shopping center to expand by 24,000 square feet
Stop & Shop gets OK for expansion
Approval will allow
shopping center to expand by 24,000 square feet
By sandi carpello
Staff Writer
The Stop & Shop supermarket on Perrineville Road in Monroe will be allowed to more than double in size with its stated goal of providing customers with shorter check-out lines and a greater selection of commodities.
The Planning Board last week granted preliminary and final site plan approval to expand the 2-year-old supermarket in the Concordia Shopping Center. It plans to increase the number of check-out registers, widen the widths of the shopping aisles and provide more food selections, including low-fat products, a greater assortment of kosher foods, and an improved deli department.
The supermarket, which shares its property with the Concordia retirement community and is located within a mile of the Greenbriar at Whittingham community, has geared its improvements toward the large senior population in the area.
After meeting with neighborhood groups to solicit feedback from customers regarding the store, the Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. also announced plans to provide better lighting in the supermarket, increase the accessibility of its aisles for people with disabilities, and provide benches and more public bathrooms, locating them in the front of the store.
"We think it’s a necessity," Greenbriar resident Gene Gersky said at the Planning Board’s Nov. 26 meeting. "We in Greenbriar are for it 100 percent."
Stop & Shop plans to increase the size of the supermarket from 36,000 to 72,000 square feet. This will be accomplished by demolishing and rebuilding a 12,000-square-foot portion of the building, and by building an additional 24,000 square feet.
The additions will increase the overall shopping center’s size from 116,000 square feet to more than 140,000 square feet.
To make room for the supermarket expansion, Ocean First will be relocated to a new building in the center of the shopping center. Also, the Jewish Congregation of Concordia will relocate to an existing building on the site that used to be a diner, officials have said.
The shopping center will add a bus stop with a drop-off zone on the property, while also constructing a new stormwater system in the parking lot.
The shopping center’s parking lot will be regraded and lowered to make it more even. In the past, customers have complained that its steep angle caused unmanned shopping carts to roll and collide with parked vehicles.
At last week’s hearing, Engineer Joseph Jaworski, of Bohler Engineering in Watchung, who testified on behalf of Stop & Shop, said the applicant added several safety and visual enhancements to the plan, including pedestrian crosswalks and two main entrances on opposite sides of the parking lot. The applicant will also add shrubbery and bushes in the north parking lot to obstruct the view of the garbage bins, and construct a 6-foot-high monument illuminated sign, located across the front facade of the building.
"We made some good improvements that make sense," he said.
However, in an effort to ensure proper safety precautions in the area, the Planning Board will not allow construction until Township Engineer Ernie Feist determines whether the added shrubbery will obstruct the pedestrian view.
The board also requested that the applicant replace an old fence on Perrineville Road and provide a retaining wall at the rear of the property. The applicant will also need permission from the Concordia retirement community regarding a buffer zone at the rear of the shopping plaza.
Construction cannot take place until the three conditions are met, said Councilman John Riggs, who also sits on the board.
Though most residents of Greenbriar who were present at the meeting said they were in favor of the expansion, some Concordia residents felt it would damage the charm of the community.
"We’re not thinking clearly," Yvette Lederman of Concordia Circle said during the public portion of last weeks meeting. "The Concordia Shopping Center has a rustic charm. It will absolutely be lost. Do we really want a commercialized Concordia Shopping Center? I think it’s an appalling idea."
However, Debra Fair, a representative from Stop & Shop’s New Jersey division, said the new supermarket will be a great service to the community.
"We are thrilled with this," she said.
Stop & Shop representatives said they were unsure when they would begin construction, as it depends on weather conditions.
The $85 billion Stop & Shop company has 90 stores in New Jersey alone.

