Bounded by East Ramapo Avenue, Franklin Turnpike and King Street, an assemblage owned by Mahwah Town Center Redevelopers LLC includes six commercial buildings and one residential building, all of which are vacant in preparation for future redevelopment. — Courtesy: MTCR
By Joshua Burd
The developers behind a long list of mixed-use, transit-oriented projects across the state have long hoped to bring that formula to Mahwah, touting the untapped potential of a tract at the township’s train station. Yet their attorneys say they’ve been stymied by years of stall tactics and legal obstructions by municipal officials, often without explanation or justification.
Chief among them, according to the legal team for Mahwah Town Center Redevelopers LLC, is the town’s designation of the nearly 3.8-acre site as a blighted or so-called condemnation redevelopment area under New Jersey land use law, which would allow the governing body to acquire it through eminent domain. The developers have sued to overturn those designations — which they say are unnecessary because of their intentions for the property — alleging they were based on incomplete, outdated findings and that there’s no substantial evidence of unsafe, unsanitary or other conditions to support the township’s claims.
They also hope to block officials from taking any other action related to redevelopment, such as adopting a redevelopment plan, hoping to resolve what they allege are years of intentional administrative delays and misuse of the state’s redevelopment statute.
“When private enterprise is not operating correctly, government can step in and take care of it,” said Joseph Grather, an attorney for MTCR, referring to a key legal condition for a blight designation. “Private enterprise was all over this site and has been for the last seven years — and at one point they were working cooperatively with the local municipality.”
Grather, a partner with McKirdy, Riskin, Olson & DellaPelle PC in Morris Plains, added that the designation requires a property to meet criteria such as being “detrimental to the health, safety, morals or welfare of the community — and this site is not any of that.”
“The current owner is an adequately financed redeveloper that has indeed assembled the site, they’ve secured the site and it’s really ready to go,” he added. “But for now, there is a cloud that’s hovering over it caused by the municipality. So we’re trying to clear that up.”
Mahwah Business Administrator Ben Kezmarsky said the township does not comment on pending litigation, but called it “a matter of public record that, after many years in disrepair, the Township and its residents would like to see the property developed in accordance with our current zoning ordinances.”
“Moreover, we find it interesting that the same owners now bringing this litigation have agreed with and partnered with the Township over the past several years in having these lots declared an ‘Area in Need of Redevelopment,’” he added in an emailed statement. “We look forward to our day in court and will continue to utilize all legal avenues available to us to remedy this blighted area of the Township and look forward to making it something we can all be proud of.”
The township council voted in May 2022 to designate the site as a non-condemnation redevelopment area, which does not allow for the use of eminent domain. That changed last November with the council’s vote to declare a condemnation redevelopment area.
‘A spectacular opportunity’
Bounded by East Ramapo Avenue, Franklin Turnpike and King Street, the assemblage includes six commercial buildings and one residential building, all of which are vacant in preparation for future redevelopment. The site is a mere 50 feet or so from NJ Transit’s Mahwah station, and the developers see it as a gateway to the mile-long Franklin Turnpike corridor to the New York state line.
Importantly, they’ve also pitched their project as a way to help Mahwah satisfy its state-mandated affordable housing obligations.
MTCR and its affiliates, JMF Properties and MJC Capital, have extensive experience in such projects, especially in suburban commuter towns. Look no further than communities like Maplewood, Glen Ridge, Morris Plains and Plainfield, where JMF has completed upscale apartment buildings adjacent to or steps from transit. The firm, which has built more than 5,000 housing units across multiple product types, is also behind transformative commercial projects in corridors such as Route 440 in Bayonne and Route 10 in Hanover.
MJC Capital’s Michael Commorata, who has partnered with JMF Properties founder Joe Forgione, called the Mahwah site “a spectacular opportunity” with the potential to create a ripple effect on Franklin Turnpike, which for now is marked by gas stations, used car lots, auto repair shops, smoke shops and vacant buildings.
“We’ve been the catalyst for similar revitalization in other towns throughout New Jersey, where investments like ours sparked a momentum of change, inspiring other property owners to enhance their properties, creating economic growth, local amenities and vibrancy,” said Commorata, managing member of Mahwah Town Center Redevelopers LLC.
“This is the opportunity to bring lasting, positive change to the area — creating a Franklin Turnpike corridor that reflects the suburban character of Mahwah. It’s 2025, and this is the kind of development people welcome — the kind that tax-paying residents of the community truly deserve. Mahwah is a beautiful community; we are committed to doing our part to make this vision a reality.”
The timeline
It was early 2018 when MTCR agreed to buy the redevelopment site, subject to local approvals and all tenants vacating their respective spaces, proposing as many as 200 apartments with a 15 percent set-aside for affordable housing. The developers made it known that they were open to suggested changes, they said, but noted that local officials declined to hear a formal proposal until the town finalized a settlement with the nonprofit Fair Share Housing Center.
That agreement, completed in spring 2018, reduced the density for MTCR’s site to 14 units per acre or no more than 49 residential units, which the developers say was decided without their input and was too small to be economically viable. Discussions with the township ensued, and when those talks reached an impasse, MTCR agreed in 2020 to sell the property to senior housing developer Monarch Communities, subject to approvals and permits to build a senior housing facility with 175 congregate, assisted and memory care units.
