All in all, Hamilton Township has had a pretty good 2025.
Yes, there are major concerns about the state of affairs at Trenton Water Works. Hamilton and the other suburban towns served by the capital city facility continue to seek answers for confounding questions about the shaky operations of the utility.
But when it came time for Mayor Jeff Martin to compose his concise state of the township address, the positives outweighed the negative in a year that has already seen substantial change and growth in town.
The biggest and latest news might just be that Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, or CHOP, has purchased the former AMC Hamilton 24 Theatre on Sloan Avenue with the apparent goal of opening a regional pediatric medical facility on the site.
The news went viral as parents in Hamilton and the surrounding area got excited at the idea of one of a top medical facility coming to town.
“We are certainly excited to be their Central Jersey headquarters. Not only bringing jobs here locally, but (also) ensuring our children who need the very best medical care can stay right here in Hamilton to get it.”
The Post interviewed Martin a week after he gave his address. He said conversations began with CHOP in late 2024.
“Since AMC closed, I don’t know how many developers we’ve said no to who wanted to build a warehouse there,” he said. “Because of the zoning (on the site), we were able to push back on that. When CHOP came here, they were looking at a bunch of potential sites, and we made a pitch for them to select this one.”
CHOP has not yet revealed exactly what its plans are for the site — not even to township officials.
“We’ve not talked specifics about what (the facility) would include,” Martin told the Post. “But their thought is, the first building they would build as phase one would be a 120,000-square-foot facility. Obviously they’re in for a big commitment and will have a large presence here in town.”
Later in August, the township council declared the CHOP property an area in need of redevelopment, paving the way for CHOP to take the next steps.
In his video address, which clocks in at exactly 9 minutes in length, Martin focused first on the elephant in the room: the water works.
“One of our main challenges that’s been a headache for me as I know it’s been a headache for you is Trenton Water Works,” he said in his address. “But we are at a crossroads now in determining Trenton Water Works’ future.”
Hamilton, Ewing, Hopewell Township and Lawrence are all suburban customers of the 200-year-old utility, which in the words of DEP commissioner Shawn LaTourette, has seen “decades of disinvestment” result in outdated systems, undermaintained infrastructure and lack of redundancy. (See story, page 24.)
Worrying failures in the past year have included the failure of a Delaware River intake pump that necessitated taking the entire system offline, and the revelation that an employee had engaged in a fraudulent scheme that invalidated the majority of the utility’s water quality reporting.
Martin and the other suburbs, along with the DEP, have been pushing the city to agree to regionalize management of the water works. Trenton City Council, to put it succinctly, is not having it.
Martin told the Post that he hopes that the city will agree to regionalization voluntarily. But he says the suburban communities have the option to sue to get the city to the table.
“Our hope was always not to go that route, because collaboration is better than forcing that on anybody. But if that’s the only path forward then I can see us doing that,” Martin told the Post.
Martin also addressed recent spikes in energy bills and encouraged residents to take advantage of opportunities to reduce their bills. “I’m sure the shock I experienced when I opened my bill was the same shock you had,” he said in his address.
He mentioned several options residents have to attempt to mitigate their energy costs, including doing home energy audits or having solar panels installed on the roof. He also highlighted community solar, which is a program in which businesses whose buildings have ample roof space agree to have solar panels installed, with the energy collected being made available to the wider community.
The statewide community solar program is available to PSE&G rate payers in Hamilton, Martin explained to the Post. “My wife and I are community solar subscribers. The bill I got in August, I saved $60 off my bill because I’m signed off. I’m not saying $60 is going to pay for your car payment or anything, but every bit helps especially in times of rising bills.”
Martin said many people, when they hear about community solar, think it’s too good to be true. “It’s real, it’s legitimate,” he said. “It can help you save money.”
* * *
Martin had more to report on the economic development front than just CHOP in his address. He highlighted the coming of a couple of other big businesses to town, including the Innio Group, which took a long-term lease at 840 Nottingham Way.
The company, based in Jenbach, Austria, intends to assemble and package engines designed to provide power to data centers, and has pledged to add more than 200 jobs to the Hamilton economy in the next three to five years.
“Whether it’s from the City of Trenton or Hamilton itself, Mercer County historically has had a large manufacturing base. So we’re excited to bring some of those manufacturing jobs back to Hamilton,” Martin told the Post.
Also setting up shop in Hamilton according to Martin is Rivian, the electric automobile manufacturer, which has broken ground on a showroom and repair center at the former Bayer Aspirin site on East State Street.
“They don’t use the term ‘car dealership,’ but for all intents and purposes it will be a new car dealership in Hamilton,” Martin told the Post.
The township continues to make progress as well on the new joint municipal complex and school district headquarters on Whitehorse Mercerville Road. The project is currently on time and on budget, with the township still hoping for a fall 2026 opening.
Martin also revealed that the township is on the verge of announcing around 70 acres of newly preserved land. He said it is too early to reveal the location of the land, but told the Post that the Department of Agriculture has approved three properties either for purchase or for deed restrictions that would limit land use on the properties to farming.
“They haven’t closed on the properties yet, so neither we nor the state are in a position to announce that yet,” Martin said. “Hopefully they’re going to close sometime soon and we’ll be able to announce it.” He added that the deed restrictions had been approved by the state’s agriculture board.
Martin closed his address by announcing that the township is in the early stages of planning its celebration for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
“The very founding of our nation happened right down the street in Philadelphia,” Martin said. “But just as important as it is to celebrate July 4, 2026, which would be the 250th anniversary, we must also plan to celebrate Jan. 2, 2027. That is the day Gen. George Washington and the Continental Army marched from the City of Trenton through Hamilton on to Princeton to again engage with the British. Hamilton stood at the crossroads of the American Revolution, and we must ensure that we not only celebrate the founding of our nation, but (also) Hamilton’s involvement in that war as well.”
