The wait is over for Zhixin Zong and Eyi Cao. The Franklin residents said they have been eagerly awaiting the opening of Costco, the first store built as part of the MainStreetNB transit village project on Route 1 north in North Brunswick.
“We saw the sign ‘Coming Soon’ for the past two to three years,” Zong said.
Cao said they used to travel to Edison and Bridgewater to shop at Costco.
“This is great, because now it’s five to 10 minutes from where we live,” she said.
Zong and Cao attended Costco’s opening party on July 23, which brought out a crowd of eager customers and happy employees from across the state.
The opening party was not open for sales but offered Costco’s samples such as fruit smoothies to salmon, which were enjoyed by the crowd.
The store opened its doors at 8 a.m. the next day, and the gas station opened on July 28.
The 148,000-square-foot warehouse club is located at Grand Avenue and Route 1 north. The membership-only store is Costco’s 16th in New Jersey. It operates 466 stores in the United States and 659 worldwide.
Stephanie Dejesus of East Brunswick said the opening of the Costco, along with the possibility of building a train station in the area, is great.
“The values of our homes will go up,” she said.
Javeria Qureshi of Spotswood and Erum Qureshi of Montclair said there is a lot of excitement surrounding the opening of Costco as well as the future of the area.
“The [Costco in North Brunswick] gives an opportunity of convenience for those on the southern end of Middlesex County,” Javeria said.
The opening of Costco was contingent upon improvements to the intersections of Route 1 and Aaron Road, and Adams and Cozzens lanes, as well as roadwork on Commerce Boulevard and the construction of a new bypass road. The project developer, North Brunswick TOD Associates, was required to complete the various road improvements, which carry a total estimated cost of $10 million.
The New Jersey Department of Transportation opened the newly constructed intersection of Route 1 and Aaron Road on June 25.
Michael Hritz, director of Community Development in the township, said the first opening in the MainStreetNB project is the culmination of many years of deliberate work by the township’s Planning Board.
“Costco has certainly been eagerly anticipated for some time, but our commitment from the very beginning was to make improvements to the local traffic network,” he said. “The new road infrastructure is critical to the project’s success as Main Street grows, and our journey continues towards a train station.”
The first phase of the transit village project will also include a Target store, a hotel and 300 housing units, which are expected to be built by the fall of 2015.
The mixed-use project on the former 212-acre Johnson & Johnson property is being built over two decades, and will ultimately include 450,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, 50,000 square feet of freestanding commercial space, 195,000 square feet of office space and 1,875 residential units.
NJ Transit plans to build a train station as part of the project at a cost of $30 million.
On July 9, the NJ Transit board of directors approved its operating budget for fiscal year 2015 and a capital program that invests in upgrades to the Northeast Corridor, the agency’s most utilized rail line.
NJ Transit’s 10-year, $1 billion Northeast Corridor investment program includes funding for the new North Brunswick station and the mid-line loop — a new flyover track to improve corridor operations and increase operational efficiencies.
The plans also call for a parking lot for a bus station to be used by commuters. The developer is in discussions with Coach USA-Suburban Transit to create a 500- space park-and-ride facility along Commerce Boulevard, with bus service to and from New York City. Contact Kathy Chang at [email protected].