A redevelopment plan for the vacant Bell Labs building at the Alcatel-Lucent site in Holmdel proposes multiple uses for the 2 million-square-foot structure. With three years of heated debate behind them, the Holmdel Township Committee and Somerset Development introduced plans for redeveloping the Alcatel-Lucent property at an information session on June 15.
In front of more than 100 Holmdel residents, Ralph Zucker, president of Lakewood based Somerset Development, presented plans for the 49-year-old Bell Labs building and surrounding site. “We wanted to make a substantial ratable that will more than stabilize our taxes and put Holmdel on solid fiscal ground for the future,” Mayor Patrick Impreveduto said of the Township Committee’s goals. “We will realize, when this project is completed, over $4.7 million in ratables.”
In addition to a few hundred thousand square feet of office space, Somerset Development’s plan also calls for a hotel and conference center, an ambulatory care center and up to 100 residential, age-targeted loft apartments. “The devil’s in the details, and there’s still a lot of details that have to be ironed out,” Zucker said. “But the vision is really beginning to come together a lot better. We’ve come a long way.”
The crux of the plan lies on the ground floor of the building, where architect Eero Saarinen’s curtain wall design allows for more than 50,000 square feet available for retail and restaurant space — all between the major structures but within the building’s glass enclosure.
“This is going to be our town square. This is going to be a place where you come to get a cup of coffee, go to a restaurant, or go to a little boutique shop. It will provide that little Main Street feeling; we need to make this happen,” Zucker said. “Everything works well along an inside pedestrian corridor, a private little street that feels perfect.”
Frank Schuck, a Holmdel resident, expressed concern that demand for the project may not be enough to warrant building it.
“If you drive around this area, there’s already an awful lot of vacant retail and commercial office space,” he said.
“I’m very excited about this project, but I don’t want it to become the Xanadu of Monmouth County,” he said, referring to the former name of the Meadowlands project fraught with delays and financial problems.
Other residents expressed concerns that the nature of a mixed-use site would create havoc on nearby streets and roads.
“Do not underestimate the traffic problems here,” said resident Francis Urbanski.
Professional engineerVajiraGunawardana, who lives a quarter-mile from the site, expects traffic to be worse than the daily commuter traffic when Lucent operated at the site.
“With this proposal and the use of the building, traffic won’t be limited to an a.m. peak and a p.m. peak. You’re going to have traffic throughout the day, into the evening and on the weekends,” he said.
Zucker said such problems may be alleviated through mediating the use of the site’s many access points, but that the potential issues are a “fair trade-off.”
“There’s always a give and take, and that’s the price that the community will have to weigh,” he said.
Mitigating the impact on the surrounding community was one of the sticking points in the years of discussion between Holmdel officials and Somerset Development. Impreveduto said Somerset’s plan brought the two sides closer than ever.
“It wasn’t easy on either side,” Impreveduto said. “We have listened to residents over a number of years, and we all have the same vision. And the most important thing was for us to express that vision to Somerset Development and have them hear what we were saying. ”
Zucker’s original plan called for 600 homes to be built around the building, but both the township and developer eventually settled on a maximum of 30 homes on about an acre near Roberts and Crawfords Corner roads — which Impreveduto said would have little or no impact on Holmdel schools.
“These homes are typical Holmdel-style, single-family, large-lot homes that will fit with the vernacular and surrounding area,” Zucker said.
Many residents worried about how the project would be affected by the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection’s Wastewater Management Plan for Monmouth County, which would extend sewer lines to the property.
“The [inconsistency] in the Wastewater Management Plan is not only impacting the Lucent property, but impacting the entire southern slope of Holmdel,” resident Roberta Kaufman said. “It would be really helpful if you don’t request sewer service come out of the building near those homes.”
Township Attorney Duane Davison said the property would be deed-restricted, essentially preventing it from further development and stressing whatever sewer lines are in place.
“It’s better than a wastewater management plan,” Davison said. “A deed restriction would, for all time, be in place without amendment. Amending a deed restriction is harder than amending any ordinance or changing a wastewater management plan. We are protecting our own flank.”
Davison said a deed restriction would protect the township from development by a different company — now or in the future — that would try to extend sewer lines.
Township Engineer Edward Broberg said the Wastewater Management Plan would, at worst, only reduce the number of homes to under 30.
“The project will remain essentially the same, whether the Wastewater Management Plan is changed from what it is now — to eliminate most of the open space for a sewer area — or whether it remains,” he said.
Other concerns were raised about the homes being built on the property. Resident Anthony Cooper expressed his concerns that the development plan would force the township to construct more affordable housing on its own budget, as per the state’s Council on Affordable Housing rules.
“All the potential downsides of the COAH could heavily damage Holmdel with an unsupportable quota, particularly in light of the DEP’s recent push to put the entire quadrant into a sewer service area,” Cooper said. “Matters don’t bode well for us, either with the Supreme Court’s decision on the COAH rules or the DEP’s big sewer service expansion.”
Andrew Bayer, the township’s affordable housing attorney, said Somerset Development has already agreed to take on any COAH obligation that arises from the redevelopment of theAlcatel-Lucent property.
“The township will not bear any affordable housing obligation that this developer is not going to take care of,” he said. “Holmdel isn’t going to be left holding the bag, having to construct affordable housing using township money.”
Most residents at the informational session agreed that the benefits of redeveloping the Alcatel Lucent property outweighed the potential risks. However, they are remaining realistic.
“The design is just fantastic,” Kaufman commented during the session. “But in this economy, it could well be 10 years before a shovel hits the ground.”