Board gets look at plans for Concordia expansion

Shopping center would expand to accommodate supermarket additions

By vincent todaro
Staff Writer

By vincent todaro
Staff Writer

MONROE — The Stop & Shop supermarket on Perrineville Road is applying to the Planning Board for permission to vastly increase its size with the stated goal of better serving the needs of the community.

"This proposes a very, very significant enhancement of the service and opportunities that the citizens of Monroe Township have in terms if what they have on the dinner table," Robert Smith, a company attorney, said during an Oct. 24 Planning Board meeting at which the company gave testimony in its case for preliminary and final site plan approval. The company is also seeking relief in the form of variances for parking, signage and impervious coverage.

"[The supermarket] is somewhat of an institution in the community," he said.

During her testimony before the board, Debra Fair, who works in real estate development for Stop & Shop’s New Jersey division, said the supermarket company is one of the largest in the New England region. The $85 billion company has 90 stores in New Jersey alone, she said.

The supermarket opened at the Concordia shopping center in 2000. Fair said that since that time representatives have met with neighborhood groups to solicit feedback from customers regarding the store. One of the requests was that the store expand its kosher foods department, and the plans call for it to be enlarged to four times its current size, representing one of the major improvements in the plans.

Also at the request of customers, Fair said the store plans to increase the number of check-out registers from 13 to 20. She added that four of those registers will include handicapped-accessible aisles, where currently there is only one such register.

The store plans to add more food selections in general, and would increase its low-fat offerings in particular. The deli section would also be enlarged, according to the plans.

"[There will be] a much a larger selection," Fair said.

In addition, customers asked the store for better lighting, she said, and the plan before the board would provide for more than 30 skylights to be installed, she said.

"That’s unheard of for a supermarket," she said. "It’s going to be gorgeous."

She said the lighting changes are in part due to the fact that many senior citizen customers said they need to be able to see better.

The width of the aisles will also be increased to the point that three shopping carts would be able fit side-by-side, she said.

The store also plans to add more public bathrooms, and increase their accessibility by locating them in the front of the store. Plans also include the placement of benches inside the store for shoppers to rest.

Jeffrey Spalt, an engineer for the company, testified that the Concordia shopping center comprises about 116,000 square feet, including the supermarket’s current 36,000 square feet. In order to increase the size of the supermarket, a 12,000-square-foot portion of the building will have to be demolished and rebuilt for the supermarket to use. An additional 24,000 square feet is also proposed.

The additions would bring the supermarket’s size to about 72,000 square feet, and increase the retail center’s size to more than 140,000 square feet.

In addition, a bus stop would be located on the property, and a new storm water system would be installed in the parking lot, Spalt said.

Ocean First, a bank located in the center of the shopping center, would be relocated to a new building at the shopping center to make room for the supermarket expansion.

An existing area of the shopping center that is used by the Jewish Congregation of Concordia would have to be relocated as well, according to Smith. The plans call for the synagogue to be moved to an existing building on the site that used to house a diner.

Fair said the shopping center’s parking lot would be regraded and lowered to make it more even. People have complained that its steep angle causes unmanned shopping carts to roll and collide with parked vehicles.

"It’ll be a nice, even, flat parking lot," she said.

The expanded supermarket would also have dual access so that customers could gain entry from opposite sides.

The next hearing on the application is scheduled for late November.