Forrestal Village looks for answers in new mix

Beleaguered center on College Road West off Route 1 is poised to reinvent itself yet again.

By: Gwen Runkle
   PLAINSBORO — Princeton Forrestal Village is no stranger to change. The beleaguered center on College Road West off Route 1, previously transformed from an upscale shopping venue to an outlet mall, is poised to reinvent itself yet again — this time with a combination of outlets, professional offices and other service businesses.
   But with other Route 1 shopping centers flourishing nearby, one question begs to be answered — What went wrong at Princeton Forrestal Village?
   According to officials close to the center, everything from the stock market and demographics to visibility and its outdoor setting have played a part in the village’s failures.
   David Knights, director of marketing for Princeton Forrestal Center, sees several problems.
   "I’ve been here through all of it from the very beginning," he said. "The original development did start out with a great theory and initially had great execution, but the developer really misjudged the local demographics.
   "It was too high end," he continued. "There were stores in there that today would be hard to say with a straight face and the stock market crash of 1987 didn’t help matters, either."
   Scott Toombs, a Connecticut developer, created Princeton Forrestal Village, which opened in 1987. He thought the Princeton area would support a high-end retail center that was similar to Nassau Street.
   Mr. Toombs built a 300-room hotel, now the Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village, to anchor the $140 million project, which featured two outdoor streets lined with three-story buildings. Luxury stores occupied the ground-level stores, with offices above. Parking lots surround the entire village.
   But the upscale-shopping idea never really took off. In August of 1990 the Bank of New York loaned Mr. Toombs an additional $25 million to make capital improvements to try to lure more customers and stores to the village. Occupancy at that time was at 66 percent.
   By 1991 about half of the original 95 stores were gone and the Bank of New York took control of the village, bringing in The Gale Co. to manage the site.
   Six months later The Gale Co. decided to bring in factory outlets, an idea Mr. Knights said worked well initially.
   "We went along with it and welcomed the change," he said. "But again the center was plagued with broader economic and critical mass issues. Neighboring competition, like the large outlet center in Jackson, sucked the strength out of the village."
   Greg Lezynski, marketing director for The Gale Co., agrees.
   "Factory outlets have reached a saturation point in this area," he said. "The proliferation of these stores, particularly in the ‘big box’ concept, have hurt the village."
   He pointed out other constraints, such as difficult accessibility, limited visibility and being an outdoor market area without parking directly adjacent to the stores.
   "These constraints combined with economic conditions have hurt the center," he said. "We need to change the uses on site to generate the foot traffic needed to support the vital retail component of Princeton Forrestal Village."
   The Gale Co. recently received approval from the Plainsboro Township Planning Board to change how it uses the village’s 205,000 square feet of retail space.
   The Gale Co. plans on creating a 90,000-square-foot core retail shopping area surrounded by a mix of professional office and business uses, including space for doctors, dentists, architects, fitness and education, in the remaining 115,000 square feet.
   Mr. Lezynski estimates Princeton Forrestal Village already has about 300,000 square feet of office space, which is one of the village’s high points.
   "Not everything in Princeton Forrestal Village has had problems," he pointed out. "Our office component has flourished. Vacancy is well below the Princeton average. It’s about 92 percent occupied right now and our hotel component has been very successful, too.
   "It’s hard to say exactly why the retail portion has done so poorly, but I guess we’ve struggled because we just haven’t found a good fit of uses yet," he continued. "But we believe we are on the right track now. We need to change in order to generate enough foot traffic to support the vital retail component of Princeton Forrestal Village."