Whole Foods, LL Bean coming to Montgomery Promenade on Route 206
MONTGOMERY - Whole Foods and L.L. Bean will be tenants at the long-awaited Montgomery Promenade mixed-use development, the township has announced.
Other tenants at the shopping center on Route 206 next to Princeton Airport include Panera Bread and Ulta, which will be next to Whole Foods.
This will be the second Whole Foods in Somerset County; the first opened earlier this year on Route 22 in Bridgewater as part of the Chimney Rock Crossing center.
The Montgomery Promenade was going to be anchored by a 60,000-square-foot Frank Theatre entertainment complex that would have featured an 11-screen cinema, including an IMAX theatre, a 12-lane bowling alley and a 5,000-square-foot sports bar.
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However, Frank Theatre dropped out of the plan after declaring bankruptcy earlier this fall.
Township officials have also said in their newsletter that the developer, Madison Marquette, is looking to fill the space with another cinema complex.
With final planning board approval, the shopping center, first proposed a decade ago, is one step closer to becoming a reality.
Madison Marquette did not respond to requests for comment.
Madison Marquette, which also owns MarketFair on Route 1 in West Windsor and is redeveloping the Asbury Park boardwalk, first submitted plans for a shopping center on the Montgomery site to the township in 2005.
That plan included a Stop & Shop, which has closed stores in Somerset County, and the extinct retailers, Borders and Coldwater Creek.
Madison Marquette planned to break ground in 2006 and have the Montgomery Promenade completed in 2008. But the recession intervened, disrupting development plans throughout the country and radically changing the retail industry.
The project also had been delayed by a lawsuit unsuccessfully objecting to the township's approval of that plan.
The new plan also calls for 34 single-family homes in the northwestern part of the 53-acre property.
The northeastern part of the development was redesigned to accommodate the needs of Whole Foods, with two pad sites removed from the proposal.
The Montgomery Promenade is part of an ambitious plan to develop a downtown centering on the intersection of Route 206 and Route 518.
This fall, the township also approved the redevelopment of the Village Shoppes complex just north of the intersection on Route 206.
Two buildings on the present site will be demolished with a new mixed-used building taking its place. The plans also call for a drive-through Starbucks.
The new complex, to be known as Village Walk, will have five buildings, including a 31,720-square-foot, three-story building with retail and commercial space on the first floor and residential units on the second and third floors, a 12,000-square-foot retail building and three restaurant buildings, one of which will be the Starbucks.
Behind the new development, Pugliese Properties — the owner of Village Walk — is also planning to build 208 townhomes which will be connected to the development with roads, bike paths and pedestrian walkways.
Key to the development of the downtown is the construction on a new loop road that will connect Montgomery Promenade and Village Walk. The loop road will start from the current traffic signal at the entrance of Village Shoppes and the Montgomery Center, divide the old and new parts of Village Walks, then loop west behind Village Walk to another traffic light on Route 518. The road will then continue through the proposed Montgomery Promenade Center before ending at a stop light on Route 206 at the entrance to the Princeton North Shopping Center.
The new loop road is designed to reduce congestion at the intersection of routes 206 and 518 by eliminating left turns.
Staff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mcentraljersey.com