KP merchants still waiting

Upgrades to center slated for June start

By: Brian Shappell
   Renovations at the Kendall Park Shopping Center could begin in June, once the state approves a plan to widen Allston Road and water supply issues are addressed.
   However, business owners remain skeptical that upgrades will be made, saying they have been hearing about the renovations for some time without any work being done.
   The Planning Board approved a plan in November that includes installing a new facade, adding 42,669 square feet to the 53,933-square-foot shopping center, converting the former Kendall Park Cinemas into a Gold’s Gym and repaving and restriping the parking lot.
   Ron Bogle of ILKP, which owns the center, said the group is trying to meet the final two or three of nearly 60 conditions placed on it by the Planning Board in November. The primary issues are getting state Department of Transportation approval for the widening of Allston Road and making improvements to the water supply.
   Chief Project Engineer Jim Houston of Watchung-based Bohler Engineering said the first phase of work should begin in June and could be done by the 2002 holiday season.
   "I believe we can get a (Certificate of Occupancy) by November and be open by Christmas," Mr. Houston said.
   Mr. Houston said the phase-one renovations will include retrofitting the old movie theater, building an addition onto the southern portion of the existing center near Allston Road for a bank, improving the main sign on Route 27, adding street-lamp style lighting and an extended walkway and resurfacing the parking area.
   "It’s going to be like a very modern, new center," he said. "We’re trying to renovate to make it a place where people will want to go to and shop, not like the run-of-the-mill center."
   However, shopping center merchants are wary of the promises. They say that the same problems that owners and customers have been talking about for several years — the building’s dirty and decrepit facade, trash-filled bushes near the Allston Road entrance, deep potholes situated throughout the property, cars parked with little sense of order because the spaces are so poorly marked and cigarette butts and stray animals as far as the eye can see — are still apparent.
   James Nuckel of ILKP told the Planning Board in November that he anticipated starting work in early spring.
   "Nothing has changed," said Bart Deschaepmeester, a manager at the Glendale Liquor Store. "As far as we knew, they were starting at the end of March. We’ve seen reps from the owner in the parking lot, but none of them have elaborated. No one here knows what’s going on."
   One of the main problems, according to merchants, is that center management has been inconsistent with the upkeep of the property. They also say improvements have been promised for years. In 1999, ILKP was given the go-ahead from the township to do a smaller-scale improvement, but never began. ILKP said it scrapped those plans after the Kendall Park Cinemas closed in 1999.
   "Nobody’s surprised that nothing has been done," said Stacy Kenia, manager of Joe’s Barber Shop. "It’s a big joke. I don’t know what (Mr. Nuckel) is waiting for. I honestly don’t thinking he’s looking to better anything around here."
   Many store owners said in November and during the past week that they’ve been contacted by other business owners interested in locating in the center, but did not receive responses from Mr. Nuckel and his associates. ILKP representative Jeff Fabian would not comment.
   Ms. Kenia said the longer it takes for ILKP to come through with improvements, the more likely it is that a tragedy will occur at the center because of the poor road and parking conditions..
   "People are still crazy parking because of how bad the lot it," she said. "It’s horrendous. It’s an accident waiting to happen. You put your heart in your hands when you come in here."