Downtown Developer Still Optimistic That 'Phase II' Will Begin By Year's End

Matthew Hersh

Plans to build a five-story, 72,467-square-foot building on a surface lot next to the Princeton Record Exchange have again been put on hold as Princeton Borough and the developer weigh removing a basement that was included in the original site plan approved by the Regional Planning Board of Princeton in May 2004.

A site plan amendment was pulled from Thursday's Planning Board hearing because the developer, Nassau HKT Associates, wanted to re-evaluate the removal of the 3,204-square-foot basement, initially intended to serve as a storage area for a proposed grocery store on the first floor of the building.

However, Borough Engineer Carl Peters and Borough Zoning Officer Frank Slimak worried about the high groundwater table that lies underneath the site. Harry's Brook extends to that part of the Borough, running under the aptly-named Spring Street.

As the Planning Board only holds one hearing over the summer on July 21 (a June 16 hearing is devoted to the hospital site), it is unlikely that Nassau HKT will be able to be heard until at least September.

Representatives at Nassau HKT had initially estimated Labor Day 2004 as an initial groundbreaking. It now seems as though the latter part of 2005 is a more realistic starting date, as parking spaces on the Tulane Street surface lot, which had once been closed to make way for developer crews, have been re-opened, signalling a stall in the project.

There are some disagreements between Trost, who had been the general contractor for the developer Nassau HKT, and some subcontractors, who have a filed a mechanics lien with the Borough. But those actions are fairly "typical," said Michael Herbert, Borough attorney adding, "I don't think it's anything that should create a problem."

If a subcontractor on a public project complains they are not being paid by the general contractor, that results in a municipal lien. If the project is private, then a mechanics lien would be filed with the owner, which is, in this case, the Borough.

Mr. Herbert said that with "virtually every project" involving a general contractor and a subcontractor mechanics liens are filed, because the subcontractor does not want to be "burned by a statute of limitations running."

The approval for Nassau HKT to build the project lasts three years, Mr. Herbert said, with the developer having the option of getting up to two one-year extensions.

But Nassau HKT principal Robert Powell said the delay was simply a matter of not being able to get together all the necessary testimony regarding the high water table in time for the June 2 Planning Board hearing.

"We had had some preliminary discussion of this with the Planning Board and [Borough] engineering staff," he said, but then when it got to the Planning Board level, a series of questions were put forth that required Nassau HKT to gather testimony from several consultants.

"We realized we didn't really have sufficient time to pull together that testimony."

Mr. Powell was confident that while a September Planning Board meeting is tentatively scheduled, the project could still get underway by the Spring of 2006.