foxmoor are excited and are actually excited they can walk to the gym.
I think most people would have liked a food store there, but if that wasn’t going to happen, you do have a good chunk of people who like the idea of being able to walk to the gym. I’ve actually got as many positive of responses on that as I have negative. Some are still kind of holding out hope for a food store.
RA: The gym should have less of a traffic impact than a food store would.
DF: Yeah. If you think about the occupancy that a gym gets versus a grocery store, it’s much less impactful use. That parking lot was built for a much more intense use than they have. That center was built for a more intense use than they have, so I don’t think they’re going to create any parking or traffic challenges.
STEM Academy
DF: I do have some concerns about STEM Academy and their plan. (Editor’s note: The STEM Academy daycare center was approved subsequent to this interview by the Zoning Board in March, despite concerns expressed by Fried, police and fire officials. See Fried’s mayor’s column this month for more information.)
I do think that will create some parking and some traffic challenges. So that one I do have some concerns about, but I don’t think Planet Fitness is going to be an issue at all.
RA: The STEM Academy—that’s what’s planned for the other portion of the supermarket. What are your are concerns there?
DF: The way that they plan on doing the drop off. Instead of what you normally would see at school—where the people pull up, drop off and be on their way, here you have to go into the center, park, bring your child in, and then you have to walk back out.
So you’d stop the flow of traffic coming in at that entrance there every time someone walks in and every time someone walks out. They’re going to have a heavy morning, heavy afternoon rush as people are dropping the kids off or picking the kids up. I think traffic is going to build up out on Washington Boulevard, and that’s just not going to be a workable situation.
RA: Can you implement some kind of traffic control situation there?
DF: They are going to have to get through zoning. I’m not sure it’s going to be a compatible use from a safety standpoint.
The commercial real estate market
RA: What kind of challenges have you seen in Robbinsville and in the area in general in terms the pandemic causing problems for commercial property owners having difficulty keeping their tenants?
DF: I think offices are going to be a very weak market for years to come. The veins have gone too deep into the body, and people have gotten used to working from home. I think that trend is going to continue.
I think if you follow some of the technology that’s coming next—this whole metaverse. Wer’e going to be able to work in virtual reality. I think it’s going to make working at home even more unique.
With places like New York City and some of the other cities that are heavy office, I think you’re going to see significant changes in that use. What’s going to happen? Personally I think that that use is probably going to have to switch to residential.
I think you’re going to see a trend at some point back into the city’s once COVID is out of the way. I think for young people that’s kind of where and how they want to live.
They want to be able to be in the city and walk to work and walk to the store. We’re seeing less and less young people really in love with the cars like some of the older generations are. I think you will see them push back into the cities— I really do. I think office is going to get hurt. I think the large retail is going to continue to suffer—those who’ve got big strip malls.
What we’re seeing as a trend, is for some of the big malls that are now out of favor turning into retirement villages, where you have both retail and residential in the same place.
So that if your senior, you can walk to the restaurant, walk to the store and walk home all within one building. We’re starting can see a trend where malls are being turned into sort of a CCRC (continuing care retirement communities) or assisted living,
I think that’s a really clever, unique use. I think that trend will continue. I don’t see people going back to the malls. I think home shopping is here to stay, which is really driving a significant demand for warehouses.
Warehouse space, which used to be, $4 and $5 per square foot, is now becoming the new office and they’re seeing it at $16 or $17 per square. Warehouse space is now more expensive than office space, which is a phenomenon that I personally never thought I would see.
But it’s happening, right? I mean, who would have thought that a case of beer would be more expensive than a barrel of oil. We saw that in our lifetime.
RA: I think towns will ultimately have problems, because as you have more vacant commercial offices, you’re going to have those owners filing tax appeals for the assessments on their properties. Ultimately that skews the tax base more towards residential property owners.
DF: I think you’re going to have towns that are a little bit proactive and maybe switch some of that office to residential. You’re going to see those towns, then, also having an increase in school tax, because as they switch to residential that’s inevitably going to cause an increase in kids, which is going to drive the school tax up.
So the town’s, will probably move to save themselves, which they do, but in doing so, we’ll probably significantly hurt the school districts.
RA: I think towns like West Windsor and Plainsboro, which have complexes like Carnegie Center and Forrestal Center, have cause to be concerned. The property owners might file lawsuits to have their zoning changed. It’s going to create interesting challenges for towns and big cities.
DF: I definitely see that that happening, and retail is going to be continue to be challenging. Its going to be tougher and tougher. More people are going to move toward food and some other things, but the days of going to the mall are waning. Everybody wants things delivered at home, and they want it yesterday.
After being delayed by the pandemic, Planet Fitness in the Foxmoor Shopping Center has finally opened. Construction is also taking place will also begin on the adjacent STEM Academy (far right) daycare center. (Staff photo by Bill Sanservino.),
