Board OKs Alfieri's housing, retail plans

If developer Michael Alfieri wants to build housing in Old Bridge's Laurence Harbor section, he will have to include commercial development in order to minimize the development's impact on local taxpayers.

That was the message the Old Bridge Planning Board sent to the Edison-based builder last week when issuing preliminary approval of Alfieri's Metropark South plans, which include a hotel, office and retail buildings and a residential development off Laurence Parkway in the area of Garden State Parkway Exit 120.

The Planning Board took the vote more than four hours into its Nov. 18 special meeting on the application, which board Chairman Larry Redmond noted dates back to the 1980s when his father was on the board.

Though it gave site plan approval, the board rejected the Alfieri's general development plan (GDP), saying the builder was attempting to get out of the original staging schedule for construction. The board will not allow the builder to construct residences until the office component is built.

Redmond said the developer would have to come back with a revised GDP before he can build anything.

"All they have to do is come back with one that includes the proper phasing," he said.

The board members said they want assurances that the commercial properties are going to be built, so that the development is balanced.

Alfieri and his attorney, Frank Petrino, declined to comment on the board's decision. Petrino noted at the meeting that the town approved the amended GDP in 1993 and said Alfieri has constantly attempted to move the project forward since he acquired the title in 1998.

One component of the plan, the Esplanade, calls for 770,323 square feet of office space, with two parking garages and atriums. Ralph J. Orlando, principal of CMX engineering and consulting firm, testified that a portion of the infrastructure for the Esplanade, its sewer line, would be put into place during the construction of Canterbury Cove, since the sewer line has to go through the residential community.

Canterbury Cove would consist of 83 single-family homes and a 10,000-squarefoot commercial and retail area.

The developer also proposed to build a 168-room hotel that could be as high as eight stories. However, it is proposed to be built on depressed topography.

Alfieri's professionals proposed that the board allow him to finish the residential component of the development first, since his marketing consultant, Jeffrey Ottau, testified that the market for housing is more likely to rebound first in the current economic decline.

"Every home can be sold at a price," Ottau said.

Planning Board officials did not agree, in light of the fact that the developer already built roughly 400 high-end townhouses in the Bridgepointe community, and only 83 single-family homes in the Canterbury Cove development remain to be built with this project. Without this leverage, the town might not be able to compel the developer to build some of the commercial ratables taxpayers need to offset the burden of school-age children that come with housing.

"This is the last hook that we hold onto to make them build [the] commercial [components]," Redmond said.

Cottrell Road resident Robert Lewicki addressed the board during the public portion of the meeting, saying the developer has only produced the elements of the development that have a negative impact on local taxpayers. He said he wants to see nonresidential property built before any more houses are constructed, so that the development does not add to the community's tax burden.

In response to questions from Lewicki, Ottau said the vacancy rate for Class A office space in Old Bridge improved from 33 percent in 2007 to 14 percent in February 2008. Class A office space is the highest quality and attracts the highest quality renter, he said.

The change in the town's Class A office space vacancy rate was attributable to the leasing of space at the Atrium buildings, which accounts for approximately 80 percent of Class A office space in town, Ottau said. He said the vacancy rate rose to 18 percent since February, as roughly 500,000 jobs were lost nationwide in the last two months.

Ottau said the housing market in Old Bridge has weakened over the past two months as a result of the decline in worldwide financial markets. However, he said it has not softened as much as the housing market throughout the state or the nation.

Redmond disagreed, saying New Jersey leads the nation in failed mortgages.

Ottau responded that media coverage of the rate of foreclosures often focuses on foreclosure numbers that are unreliable and based on flawed counting methods. He said New Jersey's foreclosure rate is lower than the national average, and 857 people in a state with roughly 3.5 million homeowners lost their homes in October.

"Even those in trouble can avoid foreclosure," Ottau said.

Pat Gillespie, a Planning Board member and township councilman, took issue with Ottau's characterization of New Jersey as a relatively more efficient housing market. He noted that people who are delinquent on their mortgage payments are on the same track as those going through foreclosure, so foreclosure statistics like those commonly used in the media should not be dismissed.

Ottau noted that his research was done with the aim of finding out what would be feasible for Alfieri to build in the next two to three years.

"No development is financially feasible at the present moment," Ottau said.