The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Plans for a $15 million, 60,000-square-foot Islamic center – including a mosque, a boarding school, and a state-of-the-art gym – with 400 parking spaces are being laid by the new owners of a 16-acre tract on South Middlebush Road.
The land, located next to Snyder’s Farm, was most recently the subject of a controversial 21,000-square-foot Hindu temple application that was approved by the Zoning Board of Adjustment on October 21, 2021.
The new owners, the Tawheed Dawah Center, purchased the property in October 2023 for $1.4 million, according to records on file in the Somerset County Clerk’s Office.
The organization’s web site also identifies a Piscataway location.
Notices posted on the Tawheed Dawah Center’s web site show fundraising events with noted cricket players for the Somerset Center from September to October, 2023. The notices say that $1.6 million must be raised for the Center.
The Center’s mission is “to promote positive change and spiritual growth,” according to the organization’s web site.
An Arabic-language fundraising video on YouTube seems to talk about Centers in several states, including New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Texas.
In addressing the Somerset site, graphic overlays say the construction cost is estimated to be $15 million, and that the Center will also host funerals, family gatherings and Islamic events.
Mark Healey, the Township’s Principal Planner, said on November 20 that no one from the organization has approached Township planners yet, but that planners are aware that the property has changed hands.
