Advance Robbinsville
JANUARY 2019
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COMMUNITYNEWS.ORG
Fixing Foxmoor
Township condemns Miry Run
Developer secures new tenants, begins restoring derelict shopping center
Nearly 160 acres of country club to become open space
By RoB anthes
By RoB anthes
Progress might be hard to see today, but the new owners of Foxmoor Shopping Center say the gears have been set in motion to make it a whole new plaza by this time next year. Pennmark Management Company Inc. has told Robbinsville Township officials that the long-ignored complex on the Hamilton-Robbinsville border is on track to be fully leased within 2019. The plaza will soon receive cosmetic and operational improvements to match its reemergence as an in-demand location. Pennmark purchased the center for $7.5 million during an online action Aug. 1, and closed on the property Sept. 13 after some delay with the final paperwork. Now more than three months after taking over, Pennmark says phones are ringing off the hook with businesses looking to get space in the center. Two new leases have been signed, with two more under negotiation and even more in the early stages of talks. Fit Body Boot Camp has signed to take 3,000 square feet in the old Everson’s Karate location, and Mathnasium will occupy 1,500 square feet in the former Bricks 4 Kidz suite, said Justin Bartholomew, head of leasing See FOXMOOR, Page 14
Robbinsville Township took the first step in seizing ownership of nearly 160 acres of Miry Run Country Club, filing condemnation paperwork in New Jersey Superior Court Nov. 29. The Sharon Road property, which includes a golf course, swimming pool and clubhouse, has sat idle since 2015. The filing starts the process of condemning 158 acres of the property, including all existing facilities. A 3-person commissioner board will determine whether the township’s filing is valid and its offer fair. A township appraisal values the land at $1.34 million. If the commissioners accept that offer, the condemnation process is over, and the township will pay the property’s current owners, Spring Garden Country Club, Inc., the appraised value with money from the township open space fund. If the commissioners feel Robbinsville’s appraisal is too high or too low, they can adjust the price, a process that can take months. The township plans “passive recreation” for the land. It could remain a golf course or be converted into a facility with walking paths, Frisbee golf or soccer golf, Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried said. The township will See MIRY RUN, Page 12
ranthes@communitynews.org
ranthes@communitynews.org
Robbinsville native Nick Ouzounov is one co-founder of Geltor, a start-up that produces collagen without animal products for skincare products and vegan gelatin.
On the cutting edge Nick Ouzounov goes from basement lab to the forefront of biotechnology field By siDDhaRth mUchhaL Since leaving Robbinsville, Nick Ouzounov, along with his colleague Alex Lorestani, has found himself on the forefront of biotechnology. Together, they created Geltor, a synthetic biology start-up that produces collagen without animal products for uses such as skincare products and vegan gelatin. The science
and business worlds have taken notice of their advancements. Ouzounov started on this path from an early age. His family moved to Lawrenceville from his birth country of Bulgaria in the mid-1990s, when he was in third grade, before moving to Buffalo, New York, and then settling in Robbinsville in 1999. Since Robbinsville did not have its own high school then, Ouzounov attended Lawrence High School, and graduated in 2005. He went on to study molecular biology and biochemistry as an undergraduate at Rutgers University before gaining admission into Princeton University’s molecular biol-
ogy graduate program. At Princeton, he studied how microbes establish and maintain cell space. Throughout his childhood, Ouzounov developed a love for science, specifically biology, and the opportunities for entrepreneurship. His parents were both scientists, which gave him exposure to medical research as well as companies such as Johnson & Johnson and BristolMyers Squibb. “I’ve always liked programming and coding, and I started looking at working with DNA in molecular biology as something similar to working with See OUZOUNOV, Page 10
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