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Starting on pg 21 COMMUNITYNEWS.ORG
NOVEMBER 29, 2018 FREE
Changes in store for Nassau Park Developer plans new buildings, demolition and road realignment By SCott MorGAn
Mar y Schenck is dressed in 1790s period clothing as she stands in the kitchen of the historic structure during a holiday open house at the Schenck House in 2013. The event is held annually during the holiday season by the West Windsor Historical Society. The house was Schenck’s family home.
Experience living history at the Schenck Farmstead By MiCHele AlPerin Historical preservation is nothing new for Kay Reed, former tax collector for West Windsor Township. She grew up in the vintage 1730 John Abbott House at 2200 Kuser Road in Hamilton Township, where New Jersey’s state treasurer during the American Revolution, Samuel Tucker, sheltered funds under his care.
Under the Green Acres program, initiated in 1961, Reed says, “My parents lobbied to restore the house” and “were instrumental in having it saved.” Following the family interest in historic preservation, Reed, currently treasurer of the West Windsor Historical Society and one of its five founders, has helped preserve the Schenck Farmstead, at 50 Southfield
Road, formally called the Historical Museum of West Windsor at Schenck Farm. Open to the public one Sunday a month, the Farmstead will hold its annual special holiday open house on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 1 and 2, 1 to 4 p.m. The public is invited to see the decorated farmhouse (which is decorated for the holdays), carriage house, barn and See HISTORY, Page 8
The Nassau Park Shopping Center looks to be getting a bit of a face lift—some demolition, some new construction and a slight adjustment of one of the shopping center’s roads. For West Windsor Mayor Hemant Marathe, that sounds about right, given the current state of brick-and-mortar retail. “The nature of retail is changing,” Marathe said. “What worked 15 or 20 years ago no longer works today.” Marathe is referencing the impact of online sellers on the commercial retail industry. Because people can get things delivered to their homes and offices, the lure of malls and shopping centers is on the wane. This, he said, is especially true when it comes to the anchor store—the big name retailer every shopping center in the country went out of its way to land a few years back; the one that carried other, smaller outlets on their mighty shoulders by bringing in sheer volume of foot traffic. Nassau Park, which is situated where Route 1 meets Quakerbridge Road, still has a few major names—Home Depot, Best Buy, Walmart and Target are still there.
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But the once-mighty Sam’s Club shuttered its 143,000-square-foot store in January as part of the closing of 63 stores nationally. In addition to the rise of online sales, another major factor impacting the location was competition from the new Costco that was built a short distance down Quakerbridge Road in Lawrence Township, Marathe said. That section of the center had already seen a number of vacancies in recent years, including the closure of Border’s bookstore and China Buffet restaurant. Ohio-based DDR Corp.—the site’s owner and developer— has decided to shake up the center’s configuration with plans to replace about 16,000 square feet of unused or undertrafficked space. DDR officials appeared before the planning board on Nov. 7 with a concept plan for a three-phase project. The board will continue hearing the application on Wednesday, Dec. 12. Planning Board chairman Gene O’Brien said that the first phase of the project calls for space to be demolished in the low-traffic area of the center, and to construct new space in the opposite end, where a piece of road and an intersection will be altered. Some new parking spaces will be added as well. The new construction involves adding 8,000 square feet of new retail space (possibly with patio space) between See NASSAU PARK, Page 6
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