The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
The three-year speculation of what would replace Big Kmart in Rutgers Plaza may be at an end.
Levin Properties of Plainfield, the owner of Rutgers Plaza at John F. Kennedy Boulevard and Easton Avenue, has submitted to the Zoning Board of Adjustment plans for The Cosmopolitan, a 4-storey, 200-unit residential building on the site.
Plans call for the demolition of the old Kmart store, plus the empty Chinese restaurant and several other business on that plot.
The plans call for the construction on 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom units, ranging in size from about 750 square feet to more than 1,200 square feet.
The bedroom breakdown is 61 1-bdrooms, eight affordable one-bedrooms, 99 2-bedrooms, 24 affordable 2-bedrooms, and eight 3-bedrooms.
Plans also call for a 2,950-square-foot club room, a 1,930-square-foot fitness center and 3,580 square feet of residential storage.
Of the 200 units, 20 percent will be set aside for affordable housing.
The name of the plaza will apparently also be changed from Rutgers Plaza to Somerset Town Center, according to the plans.
The plan provides 387 parking spaces, with eight electric vehicle charging stations proposed. An ordinance introduce by the Township Council at its last meeting would require 153 charging stations, the township’s Open Space consultant, Tara Kenyon, said at the November 15 Environmental Commission meeting. The Commission regularly reviews development projects coming before the Planning and Zoning boards.
Parent company Sears Holdings closed the Big Kmart in July of 2018.
Township Councilman Ted Chase told the Environmental Commission that Levin presented plans for the building in June.
“They talked about the unlikelihood of any store like Kmart coming in and contributing to the slow decline of the shopping center,” he said.
The application is scheduled to be heard at the Zoning Board’s January 6, 2022 meeting.
