Page 18 - RE-NJ

16 APRIL 2025
Bounded by East Ramapo Avenue,
Franklin Turnpike and King Street
in Mahwah, 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 as a
potential mixed-use gateway
project for the township.
BOILING OVER
Inside a developer’s seven-year saga in Mahwah —
and the legal fi ght that’s now underway
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 offi cials, often without
explanation or justifi cation.
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outdated fi ndings and that there’s
no substantial evidence of unsafe,
unsanitary or other conditions to
support the township’s claims.
They also hope to block offi cials
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
fi nanced 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,