METUCHEN — With two major developments getting ready to kick off, borough officials have hired a coordinator liaison to ensure that all goes smoothly.
“One of the reasons we asked [borough engineering firm Maser Consulting] to come up with a coordinator liaison is because in our small town, we’re not accustomed to managing two simultaneous projects in a sensitive area of town,” Council President Ron Grayzel said.
The projects are the Pearl Street Piazza, a mix of retail and residential units and an accompanying 750-space parking deck near the train station, and The District at Metuchen, which will include a Whole Foods Market, along Middlesex and Central avenues. Work on the Pearl Street parking deck is set to begin around June 1, and construction of the first retail building at The District at Metuchen is slated to start in June or July, according to Mayor Thomas Vahalla.
Grayzel said officials sought a professional with experience in construction oversight to coordinate, oversee and serve as a liaison as the projects unfold, managing communications between entities and ensuring that disruptions are minimized.
Borough Engineer Thomas Herits of Maser Consulting introduced the coordinator liaison, Lewis Myerson, also of Maser, at the May 4 Borough Council meeting.
Myerson, a licensed architect with 40 years of experience, said he has spent the last decade in construction management and has extensive experience with parking deck construction.
“In this particular job, communication becomes very important,” Myerson said, adding that his role will be to facilitate communication between the various parties.
“I’ll also be involved in doing periodic inspections throughout the timeframe that construction is under way, as well as being involved in quality control and quality assurance to make sure the [borough] is get- ting what they paid for, and the developer is doing what they need to do,” he said.
Myerson said he will provide periodic reports to the mayor and council, and the updates could be shared with the public.
“The other thing we’d be involved with is coordination,” Myerson said. “We’d be involved with police, the Fire Department and the Parking Authority to make sure that there’s no issues when the contractor is delivering materials to the site, to make sure no traffic is jammed up. There would be forewarnings; times would be scheduled.”
In addition, part of his job will be to ensure that all contractors are abiding by noise ordinances.
“The major concern is, you have two independent developers and contractors who are working simultaneously in a very strategic area of Metuchen,” Grayzel said. “And we want to make sure that someone on behalf of our town is monitoring that, overseeing that and checking that so that they are not working at odds with each other or creating an inordinate impact that cannot be controlled.”
Myerson said he thinks he can set up periodic meetings with both developers to discuss scheduling and avoid conflicts.
Councilman Reed Leibfried also asked that Myerson coordinate with the police about potential traffic issues.
“We just want to be as proactive as possible,” he said.
Myerson assured borough officials that he would address their concerns and do everything possible to ensure that the projects don’t create a negative impact.
“Basically, we work for you,” he said. “We’re your eyes and ears on the site.”
While Myerson will be a consultant for the borough, the three developers — Nexus Parking Systems; Woodmont Properties, the developer of the Pearl Street Piazza; and Renaissance Properties, builder of the District at Metuchen — will provide his pay through escrow funds, Vahalla said.
Len Roseman, chairman of the Parking Authority — which leased part of the Pearl Street parking lot to Nexus and sold the remainder to Woodmont for the projects — said hiring someone like Myerson for this scale of development is standard procedure.
“We haven’t done much in Metuchen on this level of development,” Roseman said. “He’s going to be busy.”
Councilman Jay Muldoon said after the meeting that Grayzel provided the impetus for hiring Myerson.
“It’s one of a lot of the things we’re doing to step up and meet the challenges we’re going to have,” Muldoon said.
Vahalla told Myerson at the meeting that the governing body looks forward to working with him.
“It’s going to be an interesting challenge, but we will survive it and get through, and it will be some great improvements for the borough,” he said.