WATCHUNG - An application before the Planning Board seeks to replace the “sea of asphalt” that is the Sears property along Route 22 East with a greener, more vibrant shopping center.
Seritage Growth Properties, the real estate company that owns the Sears lot, is seeking preliminary site plan approval to demolish the department store and replace it with a five-storefront shopping center and four “pad sites,” free-standing storefronts spread out across the parking lot.
The shopping center would cover 87,000 square feet on the 12.5-acre lot, a reduction from the 118,000-square-foot Sears department store. Through the addition of trees and green space, the proposal also calls for a reduction in lot coverage, or impervious coverage, from 85.8 percent – a noncomformity to the area’s zoning – to 71.7 percent.
With expert testimony concluding at the Tuesday, May 16, Planning Board meeting, the board is to vote on preliminary site plan approval at its next meeting on Tuesday, June 20.
“If you’ve had an opportunity to go out and visit the subject property, you can see the parking lot is in a little bit of a state of disrepair, we’ve got some barbed wire surrounding some area in the back of the site – generally an area that lacks curb appeal,” Christine Nazzaro-Cofone, a planning consultant contracted by Seritage, testified on May 16. “I think that your Master Plan here in Watchung would consider the redevelopment of this property a benefit, really promoting the general welfare by redeveloping the property. I think this is the exact type of redevelopment that your Master Plan envisions, specifically for the 22 corridor.”
Seritage also plans to replace the Sears Auto Center across Terrill Road from the department store with a luxury movie theater, though that application has not yet come before the Planning Board.
Site Plan
The proposed shopping center’s main storefronts would be located in an “anchor retail building” located on the southern end of the site, far back from the lot’s Route 22 frontage. Architect Kenneth Park said the building would be about 25 feet tall, similar to the height of the Sears store, and cover 42,000 square feet.
A conceptual rendering of the anchor building, which Park noted was a preliminary submittal, showed a glass and hard material structure with large windows and parapets.
“To further articulate the facade of the building, and to add interest to the building, we’re creating sort of ins and outs of the facade so that it’s not one shade plane… to create sort of a different identity for the retail tenants to be housed in the building,” Park said.
The architect said he did not believe the anchor building would attract “big box” retailers due to the smaller square footage of the building.
A separate, 20-foot tall, 28,000-square-foot building containing three storefronts would run about 325 feet along the western end of the property near the loading area to the adjacent Raymour and Flanigan lot. A conceptual design rendering for the western building showed storefronts with large windows, and distinct accent colors and finishes.
Planning Board members were complimentary of the glassy design of the anchor building, but were not enamored with the orange accent color of the northernmost storefront in the western building. Patrick McNamara, an attorney representing Seritage, said the project team will take another look at the color scheme.
The rear of the western building, some of which would be visible to motorists driving eastward on Route 22, would be a blank facade with some score lines and reveal lines. Planning Board Chair Tracee Schaefer requested the applicant accentuate the northern end of the rear of the building to be more attractive to passing motorists.
The pad sites would be located along the ends of either side of the driveways from Route 22 and Terrill Road. Park said the architecture, finishes and material of the buildings would be similar to those of the anchor building, “but the design of these are going to be somewhat varied depending on who the tenants are going to be, because this is going to be single-tenant occupancy.”
The pads would range in size from 4,030 feet to 5,665 feet. One of the pads, located to the south of the Terrill Road driveway at the eastern end of the property, is being considered as as restaurant space, while the other pads would be retail. A drive-thru would likely not be considered for the restaurant, as it would alter the site’s traffic plan.
Borough Planner Mark Healey asked when Seritage anticipates lease agreements from tenants, and if Seritage would be returning for separate design approval for each pad site.
“In an ideal world, we’d come back for them all at once, but we don’t have the tenants signed up,” Mcnamara said. “I think as I highlighted at the prior hearing that we’re kind of in a chicken and egg, because prospective tenants these days have a little more control because everyone realizes the flux that the retail industry is in. We would love to have all at once, but we need now to show them a preliminary approval so they’ll consider signing a lease, as opposed to (with) a competitor in another municipality. So we’re hopeful that once we cross the hurdle of getting preliminary approval we’ll be able to wrap up lease negotiations.”
McNamara said it would be preferable for Seritage, as well as for the board, to be able to return with designs for the pad sites “in one shot.”
Traffic
The proposal calls for 395 parking spaces dispersed between a central parking area located within a loop road in the middle of the lot, and around the perimeter of the lot near the pad sites. Parking would be set back 20 feet from both Route 22 and Terrill Road with a perimeter of trees and landscaping between the road and the shopping center. Current Sears parking around the perimeter of the lot is significantly closer to the road.
Upon entering the site from either Terrill Road or Route 22, shoppers would see textured, colorized pavement at the intersection with the interior loop road. The plan also includes a number of pedestrian crosswalks and stop lines. Borough traffic expert John Jahr said he was pleased with the proposal from both a safety and traffic flow perspective.
“I just want to point out to the board these are very significant traffic calming measures,” said Jahr. “They’re coming at a significant expense to this applicant, and I’m very, very pleased with them. I think they’re really going to help because when drivers come off the site from either Terrill Road or Route 22, they’re going to know when they get in there this is no longer the highway, and that’s what we wanted to accomplish – we wanted for when people leave the road not to think they were still on the highway...I think it’s going to be very successful from a safety standpoint, which was my primary concern.”
He said Terrill Road traffic would “continue to operate at acceptable levels of service.” Jahr said the proposal has been reviewed by the state Department of Transportation (DOT), as Route 22 is a state highway. The state has submitted a “letter of no interest,” meaning it does not plan to make changes to Route 22 as a result of the project. Cars from Route 22 would continue to enter the lot from a third lane, an exit lane, which begins just before the driveway to the lot. The existing lane configuration on Terrill Road would not change.
“I want to point out once again that this is less square footage of retail, and consequently less traffic than was originally on the site,” said Jahr. “So from a traffic perspective there’s not a whole lot I can say. Granted, the site has come into disrepair and it’s no longer as busy at it once was. There was a time when the site probably did have a whole lot of traffic coming out of it. Hopefully, by this renovation it will do that again.
“To a certain extent, for those of us who drive here all the time and we’re used to it not having so much traffic, your impression is there’s going to be more traffic. In fact, the approval that they previously had (for the department store) was for more traffic than is there today. What they’re asking the change to do is less than what they were previously approved for.”
A park-and-ride program, which currently utilizes 100 parking spaces on the lot, would likely be discontinued at the onset of construction. The site would be under construction for about two years.
‘A Significant Improvement’
The proposal requires some setback variances, some of which are necessary due to the irregular shape of the lot. The anchor building would be closer to the Plainfield residential area located to the south of the lot, but new plantings and a fence would be installed around the back of the property.
Nazzaro-Cofone cited a number of ways in which the proposal would qualify for the variances, including improvements to the attractiveness of the site, public safety and traffic flow.
Healey called the testimony “comprehensive and compelling.”
“I think that the wholesale redevelopment of this property with the introduction of the very nice architecture and the landscaping will have nothing but a significant improvement to the area,” said Nazzaro-Cofone.
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