Evaluation process by Borough Council begins tonight.
By: Jennifer Potash
The proposed downtown parking garage plan cleared one hurdle at the Princeton Regional Planning Board on Thursday. Now borough officials begin the process of selecting a developer for the project.
The Princeton Borough Council tonight will evaluate the five respondents to the borough’s request for qualifications, along with the two prior submittals from a request for proposals from architects and engineers.
The borough is planning to build a four-level garage with 483 spaces at the site of the Park & Shop lot at Spring and Witherspoon streets and on top of a new building on the Tulane Street lot. The plan also includes a public square, shops, apartments and a possible food market.
The five respondents to the RFQ are the Mercer County Improvement Authority with Keating Development Co. of Bala Cynwyd, Pa.; Nexus Properties of Trenton; Woodmont Properties of Parsippany; King Interests of West Windsor; and Nassau Capital Advisors of Vandeventer Avenue.
Two responses were received in response to last year’s request for proposals. The first came from a consortium comprised of four entities: The Hillier Group; consulting architects Geddes Demshak; Richardson Smith Architects; Arnold Associates and Michael Mostoller. The second was from the Philadelphia-based architectural firm Cope Linder Associates.
In selecting a developer, the council will look closely at the financial strength of the firm including access to financing, Mayor Reed said.
At its March 5 meeting, the council is expected to conduct interviews to determine which developers will be invited to submit more detailed proposals, Mayor Reed said. Those interviews will be in closed session.
The Planning Board paved the way Thursday for the council to partner with a developer by unanimously approving a recommendation to the Borough Council that it designate the Park & Shop and Tulane Street lots as an area in need of redevelopment.
There was no public comment at the hearing. The council is expected to vote on the designation tonight.
Some board members were concerned about assuring the opportunity for public comment through the planning process.
Mayor Reed, also a member of the Planning Board, said the project will undergo full site plan review.
"The Planing Board has been invited to our discussions and is familiar with what we’re doing," Mayor Reed said. "We want their advice and as (the board) has been encouraging to us in the past we want to keep them on that track."
The proposed garage emerged as the consensus plan following numerous public meetings and workshops last year, the mayor said.
The next step is for the borough’s consultant, The Atlantic Group, and the Planning Board to prepare a redevelopment report for consideration by the Princeton Borough Council. That plan is expected to be the garage plan the council adopted in August.
In other garage-related business at tonight’s meeting, the council is expected to approve a $15,098 professional services contract with Melick-Tully and Associates, P.C. of South Bound Brook for groundwater testing at the Park & Shop lot. It is also expected to adopt an ordinance establishing a parking utility to manage all borough parking operations, including the garage and other lots.
Also on the agenda, Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi will present the 2002 operating and capital budgets of the affordable-housing programs.