Township Tweaks Foodtown Site Redeveloper's Agreement

The township council made a small change to its agreement with the company in charge of redeveloping the former Foodtown site on Route 70 at its meeting Tuesday.

The modification to the redeveloper's agreement, according to Business Administrator Scott Pezarras, will allow the developer – M&M Realty Partners – to use a figure decided by the state as the guideline for the site's impervious lot coverage allowance. Impervious coverage refers to the percentage of the lot on which the developer can cover land with buildings, parking areas and other permanent features.

Due to its location close to the Metedeconk River, Forge Pond and the Barnegat Bay watershed, plans to develop the site must first pass muster with the state Department of Environmental Protection to ensure it complies with the Coastal Area Facilities Review Act. The developer had requested the township allow as much impervious coverage as the state will allow, rather than a figure pre-determined by the council.

"We were OK with that," said Pezarras. "If CAFRA is ok with that, who are we to say no to it?"

Pezarras has said in the past that the unfavorable finance market, along with the laundry list of approvals the developer must ascertain before anything can be built at the site, has held up the construction progress. The redeveloper's agreement calls for a hotel and retail space to be constructed, but Pezarras said the developer now doubts banks will offer financing to build a hotel due to the state of the economy. The developer has offered to pay for a study to be conducted to determine the feasibility of a hotel at the location, the approval of which the council may take up at an upcoming meeting.

If building a hotel is no longer feasible, the township council may have to continue to tweak the agreement and decide what else could be built at the site, Pezarras said. Then the developer can close on the property for good once a final redevelopment plan is decided upon.

"At some point, there has to be something agreed upon by both parties," said Pezarras.