MARLBORO – The Marlboro Planning Board has given the green light to an application that will bring an Aldi supermarket and a Chick-fil-A restaurant to Texas Road near Route 9.
The 4.1-acre property lies in Marlboro (2.3 acres) and Old Bridge (1.8 acres). The new construction will be connected to an adjacent property which contains a Costco members only warehouse, an IHOP restaurant and a branch of Investors Bank.
The applicant, American Plaza, sought approval to remove existing structures and to construct a Chick-fil-A restaurant which will total 5,129 square feet, with a drive-up window. The restaurant will seat 112 people. The plan also includes a 22,245-square-foot Aldi supermarket.
The Chick-fil-A restaurant will be in Old Bridge, while the Aldi supermarket, the access driveways and most of the parking spaces will be in Marlboro.
The applicant was represented by attorney Salvatore Alfieri, who said the property initially received approval for a bank and a large retail building.
“During the course of marketing the project, users for those specific approved uses were not located and two new users were located,” Alfieri said. “The property is unique because the municipal boundaries of Marlboro and Old Bridge bisect it, so from a jurisdictional point of view we have to get Marlboro, Old Bridge, Middlesex County and Monmouth County approval.
“The intersection which is the driveway that leads from the Costco shopping center to Texas Road is controlled by the Middlesex County Planning Board. We have met with them informally. They will require some changes to the traffic signal and that is exclusively their jurisdiction,” Alfieri said.
Planner John Taikina said adding Aldi and Chick-fil-A to the Costco property will increase the total lot size to 208,492 square feet, of which 203,000 square feet are in Marlboro. He said 939 parking spaces are required and the applicant is proposing 1,177 parking spaces.
Taikina said commuter parking spaces will continue to be provided at the location in an agreement with Marlboro.
“We have an agreement that provides 400 (commuter) spaces and we are proposing a slightly different 400 spaces. There are spaces that are right along the boundary between the lots and we are taking some of these Aldi spaces. About 280 spaces are being used by commuters at this point,” he said.
Taikina said the Aldi supermarket needs between 90 and 100 parking spaces and he said 113 spaces will be provided. The Chick-fil-A restaurant requires between 45 and 50 parking spaces and 58 spaces will be provided in the immediate vicinity, according to the testimony.
Aldi is expected to be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (closing at 8 p.m. on Sunday). A delivery truck would be expected each morning and would be expected to leave the site by 9 a.m., according to the testimony.
Chick-fil-A is expected to be open from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Based on how the restaurant performs, the owner could propose extending the hours from 6 a.m. to midnight.
“I appreciate [the applicant] investing time and money into Marlboro with these kind of commercial ratables, which we desperately need,” said Mayor Jonathan Hornik, who serves on the board.
“Specifically, the use of a supermarket is needed. (Aldi) will service (this) portion of the township … A lot of shopping is done online and (food) is being delivered to the home and it is hard to get (supermarkets) into your town. They service the needs of residents, but they also create jobs and that is something you cannot lose sight of,” the mayor said.
On a motion to approve the application, Chairman Mark Barenburg, Vice Chairman Andrew Pargament, Hornik and board members Neil Betoff, Christopher Cherbini, Rohit Gupta, Michael Slotopolsky and Michael Messinger voted yes.