By Joshua Burd
The Sudler Cos. has torn down yet another decades-old office building in its portfolio, clearing the way for a new convenience store and gas station in Monmouth County.
The developer, which is based in Chatham, recently completed the demolition of the 25,000-square-foot building at 575 Shrewsbury Ave. Built in 1958, the complex was a longtime outpost for New Jersey Bell and later Verizon, but reportedly has sat vacant since 2011.
In its place will be a new QuickChek location with gas pumps, according to Jeffrey Hale, Sudler’s vice president of leasing. Plans for the 5,500-square-foot convenience store follow a lengthy approval process with the municipality.
“Sudler and QuickChek worked with the town to make this happen,” Hale said.
For Sudler, the project marks the third adaptive reuse of a legacy office building in about two years. At 2 Corporate Place South in Piscataway, the firm is close to completing a modern 150,000-square-foot warehouse and office space at a site that previously housed an obsolete, 132,000-square-foot office building.
The new building off Interstate 287 is fully leased to Colart, an international supplier of art materials.
In Cranbury, Sudler has successfully transformed the former site of a long-vacant, 500,000-square-foot office building near the New Jersey Turnpike. After razing the property last year, the firm built two speculative industrial buildings totaling more than 850,000 square feet and inked full-building leases with RUGSUSA and W.B. Mason Inc.
In an interview earlier this year, CEO and President Peter Sudler said his firm was embracing change and adapting to the new realities of New Jersey real estate. That strategy is now paying dividends.
“As much as it killed me to have to take down a 500,000-square-foot office building in Cranbury, I’m really glad I did it,” Sudler said at the time. “I would do it again.”
Sudler razing Piscataway office building, set to build new industrial space
