ShopRite in Hillsborough eyes bigger store as part of potential new shopping center
HILLSBOROUGH – Village Supermarket, owner of the ShopRite in the Nelson's Corner Shopping Center, has purchased one of the remaining large vacant lots on Route 206 with the potential of relocating the grocery store.
The plan, according to a marketing brochure and press release from Ripco, the leasing agent marketing the property at the corner of Route 206 and Homestead Road, says the relocated ShopRite would be 80,000 square feet, 20,000 square feet larger than the store in the Nelson's Corner Shopping Center at Route 206 and Amwell Road.
For nearly four decades, ShopRite has been the anchor in that center which residents consider the suburban township's downtown.
Village Supermarket has not responded to requests for comment.
The plan calls for the new ShopRite to be set back several hundred feet from the highway with 44,000 square feet of retail uses on the highway.
“We’ve already had terrific interest from national restaurants, franchise spa and salon operators, and from several traditional national brick and mortar retailers," Jake Frantzman, a member of Rico's team leasing the property, said in the press release.
The property, now vacant farmland, is between Route 206 and the CSX Railroad and across Homestead Road from a proposed warehouse project pending before the Planning Board.
The map in the marketing brochure calls for a possible subdivision at the east end of the property for a 171,113-square-foot warehouse 35 loading bays.
The property was acquired in January 2022 for $12 million from Reckitt Benckiser which owns the neighboring property at Route 206 and Hillsborough Road where Lysol and other hygienic products are manufactured.
Village Supermarket has already received a letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection delineating the wetland areas on the property.
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Ten months after that purchase, in October 2022, the Township Committee amended Hillsborough's zoning ordinance to allow a "large format supermarket" on the property which is in the Light Industrial Zone. That zoning amendment also included requirements for drive-thru restaurants.
The concept plan shows the main entrance to the shopping center on Route 206 opposite Pierson Drive and two entrances on Homestead Road. There is a traffic light at the intersection of Route 206 and Homestead Road.
No development application for the property has been placed on the Planning Board's schedule through September.
According to the marketing brochure, 71,573 people live within five miles of the proposed shopping center with an average household income of $188,985.
Village Super Market owns 26 ShopRites in New Jersey, two in New York and one each in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The company also owns four Gourmet Garage stores and four Fairway Markets in New York. In Central Jersey, the company owns ShopRites in Bernardsville, Franklin, Watchung, Old Bridge, Long Hill and Chatham.
In its latest quarterly report on June 6, the company, traded publicly on NASDAQ, reported gross sales of $529.3 million for the quarter.
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: ShopRite in Hillsborough NJ eyes Route 206 site for bigger store
