The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
The owner of Rutgers Plaza on Easton Avenue has withdrawn a controversial application to build a 4-story apartment building in the footprint of the former K-Mart building.
Levin Properties was scheduled to return to the Zoning Board of Adjustment on March 19 for an often-delayed hearing on its application to build the 200-unit building.
But on February 3, Levin’s attorney, John Wisniewiski, sent a letter to Board secretary Christine Woodbury with the news.
“Please be advised that my client seeks to withdraw their application and is requesting a refund of any escrow funds currently held by the Township,” Wisniewiski wrote in the letter.
There was no reason given for the withdrawal.
The Rutgers Plaza property sheet on the Levin web site indicates the five spaces formerly housing K-Mart and several attached former businesses totaling 107,566 square feet has a lease pending.
A spokeswoman for Levin did not respond to a request for comment.
The withdrawal seemingly ends a more than 5-year controversy over the plan to raze the former K-Mart building and attached spaces which one housed a Chinese restaurant and jewelry store and build in its stead a 250,475 square-foot, four-story building holding 200 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments.
Levin officials have maintained that they could not find a retail tenant for the space.
The plan drew sharp criticism from Township officials when it was first submitted in 2021. The main objection was the Township’s claim that it alone is responsible for zoning in Franklin, and this application would strip it of that right.
The Township Council took the extraordinary step of directing the Township attorney to appear before the Zoning Board and express the Township’s position on the application.
Area residents appeared at Council meetings imploring the Council to stop the project.
Mayor Phil Kramer said on February 4 that he was “pleased” the application had been withdrawn.
“I’m grateful they close an outcome that most of the residents in the area will appreciate,” Kramer wrote in an email. “I look forward to the town assisting in completing a project commensurate with the current zoning.”
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