Mike Deak, MyCentralJersey.com
May 5, 2023
One of the biggest developments in the township’s history will be coming before the Planning Board this month.
AR Bridgewater II, part of Advance Realty Investors in Bedminster, will be asking the Board for approval to build the Peters Brook Innovation Center on 61 acres at the south end of the former Sanofi campus on Route 202-206.
What’s the Peters Brook Innovation Center?
The development was formerly known as The Bridge or commonly, the Center of Excellence. It’s named after the Peters Brook which flows near the site, then through Green Knoll Golf Course and by the Somerset Corporate Center before flowing through Somerville and emptying into the Raritan River. Flooding along Peters Brook during the remnants of Hurricane Ida caused considerable damage to garden apartment communities in Somerville.
The Center of Excellence is an office and research complex in the northern portion of the property which Advance sold to Thor Equities for $152 million. When Advance sold to Thor, the proposed mixed-use development on the southern part of the property was renamed The Bridge. The property, between Route 202-206 and Interstate 287, was originally developed by American Hoechst which sold it to Sanofi which then moved about a mile north on Route 202-206. Sanofi has recently announced plans to leave Bridgewater and relocate to Morristown.
What’s the plan?
A mixed-use development of eight buildings totaling 940,276 square feet. By comparison, the Bridgewater Commons is 970,000 square feet.
The eight buildings are:
Four three-story and four-story research and office buildings
Two one-story warehouses
Two retail pads, with space for a drive-thru establishment.
Phase One
One-story warehouse of approximately 124,988 square feet
One-story warehouse of approximately 124,990 square feet.
A three-story 172,082-square-foot research/office building.
The two warehouses total 249,978 square feet, more than the size of four football fields. By comparison, Signature Acquisitions has a plan to demolish four Route 22 office buildings in the Centerpointe complex and build two warehouses totaling 264,000 square feet on eastbound Route 22 between Gaston Avenue and Adamsville Road. About a mile and a half south on Route 202-206, M & M at 206 has an application before the Planning Board for a 230,000-square-foot light manufacturing building next to Audi Bridgewater.
Next phases
One four-story 153,803-square-foot research and office building
One four-story 153,803-square-foot research and office building with a garage
One four-story 200,610 square-foot research and office building
One one-story 5,000-square-foot retail building with a drive-thru
One one-story 5,000-square-foot retail building.
Previous plan
The Bridge, which was more commonly known as the Center of Excellence, called for 243,834 square feet of retail space, including a ShopRite, a 400-unit apartment building and 124-room hotel. That plan generated a firestorm of community opposition over concerns that it would worsen traffic on Route 202-206.
How did we get here?
It’s a long story. The first designation of the property as a redevelopment area was nearly a decade ago in 2014. A redevelopment plan was adopted in 2016, but litigation delayed the Planning Board hearings until 2018 and 2019. The proposal became the major issue in the 2019 Republican mayoral primary when then-Councilman Matt Moench defeated incumbent Mayor Dan Hayes, an enthusiastic supporter of the project.
Late in 2019, despite community opposition, the Planning Board approved the project. But when the composition of the Board changed in the Moench administration, the final approval met a roadblock over whether Advance should present final floor plans for the ShopRite and hotel. Advance then filed suit against the township.
The settlement
In June 2022, Advance and the township reached a settlement before the case went to trial. The settlement calls for the township to allow a maximum of 300,000 square feet of warehouses and 30,000 square feet of restaurant and retail development that is intended mostly to serve the people who are working at the site. The settlement proposes no one warehouse can be more than 125,000 square feet, about twice the size of a football field, with no more than 250,000 square feet of warehousing as a primary use. The township will allow research laboratories and facilities, medical offices and light manufacturing. One drive-thru restaurant will be allowed if it is set back 125 feet from the highway.
The meeting
The Planning Board hearing on the proposal was May 16. The meeting was livestreamed.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com