By Jennifer Kohlhepp, Staff Writer
PLAINSBORO — The township needs a supermarket to serve its 23,000 citizens, according to Bert Mulder, resident and president of the Plainsboro Village Center Homeowners Association.
Mr. Mulder recently created the "Plainsboro Needs A Supermarket" Facebook page to try to gain support for re-tenanting Plainboro Plaza, which is a 215,000-square-foot neighborhood center at the junction of Scudders Mill and Schalks Crossing roads, with a supermarket. The Village Center is located across the street from the plaza.
"Within only a few months time the Facebook page received almost 2,800 likes and new posts are seen by more than 9,000 people on average," he said. "As you can see from all the comments, people are in desperate need of a supermarket in our community and are quite frankly frustrated with the slow progress over the past few years."
Superfresh, Plainsboro’s only traditional supermarket, went out of business in January 2013. Since then, Plainsboro residents have been forced to drive to West Windsor, South Brunswick and Princeton for their groceries.
"The problem with the supermarkets around us is that it can take up to a half hour to get there in traffic," Mr. Mulder said. "People who don’t have transportation have been buying online."
In a joint venture, Onyx Equities LLC and Artemis Real Estate Partners bought Plainsboro Plaza on April 1, 2013, from TIAA-Cref. The Woodbridge-based Onyx said it planned on not only re-tenanting the old grocery store, but also upgrading the overall appearance of the property as part of its investment strategy. The 27-year-old plaza had an increasing number of empty storefronts and lack of maintenance and infrastructure improvements.
In the summer of this year, Onyx representatives said improvements would be finished by the end of October.
"Although the work did start on the evening of Sept. 9, after removing all awnings and stripping down the facade, it all stopped a few weeks later and the plaza was left looking in really bad shape," Mr. Mulder said. "I was told by one of the business owners in the plaza that one day a lot of construction equipment came out, only to be removed again that very same day."
Mayor Peter Cantu shared his frustration with the slow progress at the plaza in a recent message to residents that states, "In February, the Plainsboro Planning Board approved upgrades to Plainsboro Plaza that include the construction of new directory signs at the entrances to the plaza, as well as at the corner of Scudders Mill Road and Schalks Crossing Road; the renovation of the building façade (work which is underway); parking lot redesign and improvements to landscaping. We are disappointed that the implementation of these improvements has not advanced more quickly."
In the meantime, the plaza lost one tenant — Powerhouse Gym — but gained two new tenants — Planet Fitness and Indus Bank.
According to the mayor, plans are on track for the LightBridge Academy (formerly Rainbow Academy), which is a preschool/daycare facility, to occupy the space formerly occupied by Ace Hardware.
Onyx has said it hopes to have all of the spaces leased by the end of 2015. R.J. Brunelli of Old Bridge serves as exclusive leasing agent on Onyx’s major redevelopment and renovation of Plainsboro Plaza.
Onyx Equities did not return multiple calls for comment prior to deadline for this story.
