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Board Accepts Revised Downtown Plans As Grocery Store Basement Is Removed
Matthew Hersh
The Regional Planning Board of Princeton approved a revision to the apartment and grocery store building slated for the Tulane Street parking lot that excludes a basement initially intended for storage.
In addition to averting a problem similar to that of the municipal garage's wet basement, the 3,200-square-foot basement of the five-story "Building C" in the second phase of Princeton Borough's downtown development project was scrapped because, development planners said, the basement simply was not needed.
A chronic wet floor on the bottom level of the garage has stymied the developer, Nassau HKT Associates (NHKT), and held up the construction of Phase II. The developer's agreement with the Borough states that a permanent certificate of occupancy is needed for the garage before NHKT can move on to its next phase.
Additionally, Mr. Powell cited the potential cost and environmental challenges: "We quickly concluded that a basement would not add value to the grocery store."
Nick Angelakis, owner and manager of Colonial Farms, a Washington Crossing grocery store working with the developer, echoed Mr. Powell, pointing out that a "few" large deliveries throughout the week lessen the need for large storage areas and that a basement would not be an efficient use of space.
In response to concerns from residents, landlords, and owners of area enterprises including Olives and the Princeton Record Exchange who attended the hearing, Mr. Angelakis suggested that eliminating the basement would not increase deliveries. He also said that grocery stores as large as Wegmans do not use basements for storage.
Barry Weisfeld, owner of the Princeton Record Exchange on Tulane Street, revisited a concern first expressed in the planning stages of Building C, which received Planning Board approval in 2004: would the building increase the prospect of flooding on adjacent properties?
"I was kind of startled to find that water levels had increased" since the completion of the garage, Mr. Weisfeld said, referring to the basements of the surrounding properties.
Jan Weinberg, manager of an apartment building on the corner of Spring and Tulane streets agreed, saying that water had increased in his property's basement as well: "We put a garage in a pond."
