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GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Kaplan, Town Sign Redevelopment Agreement
By Eric Peterson
Last updated: January 26, 2006 08:17am

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HELMETTA, NJ-Officials of the Kaplan Cos. and this Middlesex County borough have formally executed a redevelopment agreement for the site of a former snuff mill. Final plans for Heritage at Helmetta, which carries an estimated price tag of $70 million, are expected to be submitted to community officials by mid-year.

As reported by GlobeSt.com, Kaplan won the right in late May 2005 to negotiate with the community after a run-off with three other potential redevelopers. Moving the project forward also hinged on the acquisition of the site, which had been owned by an affiliate of one of the other three finalists.

Jason Kaplan, president of the Highland Park-based Kaplan Cos, says the agreement with the property owner Helmetta Lenape of Bridgewater avoided litigation that “could have taken years to resolve, which would have stalled the redevelopment project.” The terms of the property sale were not released.

The redevelopment area is made up of five parcels on Main Street where town founder George W. Helme built his snuff and tobacco business in the 1880s. The existing buildings have been closed for more than 12 years and have fallen into disrepair.

The project will be a mix of 235 units of age-restricted housing in two-story townhouses and four-story condo buildings. Also part of the package will be more than 10,000 sf of retail space, public facilities and a private clubhouse. It will be virtually all new construction, with existing buildings “marked with an appropriate monument or other form of honor,” says councilman Peter Karczewski, who’s the council representative to the Helmetta Redevelopment Committee.
The plan is a scaled-back version from an earlier proposal that called for more than 300 residential units. The earlier proposal did not call for age-restricted housing. According to Karczewski, the borough opted for senior housing “to ensure that the project would not be a burden on the local school district, which is facing an enrollment boom.” Mayor Nancy Martin says the project will “breathe new life into the redevelopment area. It will also generate $1 million in tax revenue each year, which is a huge ‘thumb’s up’ for such a small town.”