Rite Aid has purchased two properties that are key to West Windsor’s plans for the redevelopment of downtown Princeton Junction.##M:[more]##
The September 22 real estate deals, together worth $6 million, are for neighboring properties at the corner of Route 571 and Cranbury Road, according to Al Toto of Commercial Property Network, which brokered the deals. The corner has been identified by township officials as the gateway to the township’s business district.
The property closest to the corner was purchased from Al and Patti Swingle, the owners of Al’s Sunoco, who operate an auto repair shop on the site.
On the adjacent property, owned by Al and Jackie Macli, is the small shopping center that houses Chicken Holiday, Bristle Brothers paint store, Domino’s Pizza, and BYOB restaurant.
According to Toto, Rite Aid plans to replace the repair shop and shopping center with a new store, moving there from its current location in the Acme shopping center.
Any plan for the site would require a variance and approval from the township zoning board. Toto says Rite Aid plans to construct a “mirror image” of the gateway concept that was approved by the township last year as part of the plan for the PNC bank building on the former Lucar Hardware property across the street from the Rite Aid tract.
“Rite Aid has met with the town on a number of times. They have four or five different site plans,” says Toto. “The town (wants to beautify) the corner.”
Numerous calls to both Rite Aid and Sam Surtees, manager of land use planning for West Windsor township, were not returned.
The corner has been no stranger to proposals for development in recent years. In 2002 the zoning board rejected a plan by Commerce Bank to develop the Swingle site, stating that the project was inconsistent with the township’s plans for the area.
In late 2003 and early 2004, Eckerd drug store presented a plan to the zoning board that called for a 13,”800-square-foot store at the corner, and the renovation of the Macli shopping center. The application was never completed.
“The zoning board was hemming and hawing,” says Toto. “Also, in the middle of this, the deal went down the tubes when JC Penney sold Eckerd in 2004. They had $500,”000 invested in the plan, but they pulled the plug on it.”
“After that, I had a number of entities, including CVS and a bunch of banks, who wanted to be there,” Toto adds. “I thought I saw the writing on the wall that the township didn’t want any more banks, so I put some stuff into play with Rite Aid. They stepped up to the plate, paying what they had to pay.”
