“It was one of the first communities designated as a transit-oriented village. The state
added a lot of incentives and New Jersey
Transit added a midtown direct service that
reduced the time it took for commuters to
get into New York City. Those two things
made residential developers look at the
downtown, and the increase in residents in
the town is contributing to a resurgence of
the desirability of the retail space.”
Retail tenants are drawn to the developments because of the high level of traffic that
passes through them daily. “Transit villages
certainly differ from a suburban shopping
center, where you don’t have mass transportation like you do in downtown areas,”
says Silbert. “In Cranford, we have a 1,000-
a-day ridership, and that’s helped attract
Industrial Commercial
Real Estate Women, Inc.
Congratulates our Members
As Real Estate New Jersey’s
Top Women in Real Estate
some of the national retail tenants.”
Developers are now scrambling to create
transit villages. Edgewater Properties is involved in at least two mixed-use developments centered around transit hubs—the
Town Center at Somerville, located near the
train station offering service on New Jersey
Transit’s Raritan Valley Line, and Market
Place at Regency Square in East Brunswick,
which will feature 200,000 sf of retail and
400 townhomes near a major bus terminal.
Unfortunately, the overall picture is not
as bright to some. While New Jersey encourages certain types of development, it actively discourages or prohibits development
in some places through legislation designed
to protect certain environmental areas.
“There’s a limited amount of retail real estate, and it’s growing slowly because of all
the governmental rules and regulations that
are being imposed on the development
community,” says Richard Brunelli, presi-
Kim Brennan- Cushman & Wakefield of New Jersey, Inc.
Laura Brinkerhoff- Brinkerhoff Environmental Services, Inc.
Hope Brodsky- Newmark Knight Frank
Barbara Burke– The Aztec Corporation
Angela Calzone- Change and Response Strategies, LLC
Monica Ceres- Giordano Halleran & Ciesla, P.C.
Daniele Cervino- Environmental Waste Management Associates
Silvana Finizio- Carousel Industries of North America
Audra Frank- Frankly Green, LLC
Karen Halo- Frankly Green, LLC
Donna Jennings- Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A.
Beth Krinsky- Weichert Commercial Brokerage, Inc.
Mindy Lissner- CB Richard Ellis
Dierdre Moore- Day Pitney, LLC
Terri Smith- Environmental Liability Management, Inc.
Lydia Stefanowicz- Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, LLP
Seena Stein- Newmark Knight Frank
Heather Suarez- Walder Hayden & Brogan, P.A.
Ann M. Waeger- Farer Fersko
ICREW celebrates 25 years in advancing professional
development of women in commercial real estate
Join us
For an opportunity for business growth and networking
On local, state and national levels
Industrial Commercial Real Estate Women. Inc.
1 AAA Drive Suite 102-Trenton, NJ 08691
icrewnj@crewnetwork.org– www.icrewnj.org
Village at Manalapan:
A True Story
R.J. Brunelli & Co. is caught up in a particularly difficult struggle with the state
and the local municipality over a new development. The Village at Manalapan, a
proposed mixed-use town center development at Route 33 and Millhurst Rd. is
now approaching its sixth year in the development process.
“Although we’ve gotten 90% of the approvals we need from the local municipality, now we need the state and county,
who can’t seem to decide how the various road systems offsite should work,”
says Richard Brunelli, the company’s
president.
The current problem seems to be a lack
of communication between divisions of
New Jersey’s Department of Transportation. “One division says we should do it
one way, and another division is saying
we should do it another,” says Brunelli.
“That one issue is probably eating up a
year in itself.”
Despite the difficulties, Brunelli remains optimistic. “Someday we’ll get it
built, and then it’ll be even more valuable
because it will be more difficult for the
next guy to build a competing project
within any reasonable distance.”
