196-Unit Senior Living Community Eyed for Belle Mead

By Barbara A. Preston | Posted March 7, 2025 (Updated March 18, 2025)

Montgomery Township Committee heard a presentation from Country Club Meadows on March 6, outlining a developer’s concept plan to construct an independent living community for elderly folks in Belle Mead with options for assisted living and memory care.

Bryan Plocker, a partner at Hutt Shimanowitz & Plocker law firm in Woodbridge, represented the property owner – Country Club Meadows.

“We’re here to talk about the vacant property along Route 206, just north of the 96 senior villas, which is just north of the Country Club Meadows [with 148] single-family homes," he said.

According to the concept plan, the approximately 20-acre site would become a 196-unit community known as Thrive at Montgomery. The average age of the residents would be 78 to 82, according to the presentation given to Township Committee.

A concept rendering of Thrive at Montgomery, a 196-unit community proposed for Belle Mead for elderly folks.

Montgomery's current ordinance permits 222 units for a Continuing Care Facility – 74 independent living units, 74 assisted living units and 74 memory care units. The proposed ordinance calls for a 196-unit maximum with a breakdown of: 84 IL, 48 AL, 28 MC, 36 IL/AL that can fluctuate between the two categories to offer residents flexibility if their needs change, according to Township Administrator Lori Savron.

 The new ordinance is expected to be introduced at the Township Committee meeting on Friday.

Area in Need of Redevelopment

Montgomery Township Attorney Wendy Rubinstein Quiroga explained that there is "a long history to this parcel," which has be slated for an assisted-living community for some time.

“This is a site that was designated as an area in need of redevelopment," she said. "We’ve been working with the property owner to ask them to help with developing the concept for the redevelopment of this site. We asked them to come forth tonight to give a presentation … on give an idea of what it would look like.

"This is also an opportunity for Township Committee members to ask questions, or [make] comments that could be incorporated into the plan so that when the plan comes forth in two weeks, that it incorporates everything the community is looking for.

"Assuming that everyone is okay with it, it would be put forth at the next [Township Committee] meeting [on Friday, March 21, at 3 pm] to introduce what [would be] the next step in the redevelopment plan, which would be the zoning ordinance for a site that is designated as an area in need of redevelopment. 

From left: David J. Weiner, representing the contract purchaser of the Belle Mead parcel, with Bryan Plocker, the lawyer for the current owner and developer of Country Club Estates, present their concept to Township Committee.

Thrive at Montgomery

A representative of the contract purchaser – David J. Weiner – laid out the project to Township Committee at the March 6 Township Committee meeting.

Weiner explained that GTP Acquisitions LLC, the contract purchaser, is a joint venture between Pike Construction Co. in Paterson, NJ, which is Weiner's company, and Thrive Senior Living out of Atlanta, GA.

Weiner said his company of general contractors and developers have done a lot of projects in the area, including Stonebridge at Montgomery, a 320-unit senior living community constructed in Skillman back in 2000.

Both Pike Construction and Thrive Senior Living are involved in the initial concept design and market analysis. Pike will develop and build the project. Once it’s constructed, Thrive will take over and handle the day-to-day management of the facility along with the marketing and leasing.

The concept for this property is a senior community that would consist of independent living, assisted living, and memory care.

A 3D view of the proposed Thrive at Montgomery senior living community in Belle Mead. The cross-shaped building would include independent living apartments plus units for those in need of assisted living and memory care, dining facilities, a movie theater, and more. The separate cottage-style units would connect via a glass hallway to the main building.

Proposed Senior Independent / Assisted Living Facility

     Assisted Living

• 48 Apartment units

     Assisted / Independent Living

• 36 Apartment units

     Memory Care

• 28 Apartment units

Independent Living

• 84 garden villas (cottage-style)

Thrive at Montgomery would include 196 total units, 144 parking spaces (including 38 garage spaces), and the buildings would be 3 stories tall.

