Flemington's North Main Street redevelopment plan takes another turn
FLEMINGTON – The long-awaited redevelopment of the Nilkrath tract, known for the Guitar Boy mural, has taken another turn with the amount of retail in a mixed-use project being reduced.
The plan for the corner of North Main Street and Park Avenue calls for 11 townhouses on North Main Street and 100 apartments, 4,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space with an outdoor terrace and 5,600 square feet of amenities with public access to a park. The plan also proposes a total of 200 underground parking spaces. The original plan called for 9,000 square feet of commercial space.
The development, proposed by Cardinal Capital Management, will be part of the northern gateway to downtown Flemington and will be across North Main Street from the recently approved Captiva Main Street plan to redevelop the former Agway site with 100 apartments.
The plan presented by Cardinal Capital Management to the Borough Council in March suggested a neighborhood small grocery store could be included, but Mayor Betsy Driver said at Monday's borough council meeting that stricter state Department of Environmental Protection floodwater regulations prompted changes to the plan, reducing the amount of proposed retail space.
"It's a good project and I am looking forward to it coming to fruition, even if it doesn't have a grocery store," Driver said.
Erich Schwenker, a Somerset County native who serves as Cardinal's CEO, said the intention now is to have the townhouses and apartments both as rental units, but that could change depending on the project's financing. He said rental townhouses are a "very suitable answer for a lot of people."
A minimum of 15% of the units will be designated as affordable housing. The exact number will be defined in the final redevelopment agreement between the borough and Cardinal, Driver said.
The abandoned railroad depot building on the property is in "really bad shape," said Paul Boudreau, a representative of Cardinal.
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Though there had been some interest in moving the building to another location, Boudreau said just preparing the building for a move would take "a tremendous amount of work."
The building has fallen into disrepair and several fires had been set inside, he said.
Cardinal, based in Milwaukee, has acquired, developed and rehabbed more 10,000 units of multifamily housing valued at about $1 billion in Wisconsin, Alabama, Iowa and other states in the last two decades.
Schwenker, who got his start developing nonprofit housing for specialized populations, said he is interested in building housing for the "missing middle" between workforce housing and market-rate housing. Most of the company's developments have a wide range of tenants, he said, and one project in Wisconsin is dedicated to military veterans.
Architect Nancy Dougherty said the long-awaited project would provide the north end of Flemington with "a vibrant gateway" and extend the county seat's downtown.
Once the borough negotiates a redevelopment agreement, the borough will negotiate a financial agreement with the builder. The Planning Board must also approve the site plans.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Flemington NJ: North Main Street redevelopment plan revised
