Ewing NJ Mayor Bert Steinmann has reaffirmed his commitment
to a Smart Growth town center project in his recent “state of the township”
address (Trenton Times story here).
The town is moving forward with the selection process for a
master developer for this brownfield site and hopes to have one in place this year.
(Disclosure, I am involved in a related project – see my
earlier posting here.)
The newspaper account is very good but leaves out a couple
of interesting numbers:
The town’s study team (led by Chuck Latini) has estimated
the annual property tax revenue for different scenarios as follows: standard
shopping center $57 million, big box or mall $78 million, and town center/transit
village $158 million. We have a
winner! Of course, as the mayor
notes, putting in a strip shopping center would be a lot quicker, but is a
losing proposition in the long run.
One more set of numbers: the study estimates that the
redevelopment will generate 7,000 jobs in the town (an inner-ring suburb, which
needs them), with another 2,000 to 3,000 jobs to be generated from the
county-led airport redevelopment plan.
Continue to watch this project!
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