Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried recently sat down with the Robbinsville Advance to talk about issues impacting the township’s past and future.
The first two parts of the Q&A resulting from that interview ran in the March and April issues of the Advance and addressed open space and Mercer County elections.
In April, the mayor talked about the police department and difficulties facing law enforcement in 2023. To read those articles, go to communitynews.org.
This month, Fried talks with Robbinsville Advance editor Bill Sanservino about the status of the Robbinsville Town Center development and the state of commercial real estate.
The Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
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Robbinsville Advance: So overall, how’s the ratable situation in Robbinsville Township?
Dave Fried: You know, we’re good. I could use some more dirt. We’ve completely filled out our warehouse park. There’s not a whole lot that I can do in that section. And that has been a boon for the town because we’ve constantly brought in new warehouses. They’re clean, they’re not near any residential, for the most part, they don’t bother anyone, but there are no more.
Now we’re focusing on Route 130, and there’s just a limited number of things we can do there. The lots are very small. On one side, they’re backed up by the train tracks where they’ve got easements. We really can’t use them effectively. On the other side, I have a lot of wetlands. So, Route 130 is never going to turn into anything like a Route 1. It’ll be mostly small ratables, but it’s about all we have left. So, in terms of development, the town is very much approaching built out.
RA: Do you have any kind of concern with the sizable number of warehouses that are being constructed throughout New Jersey? Last year, West Windsor approved 5.5 million square feet of warehouses on Route 1, and just about every community is looking to approve warehouses. Robbinsville is fortunate because the town is right on the top of the N.J. Turnpike and I-195, so that makes it a little bit more palatable for some warehouse development. But do you think this is sustainable?
DF: It’s like anything else. Whenever something’s hot, it always gets overdone, and I believe right now warehouses are overdone. If you think about it, years ago, we had a huge glut of 55 and older communities. Then they had to change the law and turn them into regular residential.
I think there is entirely too much warehouse being built right now. And yes, I understand that people don’t like to go to the store anymore, but I think a warehouse being built right now on spec is probably a bad idea. The stuff is being built in poor locations. Those are going to be the first properties that are abandoned.
I definitely think there’s entirely too much being built, and I don’t think that’s going to be able to be absorbed. If you had told me ten years ago that warehouse space, you know, rents would be higher than office rents, I would have laughed at you. But that’s exactly what’s happening. People can’t give away office space right now. And warehouse space is significantly more than office space. I never thought I’d see the day, but it’s absolutely happening.
RA: Of the warehouses that have been approved or are being built in. Robbinsville, how many of those are spec buildings?
DF: Every one of our buildings is fully leased. I wish I had more, but unfortunately, they only granted us so many miles in Robbinsville. If you think about it, we don’t have a whole lot of space other than the warehouse park, where warehouses would make sense. I’m not a big fan of putting warehouses on Route 130. I think it really makes the traffic situation horrible.
I don’t like warehouses near residential, so where we have it is perfect. I don’t really think there’s any other viable spots for a warehouse in Robbinsville. So, a lot of what you’ll see now will be fill in along Route 130. We’re going to try and make a move to redevelop the old hotels into something a little more useful. You’ll see us sort of filling in some retail. But for the most part we’re built out.
RA: I heard a rumor going around that they were going to put a warehouse where the Bob Smith Boys Soccer Academy is. Have you heard anything about that?
DF: The owner of the Bob Smith Academy has not chosen to do a warehouse. He’d love to do apartments there, but unfortunately, there’s no residential zoning there. I think he may be trying to think about maybe doing an extended stay hotel or some sort of long-term rental. There is a need for some affordable rental space for the folks that do work at the warehouse, a lot of them coming in from overseas, so they want something longer than an extended day hotel, but not necessarily a year lease.
I think he’s trying to think of something that fits somewhere between a hotel and an apartment. That might be interesting for us because it won’t generate kids. These are typically folks from overseas who are staying here for three to six months and then go back, just doing extended assignments. Amazon has quite a few. We’ve got a large dumpling factory that is constantly bringing in folks from overseas. I could see something like that happening there.
RA: I guess you have to be creative. What are some things you’d like to see that can be done along the Route 130 corridor.
