By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE — Township officials and Roma Bank executives officially broke ground Oct. 3 on a three-story building on Route 33 whose top floor will be the new home for the township’s municipal offices.
The building, which is expected to be done in January 2014, is being constructed next to Roma Bank’s headquarters at 2330 Route 33 in Town Center.
Roma is selling the third floor of the new building — 10,000 square feet — to the township as commercial condominium space and intends to retain ownership of the first and second floors, which it will lease as either office or retail space, Roma CEO Peter Inverso has said.
The township in August authorized spending $3 million, including a $150,000 cash down payment and $2.85 million in bonds to finance the purchase of the top floor of the building. The price includes final fit out costs, such as interior walls that partition the shell into offices, flooring, ceilings, lighting, etc., according to Tim McGough, the township engineer and director of economic development.
Robbinsville now leases 8,000 square feet of municipal office space in the Sharbell building at 1 Washington Blvd. where it has township offices in the basement and on the second floor. The 2012 annual rent for Sharbell building offices is $160,512 and will increase to $163,279 in 2013, the final year of the lease.
Mayor Dave Fried, who was out of town and unable to attend the groundbreaking ceremony, has said in the past that it will be less expensive in the long run for the township to own office space, rather than continue leasing.
The township has been renting space in the Sharbell building since 2005 when a mold infestation caused the closure of the former municipal building on Route 130. The old municipal building, which was constructed in 1923, sat empty for seven years until it was bulldozed in March 2012.
All of the township’s municipal offices inside the Sharbell building will be moved to the new office space in 2014. This includes the mayor’s office, administration, taxes and finance, the municipal clerk, planning and zoning, and other offices.
Township Council meetings, which are now held in a portable trailer next to the police station, will also be able to be held in the new building.
“This is a big day for our Township and for Roma Bank — a true win-win situation,” Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried said in a press statement released by his office. “Any time you can own as opposed to renting space, that is the ideal scenario.”
This gives us a ratable asset and allows for even better allocation of taxpayer dollars in the future,” he said.

