By Barbara A. Preston | Posted Jan. 9, 2025
Township Committee determined at its Dec. 19 meeting that town officials should investigate whether the Village Walk at Montgomery, a mixed-use community with retail, office, and residential spaces, would qualify for certain subsidies and tax breaks. The project, which is approved to include both market-rate and affordable housing units, is now under construction on Route 206 in Skillman.
Phases 2A and 2B of the Village Walk at Montgomery on Route 206 include a new road (seen above on right). Officials also approved an anchor building (labeled market above), and a 3-story building with 52 housing units (including affordable apartments).
The committee is asking the Montgomery Planning Board to examine whether the property qualifies under the NJ Redevelopment Law as a "non-condemnation area" in need of redevelopment. The planning board is to study the issue, and then make a recommendation back to Township Committee as to whether the property should be designated as such.
Township Administrator Lori Savron explained that the investigation applies to a portion of the Village Walk at Montgomery —specifically the back part of the property where the affordable housing is expected to be built. It would also apply to the building of a new road, Village Drive, which the developer, Pugliese Properties of Princeton, is expected to build to connect the shopping center to new rowhomes in the vicinity.
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Should Montgomery Township elected officials decide the property should be designated as a “non-condemnation redevelopment area,” it would allow developers to access certain subsidies and tax breaks — without requiring the township to acquire the property through the power of eminent domain.
New Jersey municipalities have used this designation to undertake programs to redevelop neighborhoods with run-down homes, vacant lots, and abandoned buildings — specifically to reverse blighted conditions to promote sound planning, revitalize tax bases, and improve the public safety, health, and welfare of their communities.
The area under consideration for this designation applies to Phases 2A and 2B of the Village Walk at Montgomery, which have not yet been started. Phase 1A, which includes Starbucks, Orange Theory, Jersey Mike’s Subs, and Hand & Stone, is now open. Phase 1B, which includes a TJ’s Pancake House & Tavern, an AT&T Store, and a second restaurant that is yet to be named, is expected to be completed by February. Phase 2A includes what Montgomery planners have called critical infrastructure needed to alleviate traffic congestion at the Route 518/206 intersection.
Village Walk at Montgomery Phase 2 includes the extension of Village Drive to Route 206 (see yellow line above), and two new mixed-use buildings (see red square and rectangle above) that would include housing units, retail, and offices.
The developer of the Village Walk is expected to construct a new road that would run to the right of the shopping center and connect Route 206 to Village Drive, and eventually to Route 518. This road would connect to the existing Village Drive. Phase 2A also includes construction of a one-story 9,995-SF anchor building labeled “market” in the architect’s rendering, as well as sidewalks. Phase 2B includes a 3-story mixed-use building that includes 52 housing units (townhomes, condominiums, affordable apartments), with retail/office units on the first floor.
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Approval for this project was granted on October 15, 2018. The project was broken-down in phases, and approved by Montgomery officials in 2022.
Deputy Mayor Vince Barragan said, “I do have concerns about moral hazard. As we look through how we do phases with future developments, I hope we can take lessons learned so we don’t find ourselves in this situation. I would have preferred if this could have gone a different route.”
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