According to published reports, Monarch spent much of the next three years trying to secure zoning for the project. That included more than 15 hearings, resulting in a settlement with the governing body that called for fewer units. But the plan also faced a challenge from the Fair Share Housing Center over the lack of affordable housing, despite the site’s inclusion in the 2018 agreement with the organization.
Monarch ultimately pulled out of the project in 2023 amid financial pressures that had been dogging the company. MTCR stepped in to try to salvage the senior housing concept, but could not find a new operator due to what it said was a softening market. The developer, which took full control of the properties in February 2024, then turned its focus back to a mixed-use, town center-style project that would satisfy the adopted redevelopment plan.
The last 12 months
MTCR met with Mahwah township officials last March for court-ordered mediation. While the developer says state law prohibits it from revealing details of discussions, it notes that it “presented multiple proposals with varying densities and product types in an effort to reach a resolution.” The parties did not reach an agreement, while MTCR lamented “significant misrepresentations” by officials that “did not accurately or honestly reflect what transpired,” specifically with respect to the density that the property owner was seeking.
It was around that time that the township council authorized its planning board to investigate whether the site qualified as a condemnation redevelopment area, despite having declared it two years earlier as a non-condemnation redevelopment area. Officials would schedule a hearing on the matter for July 29, 2024, according to the complaint, but attorneys say MTCR was not given access to the municipality’s preliminary investigation report before the meeting date.
The hearing was adjourned, at first without a new date and later scheduled for Nov. 4, attorneys said. The township eventually provided MTCR with a copy of the report, but the document allegedly contained errors about the property’s ownership and boundaries.
Days earlier, the state Department of Community Affairs released nonbinding guidance on each New Jersey town’s obligation under the so-called fourth round of the Fair Housing Act, which governing bodies would have to adopt by Jan. 31 or provide their own alternative calculations. An attorney for MTCR sent a letter to Mahwah’s municipal clerk, touting the Franklin Turnpike site as an ideal solution for addressing part of the town’s 629-unit obligation, while noting the potential for so-called bonus credits due to its proximity to mass transit and the adaptive reuse of commercial property.
The letter from Peter M. Flannery of Bisgaer Hoff LLC noted that the developer would a require higher density to make it economically feasible. Still, it said “MTCR is not looking to overdevelop the Property, and it is open to considering alternative development options that are well-planned and balanced, and that will assist Mahwah in satisfying its prospective need obligation.” The township did not respond, according to the development team.
The condemnation debate
MTCR and its representatives were on hand for the Nov. 4 planning board hearing, when the township planner presented her report on the potential for a condemnation redevelopment area. She noted several areas of concern such as damage to the steps at the former U.S. Post Office building on Ramapo Avenue, as well as peeling paint at one of the shuttered commercial buildings, according to the complaint. Yet MTCR’s attorneys say the items were tied to formal code violations that were issued and addressed years before they took control of the property, starting in 2010. The complaint also takes issue with the report’s reliance on outdated “Notice of Unsafe Structure” warnings that were issued to prior property owners — some from as much as 16 years ago — without verifying the buildings’ current condition.
Other violations such as an unsafe guardrail and damaged handicap ramp, which were found during a May 2024 inspection and cited in a set of July summonses, just weeks before the initial hearing was scheduled, were addressed by MTCR within two weeks, according to the complaint. The property owner said it sought to address a third violation, a damaged retaining wall, but the town engineer did not respond to multiple requests for approval of the repairs over the next three weeks. It then submitted an engineering report with structural sketches and a Professional Review Soil Movement Permit Application, as requested by the town engineer, but the township allegedly did not act on the application by the time of the Nov. 4 planning board meeting.
According to NorthJersey.com, Mayor James Wysocki chastised MTCR at the meeting for dragging its feet on the repairs, telling Commorata, “Once we mentioned condemnation, you fix all the violations. That’s what’s amazing. So don’t sit here and tell me you don’t know if there were summonses.”
Among other objections, MTCR attorneys say the town’s study fell far short of the constitutional threshold for blight. There is no evidence that the buildings are unsafe, unsanitary, dilapidated or obsolescent, they argue, noting that the report’s author did not inspect the interior of any of the buildings.
The complaint also notes that the only evidence in support of the “blight” designation was that certain buildings had been vacant for more than two years, but the lawyers say it would be unconstitutional for that to be the sole basis for the use of eminent domain. What’s more, the plaintiffs allege, the township planning board and council “ignored the uncontested testimony and evidence that the property is ‘likely to be corrected or ameliorated by private effort’” — referencing comments by MTCR’s planner — given the developer’s efforts since 2018.
“The property owner assembled the block and is in the process of redeveloping the site consistent with market demand and therefore questions whether the Township has a valid public purpose for the recent condemnation designation,” Grather, the MTCR attorney, told media outlets last fall. “The only purpose would appear to be an attempt to prevent redevelopment of an excellent property and thwart private efforts to revitalize a downtown area directly across the street from the train station.”
The complaint notes that the Nov. 4 planning board hearing concluded with a motion to adopt a pre-drafted resolution that was circulated and adopted that night, which could not or did not cite or credit the witness testimony or exhibits offered by MTCR. The township council voted three days later to designate the site as a condemnation redevelopment area.
Mahwah Town Center Redevelopers LLC formally challenged the designation in a complaint filed Dec. 18. Superior Court Judge Gregg A. Padovano, sitting in Hackensack, has scheduled a case management conference for March 21.
