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From HomeNews:

It took nearly 19 years, but the city’s redevelopment of the southeast corner of Easton Avenue and Somerset Street is set to get off the ground this spring.
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One of the major obstacles to the city’s plans was a protracted dispute with the owner of three buildings along a stretch of Somerset Street.

Ed Mueller has owned New Jersey Books, a prime vendor of college textbooks, since the early 1970s. He has been involved in a tug-of-war with the city and redevelopment officials. His Somerset Street property was slated to be acquired through eminent domain proceedings.

An agreement with Rutgers, the city, its redevelopment arm and Mueller was reached in June 2007, and Mueller moved a few hundred feet down the street.

The New Brunswick Development Corporation, or Devco, tore down a university maintenance facility and set to work transforming the parcel. Within a few weeks, New Jersey Books will move from cramped, low-ceilinged quarters to a new structure with natural light pouring through large windows on two floors.
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NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Rutgers University says Barnes & Noble College Booksellers will run a new 46,000-square-foot superstore that will anchor a development planned just off the campus. The bookstore will replace the university’s existing 19,000-square-foot bookstore.

The store will anchor a $145 million high-rise structure, financed by New Brunswick’s development corporation, that will include office space, stores, condominiums and a parking garage across the street from the New Brunswick railroad station.

Under a 10-year contract, Barnes & Noble will take over management of all the college bookstores on the New Brunswick campus in November.

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It seems like Route 18 Indoor Market will close it’s doors on November 2nd. The Indoor Market was home to 100- 150 vendors, but as news spread of the expiration of the lease - many bailed and the number has dropped down to 60.

For The Home News:

The Route 18 Indoor Market and Jason’s Furniture, along with Sam’s Club, occupy retail space in the strip mall that lies at the heart of the Golden Triangle redevelopment area. With Toll Brothers plans for housing construction on hold, negotiations for lease extensions were conducted by the businesses.

Toll Brothers’ Golden Triangle plan, approved by the township’s Planning Board last year, calls for 200,000 square feet of retail space to be built in a “transit village” that will also include 402 housing units. The developer, due to sluggish economy, requested that the housing units be constructed in the final phase of the project.

The first phase of the project was the construction of an adjacent parking deck to be followed by two new restaurants facing Route 18. The additional commercial space is slated to follow before the final phase of housing construction commences.

The Township Council amended the timetable for completion of the project, granting the developer’s request to delay housing construction by three years, from 2008 to 2011.

The overall completion of the redevelopment project is scheduled for 2015.

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Yesterday officials released more details on the greening of College Ave for Rutgers.

Here are some of the highlights - more here

• To begin in 2008, but take many years to be completed
• Two major walking corridors, which intersect in a high pedestrian activity area by the Rutgers Student Center and Brower Commons.
• Creation of new public outdoor gathering spaces, pedestrian plazas, landscaped walking corridors
• The long-range plan envisions a major new pedestrian spine called the Raritan Mall, connects campus to the Raritan River waterfront. The broad esplanade to the river will be represented by a “scarlet carpet” with integrated water features that are intended to symbolically connect the campus with the river.
• The Intercampus Transportation Hub establishes a clear transit anchor at the northern limits of College Avenue Plaza. More than a simple shelter, it is intended to serve as an architectural statement and aesthetic feature of the campus.
• The sections of College Avenue in this phase of work that will not be turned into a pedestrian plaza will be transformed into a promenade.

The first phase of the project includes constructing a new transit hub outside the student center and more landscaping in front of Brower Commons and along the sidewalks, said Antonio Calcado, the vice president of Facilities and Capital Planning.

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by Sue Epstein from The Star-Ledger

New Brunswick officials unveiled plans today for a $650 million development that eventually would include 760 residential units, office space, a four-story hotel, and a supermarket at the southern end of New Street, adjacent to the train station.

The project, which the developers call “The Pinnacle at New Brunswick Station,” would be built on 5.2 acres in phases based on changes in the real estate market. Construction is not expected to start for at least two years. The developer is still negotiating to obtain part of the tract.

“This is another stage in our downtown redevelopment - a pedestrian-friendly use that takes advantage of our mass transit hub,” Mayor James Cahill said. “It will function as a gateway to the health care campuses on the other side of the tracks.”

Voorhees-based developers Thomas Moore and Larry Levy, who created New Street Area Development LLC for the project, said they began negotiating with property owners in the neighborhood about five years ago and have acquired about two-thirds of the land they need. They are in negotiations with most of the other property owners, both residential and commercial.

The residential units would include condominiums, apartments and townhouses and loft offices designed for lawyers who “want more than regular floor-space units,” said Martin Santini, the lead architect on the project.

Santini said a 28-story building would be designed in almost a semicircle, with the other buildings on either side to “create a sense of place.” New Street would be widened and end at the complex. Pedestrian walkways would be added along the road.

Part of the project includes creating a road that connects New and Bayard streets, leading to the Middlesex County government buildings and the courthouses.

Glenn Patterson, the city’s director of planning and economic development, said the city is doing something different with this project because it has been deemed an “area of rehabilitation” instead of redevelopment area.

“What it means is that the city has no powers of eminent domain to take people’s property for this project,” Patterson said. “The developer has to negotiate with all of the property owners himself to obtain the land.”