Township Council considers its options, including tearing the structure down
By: Courtney Gross
WEST WINDSOR Characterized by its boarded-up windows and overgrown driveways, the Ellsworth Center is known as a place for teenagers to congregate and commuters to hastily park.
At the corner of Cranbury, Wallace and Princeton-Hightstown roads and within the designated Princeton Junction train station redevelopment zone, the shopping center’s site plan was originally approved in the late 1980s, township officials said, but it has since been unoccupied.
But with the property having recently hit the Township Council’s agenda and been described as an eyesore by some of the governing body’s members, the township is attempting to encourage its owner, Pereira Investments Inc. of Kearny, to make several mandatory site improvements.
At Monday’s Township Council meeting, the council discussed the property and its potential. Brought to the council’s attention by Councilman Franc Gambatese in July, sections of the unoccupied shopping center may have been neglected for so long they are now uninhabitable, township officials said Monday.
"They have had plenty of time to do something with it," Mr. Gambatese said of the shopping center.
After discussions of the center’s condition resurfaced, the property owners sent a letter to the council and Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh on Aug. 24, claiming to have never intended to abandon the project.
As part of the site plan approved by the township for the Ellsworth Center, Pereira Investments would have had to make frontage improvements along Route 571, Cranbury Road and Wallace Road, the township’s engineer, Jim Parvesse, said.
He added the firm also was required to design a plan for the intersection and submit it to the county in order to get a certificate of occupancy and lease the facility.
Mr. Parvesse said that even if the county did not approve the plan for the road improvements, Pereira Investments could have still occupied the building. But, he noted, that plan was never submitted.
"They never made the effort," Mr. Parvesse said.
Jacinto Rodrigues, president of Pereira, said in the letter to the mayor and council that it was the township and Mercer County’s inability to agree on a proposed plan for the intersection that prevented final construction and occupancy of the project.
"At one point, Pereira Investments had tenants, which were ready, willing and able to occupy both buildings," Mr. Rodrigues noted.
"We are ready, willing and able to complete the shopping center, however, we need the township’s assistance on resolving these issues, which are beyond our control," he added.
Township Attorney Michael Herbert said the township would be happy to meet with representatives of Pereira Investments to rectify the situation.
But, legally, the township can demolish the building if need be, Mr. Herbert said.
"The buildings have fallen into such disrepair that it might be inevitable," Mr. Herbert said of the possible razing.
Mayor Hsueh said this is the first time his administration has received a letter from Pereira. The mayor said he is going to attempt to set up a meeting with the firm to resolve the issue.
"I would like to invite them to come to town hall and see what they have to say," Mayor Hsueh said.

