Apartments, stores might be built next to Pathmark in Middlesex
MIDDLESEX BOROUGH – The redevelopment of Lincoln Boulevard is continuing with a proposal to build 212 apartments next to the vacant Pathmark.
Middlesex Residential Urban Renewal will appear before the borough’s planning board on Feb. 16 with a proposal to build a five-story building with apartments on the second through fifth floors and three retail spaces, plus a rental office, on the ground floor.
The developer, Massimo Pinelli, also constructed The Lofts complex at 150 Lincoln Blvd., as part of the borough’s overall plan to redevelop Lincoln Boulevard from the borough’s border with Bound Brook to Mountain Avenue. Pinelli was not available for comment.
Beginning a decade ago, the borough began work on the redevelopment along Lincoln Boulevard, with dense industrial uses along the Raritan Valley Line of NJ Transit and the Norfolk Southern Railroad, into a more traditional “Main Street” with mixed-use developments.
Middlesex Residential Urban Renewal is asking for approval to demolish the two buildings on separate lots at 220 and 232 Lincoln Blvd. in order to construct the new building, which will have 96 one-bedroom apartments, 68 one-bedroom apartments with a den, and 48 two-bedroom apartments. The 465-foot long, E-shaped building will face Lincoln Boulevard, with its rear yard next to the railroad tracks.
On the ground floor will be three retail spaces,a management office, a fitness facility and a game room..
The developer is also proposing a parking easement with the adjacent lot at 242 Lincoln Blvd., which now houses Cub Liquors and the Pathmark grocery store, which closed in the summer of 2015 after its parent company declared bankruptcy.
The application said there are no current plans for the Pathmark and Cub Liquors building.
The project requires the parking easement because the apartment building site does not have room for all of the parking required by borough ordinance. According to a report by borough planner Paul Ricci, the development requires 398 parking spaces, but there are only 191 spaces on the site, plus 110 more on the Pathmark property,
The Lincoln Boulevard proposal is the latest in a spate of apartment buildings being developed along NJ Transit’s Raritan Valley Line. Meridia has already opened one apartment building on East Main Street in Bound Brook and ground has been broken on a second building on West Main Street. Bridgewater has approved more than 200 apartments along the railroad in its Finderne section and Raritan Borough has approved a redevelopment proposal for 300 apartments by its train station.
In Somerville, one apartment building is nearing completion on Veterans Memorial Drive, while other apartments are in the planning stages in the neighborhood of the train station.
(By Mike Deak / February 7, 2017 / https://eu.mycentraljersey.com/) Pic: Staff Photo
