Merrill Lynch starts process of going for OKs for Scotch Road west plan

Proposal brought to Hopewell Township ARC Tuesday is result of rezoning lawsuit settlement reached last year.

By John Tredrea
   Merrill Lynch’s application for general development plan (GDP) approval for 1 million square feet of office space west of Scotch Road and north of I-95 is expected to go before the township Planning Board on June 28.
   Under the application, which Merrill representatives discussed Tuesday morning with the Planning Board’s Application Review Committee (ARC), 500,000 of the 1 million square feet would be transferred from already approved 3.5 million square feet east of Scotch Road and north of I-95.
   This transfer conforms to the terms of last year’s out-of court settlement of Merrill’s lawsuit against the township. The settlement ended a lawsuit Merrill filed when the township changed the zoning, from industrial office park to 6-acre residential, of 440 acres Merrill had purchased on the west side of Scotch Road. The change to residential came shortly after Merrill purchased the land in the late 1990s.
   Under the settlement, the township rezoned the west side of Scotch Road to allow construction of the 1 million square feet Merrill is calling for in its GDP application. The project on the west side of Scotch Road is called Garden State Office Park and is owned by a Garden Property LLC, which is wholly owned by Merrill Lynch.
   "We will not develop the property on the west side of Scotch Road ourselves," said Merrill executive Jane Spencer Wesby after ARC adjourned Tuesday. "We’ll sell it" after getting GDP approval. Ms. Wesby is Merrill’s director of real estate planning and transactions.
   As specified in the out-of-court settlement, the 1 million square feet of new construction on the west side would go on 200 acres in the southerly portion of the 440 acres Merrill owns on that side of Scotch Road. Sixty acres near the interstate is zoned for 6-acre residential housing. The balance of the tract will be preserved as open space.
   Under the GDP application for the west side, Merrill could build nothing but office space or a hotel-conference center in addition to office space. Either way, the total amount of new construction would be 1 million square feet.
   Of Merrill’s 3.5 million square feet of approved construction on the east side of Scotch Road – that project is called Southfields – about 1.2 million square feet has been built thus far and there are no applications pending to build any more.
   A sewer easement around the perimeter of the 200 acres on which the 1 million new square feet may be built on the west side will prevent extension of sewers beyond the site, but will allow bringing sewers to the site from Scotch Road. The site will be serviced by the Ewing-Lawrence Sewerage Authority (ELSA) and Trenton Public Water.