The downtown Plainsboro always wanted

Village Center will house a bank, a dozen shops and maybe even the library

By: Emily Craighead and George Spohr
   PLAINSBORO — A mid-summer opening of Sharbell Development Corp.’s Plainsboro Village Center still is likely, despite time- consuming permit issues that have cropped up since its 2003 groundbreaking.
   "It’s been a bit slower in terms of wrapping up some of the permit issues, but other than that, we’ve had a very good response in terms of interest from perspective tenants," said Thomas Troy, Sharbell’s senior vice president.
   The Village Center will serve as a centerpiece for a town that previously lacked a cohesive "village green," Mr. Troy said. The 85,000-square-foot project will include townhouses, apartments, office space and retail stores.
   Already, one tenant — First Constitution Bank — has signed a lease to anchor one end of the center, allowing the bank to install a two-lane drive-through window.
   "I’ve been devoting an increasing amount of time to tenants," Mr. Troy said. "I’ve got probably a dozen different tenants in various stages of negotiation right now."
   Of the potential tenants with whom Mr. Troy is working, about five are restaurants and at least three are "service providers" that want second-floor office space above the retailers’ sites. In all, the Village Center could boast more than 20 tenants.
   It’s more of a response than Mr. Troy expected when the township approved the Village Center, which is located at Shalks Crossing and Scudders Mill roads. "I’m even more encouraged now than I was before," he said.
   The Village Center, which Mr. Troy said will cost more than $20 million to build, will include 45,000 square feet of retail space as well as 38,000 square feet of office space, homes, townhouses and apartments. Also, Plainsboro is considering moving its library to the Village Center, perhaps as an anchor.
   Although the Plainsboro Township Committee has yet to take formal action to approve that plan, township officials already are anticipating how the new location would foster a sense of community.
   "We see the benefit of moving the library to the Village Center site as opposed to expanding here at the current site," Township Administrator Robert Sheehan said. "There are terrific advantages — it allows the library to breathe life into the Village Center."
   The idea of building a new township library as an anchor at the planned Village Center was proposed in September by architects unveiling the results of a feasibility study.
   Preliminary estimates put the cost to the township of building the new library at $8.5 million. According to estimates by BKSK Architects, the New York firm that conducted the feasibility study, renovating and expanding the existing library in the municipal complex on Dey and Scudders Mill roads would cost nearly the same amount as building a new library.
   Sharbell’s offer to cover the estimated $1.5 million cost of site work has made the plan especially appealing to township officials.
   The township has hired a fund raiser and is seeking grants to help finance the new library, Mr. Lewis said.
   Committeeman Ed Yates said the important role the library already plays in many Plainsboro residents’ lives will have a positive impact on the Village Center.
   "It gives (it) a nice anchor," he said. "The Village Center is designed to be a place of community, and the library is that already."
   Mr. Lewis said the library would be a centerpiece of the Village Center and of the community.
   "The library is not only an educational focal point, but also a cultural focal point that helps people celebrate the diversity of the community," said Mr. Lewis.
   (He speaks from experience. The library recently held a community celebration of the Indian holiday Holi. There, as a ritualistic part of that celebration, he — and other participants — found themselves covered in powdered dye.)
   If the committee approves building a new library, the current space the library occupies in the municipal center could be used for recreational programs, according to Mr. Sheehan.
   The Township Committee will decide in the next two to three weeks whether to move forward with plans for a new library, he said.
   Of the housing element, 12 are townhouses in four, three-unit buildings. Eleven are single-family homes that look similar to new houses Sharbell built near the Plainsboro Road firehouse. And there will be eight, two-bedroom apartments.
   "It’s a combination of things," Mr. Troy said. "No one element makes it what it is. It’s the successful combination of not only the retail space, but the office use. There’s a public square that we’re building that we hope to have finished by the fall that’s really the main green of the town.
   "If you do it right, it’s very successful," he added.
   The project’s square footage imprint might soar past 100,000 square feet, as allowed by the site plan approved by the township, if additional development — dubbed "second-tier development" — occurs, Mr. Troy said.
   An exact number of tenants won’t be known until the leases are signed and square footage is assigned, he said.
   "It’s hard to say how many tenants, because most tenants are on the small side — they only want 1,000 to 2,000 square feet," he said. "It’s not inconceivable to have anywhere between 20 and 25 tenants. It’s a good mix, and that’s what you want. You don’t want one big, massive tenant."