Not a Nursing Home

The independent living community is for those seniors who don’t necessarily need the healthcare component, but do need some assistance, whether it be with socialization or minor assistance with daily living, Weiner said.

"The community is to promote quality of life. It’s not a nursing home. People are not going there because they have no other choice. We encourage residents to be active and productive. There are social programs, dining options, movie theaters, fitness centers, an art room," he said.

The concept includes “cottage style” and flats for seniors who want to have the feel of being in their own home. They have their own front door. There is no requirement of reporting in.

"We do not provide medical treatment or medical care," Weiner said. "If someone needs to see a doctor, we have a transportation vehicle to take them there.

While it’s a big community, it is designed to have a residential feel.

The cottages are connected by a spine that is almost like a glass hall. So seniors can go out their front door, or, if the weather is bad (freezing cold, snow, rain, or a hot humid day) they can walk through a conditioned space and get to all the amenity spaces.

In the main building [shaped like a cross] there will be a combination of apartment-style living—some for independent living but licensed for assisted living so we have the flexibility.

As residents age in the community, from what may be an independent living situation to a need for assisted living, they can stay in the apartment and not have to move to another unit.

There will also be units for memory-related issues in a special wing of the building that will be access controlled so that residents with dementia issues can’t walk out of the building, wander, and get lost. It will have its own dining facility and social programming. 

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Why a Redevelopment Site?

“As time has gone by, marketing conditions have changed. The unit mix that was in there was not feasible in this market," Weiner told Township Committee. "We wouldn’t be able to keep the building stabilized, or to get financial institutions to lend to the project because it just would not have been feasible.

"That is why we are coming back to the township. Also, the original zoning had everything in three separate buildings. 

Township Administrator Lori Savron added: As a redevelopment site, the township and the developer may use fiscal tools to develop a property that under existing zoning is difficult to develop. 

"Several factors in connection with the location of the site have precluded its development as intended in the township’s regulations," Savron told The Montgomery News. "The site’s location relative to the market area for continuing care facilities, access to sewer infrastructure, and court-ordered zoning

regulations has resulted in the inability to finance the development of the site through the instrumentality of private capital."

Affordable Housing Credits

Montgomery Township will also get affordable housing credits for the project.

Township Attorney Rubinstein Quiroga said the township will get 20 credits toward its affordable housing obligation for medicaid beds within the assisted living section.

Deputy Mayor Vince Barragan asked about the risk to Medicaid funding in the country right now.

Weiner said "the NJ Dept of Community Affairs, which licenses the assisted living units, have a requirement that 10 percent of licensed beds be Medicaid-eligible. In this case, with Montgomery needing help to meet its affordable housing obligation, we are going above that. The rest of the community is private pay.

"What’s going to happen with the Federal funding of medicaid is unknown," Weiner said. "Indications are that the states are going to wind up picking up the balance of it." 

Three Senior Living Communities in Montgomery

If approved, Thrive at Montgomery could become the third senior living community in Montgomery Township.

Stonebridge at Montgomery is the only community open and running right now.

• Independent Living Apartments: 196

• Independent Living Cottages: 24

• Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing Beds: 100

• Total Units in Stonebridge at Montgomery: 320

A second senior community — Arbor Terrace at Montgomery — is approved to be built at the Route 206/518 intersection in Skilllman, but construction has not begun. The Montgomery Township Planning Board gave final approval to the 91-unit development on a 4-acre property at Hartwick and Village drives at its May 8, 2023 meeting. Six planning board members voted yes, and two (Mayor Devra Keenan and Patricia Todd) voted no.

The Next Step for Thrive at Montgomery

Township Committee will introduce an ordinance at its next meeting on March 21. Note that meetings are usually on Thursdays evenings. This meeting is on a Friday at 3 pm. This will serve as a public hearing on the ordinance, with possible adoption at the meeting thereafter in April, after it goes to the planning board to check for consistency with the township's master plan.