DF: I think what you’re going to see mostly is retail. We’ve got a couple of car dealerships coming. We had a self-storage coming. They’re going to be smaller uses. You’re going to see any big box stores. You’re not going to see a Lowe’s or a Home Depot or anything like that. I’d love to see a Trader Joe’s-type use come in. It’ll be more of a Trader Joe’s than let’s say a Shoprite. It would be more of a boutique type use.
RA: I think some people wouldn’t mind seeing that. Yeah. There are a lot of people who want a Trader Joe’s here.
DF: We’re trying.
RA: I know there was some talk about one in the Foxmoor Shopping Center, but that never materialized. They put in a Planet Fitness instead, but the gym seems to be working out.
DF: The gym is doing well.
RA: It doesn’t appear to have had a huge impact on the roads and the residential developments in that area.
DF: It seems to be run well. It’s clean. And it’s never really that crowded where you can’t use anything.
RA: How’s the Robbinsville Town Center coming along? Especially Town Center South (located along the eastbound lane of Route 33). I think you’re pretty much built out on the other side.
DF: We are built out on this side of Town Center (the side of the municipal building) and South is starting with some of the new developments there. The last big property is the township property, and we’ll probably look to do something with that next year.
RA: Where is the township property?
DF: It’s pretty much the entire surrounding back property (of Town Center South), what they used to call the Kushner Property. We’ve got about 32 acres back there. We’ve taken a look at a couple of sites. We’re going to continue to allow Route 33 to develop the way this side looks. We’ll have some retail on the first floor and apartments on the second. The township property will probably wind up being some sort of an apartment use.
RA: Is there going to be another connection within Town Center South between Route 33 and Route 130?
DF: Yes. So, there will be a road across from where Kuo Social used to be (the corner restaurant space in Town Center at the intersection of Route 33 and Robbinsville Road). It’ll go straight out to Route 130, then it will make a right out.
We’ve had a lot of trouble, but you know we are going to get the right hand turn also fixed by the gas station (from Main Street into Route 130. About 80% of the traffic on Main Street going east is actually trying to make a right. If we can get that right hand turn lane in, that will free up all the traffic coming from that side. I don’t know that I’m ever going to be able to get people to use the jug handle for the left on Main Street. For some reason people are willing to sit in three cycles of traffic on that light versus just going on the jug handle. I’ve never been able to figure that one out.
So that will fix that. This movement will actually free up a lot in town center. You’ll be able to just go straight out and make a right.
RA: What is the deal with Kuo Social space? There have been a number of restaurants close that have located there. When Kuo Social first opened, it seemed like they were doing well, and then more recently there were some negative reviews. It just seems like a spot where nothing has stuck, and there have been, what, four or five restaurants there?
DF: I’ll say this on the record. What we really need is a sort of family style restaurant, something that’s really family centric. That’s what I think will do very, very well there. I would have loved to have seen something like a Rossi’s or something that is an easier sort of environment where you can bring your family. I think that would do well.
They might want to consider dividing that space into two. It’s a very large space. It’s very expensive. Maybe divided into two smaller spaces may make some sense. Kuo was doing really, really well and I’m not 100% sure what happened. It could have been the rent.
It could have been a lot of things, but the rent there was very, very high. The CAMs (common area maintenance fees) there are very, very high. So somehow something’s got to give in that space, but it’s a cool, cool space if they can make it work.
RA: Could parking be an issue, too?
DF: Parking has always been an issue unfortunately. We will try and remedy some of that when we do Town Center South. We’ll add significantly more.
I was reading the meeting minutes about why former leaders didn’t have enough parking there, and it was intentional, believe it or not. They intentionally made less parking because they wanted everyone to walk. The idea was that it was going to be a walkable community, so if they created less parking spaces more people would walk.
RA: And originally Route 33 was supposed to be rerouted away from the Town Center, which would mean the whole town center a lot more walkable, right?
RA: It just didn’t quite work out that way (The state rejected Robbinsville’s plans to divert the highway away from Town Center).
RA: And people don’t like to walk.
DF: Right, people don’t like to walk.
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.),
