Mixed-use commercial and residential projects will pop up around the region in the next five to 10 years if recent proposals become a reality. The plans for these new developments are reflective of a trend toward an all-inclusive community.
“Market forces are driving it,” said Charles Latini, president of the American Planning Association’s New Jersey chapter.
Various demographics are causing changes in housing preferences, he said.
Citing baby boomers who are downsizing and members of Generation X who want amenities close to home, Latini said the movement is away from “segregated land uses.”
Tapping into the so-called bookend generations of people under the age of 35 and over the age of 65, developers are offering buyers a sense of community not typically found in neighborhoods with single-family homes on large lots. George Vallone, president of the New Jersey Builders Association, refers to mixed-use developments as a “two-humped camel.”
Baby boomers, or people born between 1946 and 1964, and millennials, or people born between about 1982 and the early 2000s, are attracted to this type of development because it allows residents to walk to nearby venues and access mass transit easily, he said.
Plans for mixed-use developments are in various stages in Freehold Township, Manalapan and Jackson.
In April, the Freehold Township Planning Board unanimously approved a general development plan for a mixed-use project proposed by MACW Freehold for a 77-acre parcel bordered by Route 9, the Route 33 bypass and Route 537. The land is owned by Macerich, headquartered in Santa Monica, California. It is anticipated that a memorialization resolution for the project will be passed in the near future.
Site plans will be submitted in late July or early August for the first phase of the project, according to attorney William Mehr, who represents the applicant.
Construction on the project is expected to begin at the end of 2015 or in early 2016, and will take between five and seven years to construct in two phases. Specific businesses that will occupy the space have not been named at this time, Mehr said.
The development will include a residential component of 360 luxury apartments and 40 affordable housing units; a neighborhood commercial component of restaurants and small stores; and a community commercial component of restaurants, retail, a grocery store and a hotel.
There will be a bicycle/pedestrian tunnel that will provide access from the apartments to the neighborhood commercial area, and a road that crosses the site that will connect Route 537 to Route 9.
The parcel is across Route 537 from the Trotters Way entrance to the Freehold Raceway Mall.
Roseland, a subsidiary of Mack/Cali Realty Corp., will develop the residential component of the project.
The plan will require approvals from the Freehold Township Planning Board, the Monmouth County Planning Board, the New Jersey Department of Transportation, the Freehold Soil Conservation District and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, according to Mehr.
In Manalapan, two developers have presented plans for mixed-use projects on Route 33.
In April, representatives of Cardinale Enterprises and Stavola Enterprises presented their ideas for developments at Route 33 and Millhurst Road, and Route 33 and Woodward Road, respectively.
Vito Cardinale of Cardinale Enterprises introduced his concept for Manalapan Crossing — a residential-commercial development he wants to build at Route 33 and Millhurst Road.
The plan calls for multiple buildings with retail uses such as restaurants and stores on the ground level and several floors of apartments above them. The concept includes 900 oneand two-bedroom rental apartments.
Other aspects of the plan include a grocery store/supermarket, a hotel and banquet hall, a bank, a design center and executive offices, an arts and exhibition center, a health and wellness center, and a neurological research center with housing.
Architect David Minno described the idea behind Manalapan Crossing and said the residential component would likely attract young married couples — millennials and adults who have sold a home and have no children living with them.
Mehr detailed a development concept on behalf of Stavola Enterprises.
Speaking about an undeveloped 66-acre parcel at Route 33 and Woodward Road, Mehr said the firm would like to build a 117-unit townhouse neighborhood and a commercial center that would include a market, additional retail space and two office buildings.
Neither plan in Manalapan has received any type of municipal approval at this time.
Jackson Twenty-One in Jackson is a residential and commercial development that is expected to have more than 1,500 residential units and about 3 million square feet of commercial space on a 611-acre site off Interstate 195.
Plans for the development are divided into two main phases: the residential Jackson Woods and the commercial Jackson Commons. According to documents associated with the project, the majority of the rental units will be one- and two-bedroom units.
Plans for Jackson Twenty-One also include a sports facility, an entertainment complex with an IMAX theater, studios for musicians and artists, shops, offices and a restaurant row. There will be a recreation center and a swimming pool.
To date, this development is in the early stages of land clearing.