By Nick Norlen, Staff Writer
As both a tangible remainder of Princeton Borough’s first phase of downtown redevelopment and a marker of the site where future building may occur, the storage container that has sat in the Tulane Street parking lot for more than two years is scheduled to be removed this week, according to the borough.
In her speech during the borough’s reorganization meeting Jan. 6, Mayor Mildred Trotman expressed optimism that the remaining portion of the first phase of the borough’s downtown redevelopment — including the construction of Building C, the five-story mixed-use building slated for the Tulane Street lot — could begin early in the year.
At the most recent Borough Council meeting on Jan. 22, the container was the subject of a complaint by borough resident Henry Landau, who owns the Landau of Princeton clothing store on Nassau Street.
At the time, Mr. Landau said the container’s presence may have cost the borough thousands of dollars in revenue that was potentially lost because it has blocked parking spaces in the lot. He also said that the loose fencing that surrounded it posed a danger to residents.
However, that fencing was removed as of Friday.
And Borough Engineer Chris Budzinski said Monday that the container, which he said was being rented by downtown developer Nassau HKT, is scheduled to be removed on Tuesday.
”Certainly by week’s end both those spaces will have meters on them and will be available,” he said.
Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman said Thursday that the removal of the container was part of the borough’s response to Mr. Landau’s concerns.
”Actually, all of the complaints that Mr. Landau filed at that council meeting have been resolved — those which the borough is responsible for,” she said.
Mr. Landau said Monday that he sees the pending removal of the trailer as a step in the right direction.
”Hopefully they’ll just keep on going,” he said, referring the resolution of loose ends associated with the first phase of redevelopment. “As long as we’re making some progress.”
The complaints that Mr. Landau issued Jan. 22 were part of a broader criticism of the borough’s handling of the downtown redevelopment and ongoing negotiations with Nassau HKT, and followed the council’s two-hour closed session on the negotiations that night.
At the time, Borough Administrator Bruschi said in his summary during the open meeting the closed session was spent reviewing the negotiation positions of Nassau HKT “with the anticipation that we will be communicating with NHKT some concerns and a status report as to where we are with those negotiations.”
The Borough Council is scheduled to meet in closed session again at its Tuesday meeting to further discuss negotiations.
