Construction on Riverton, off the Driscoll Bridge, started a few weeks ago, including at anchor tenant Bass Pro Shop.
Patch Staff
|Updated Mon, Jan 13, 2025 at 1:23 pm ET
A rendering of how Riverton will look once completed. It will have a boardwalk, open to the public, along the marsh and Raritan River, plus a marina. (Provided by the developer)
This rendering shows how Riverton will look from the Driscoll Bridge on the Parkway south over Raritan Bay. (Provided by the developer)
An aerial rendering of how Riverton, with the marina, will look at night. (Provided by the developer)
(Provided by the developer)
A marina is planned at Riverton. (Provided by the developer)
SAYREVILLE, NJ — Good news for New Jersey's fishermen, boaters, hunters and anyone who shops at Bass Pro Shops: Construction on Riverton started a few weeks ago, including at anchor tenant Bass Pro Shop. This was revealed by Sayreville Mayor Kennedy O'Brien at the town's Jan. 1 reorganization meeting, and first reported by MyCentralJersey.
An opening date was not given; it will likely be sometime this spring. The only other Bass Pro Shop in New Jersey is in Atlantic City.
Riverton is the massive redevelopment project long-planned to be built at the Sayreville exit off the Driscoll Bridge (the former National Lead site, 1000 Chevalier Avenue), where the Raritan River widens and becomes Raritan Bay. Riverton will take up all 418 acres of what is currently marshland. It will have 1,300 luxury waterfront apartments (20 percent will be affordable housing), office space, retail shops, restaurants and a marina.
Sayreville town hall may also relocate there. Mayor O'Brien said Jan. 1:
"We continue working closely with the developers at Riverton, which finally — and let me re-emphasize finally – began construction a few weeks ago on the site at Chevalier Avenue. The 2.5-billion-dollar redevelopment plan is moving ahead. For many of us who have eagerly awaited for construction to commence on this former industrial site, the moment that Riverton began pouring concrete and foundations, we knew that all the work of so many from Sayreville over the years is bearing fruit."
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"Riverton, as they say, is finally going vertical."
So far, Bass Pro Shop and a QuickChek are the first two businesses to sign leases at Riverton, according to MyCentralJersey.
However, O'Brien said he's been getting daily phone calls from other companies that want to open there, now that construction actually started.
"My office receives phone calls from many other major investors across the country looking for opportunities in Sayreville," said the mayor.
Riverton will have:
Riverton already got a $400-million tax break from NJ
Riverton has been pitched for a decade now. However, the developers — Cincinnati-based North American Properties, working with PGIM Real Estate, the global investment arm of Prudential bank — said Riverton could not be built without "critical" financing from the state.
That's why it was such big news when, at the tail end of 2023, the state of New Jersey announced Riverton was approved for tax breaks of up to 50 percent of project's costs, up to $400 million total. It was given the tax breaks under the state's Aspire Program, which is meant to increase affordable housing in New Jersey.
A big chunk (20 percent) of the 1,300 residential units planned there will be affordable housing.
"Sayreville is poised to undergo a tremendous renaissance, which will bring new housing, jobs, retail and recreation that will benefit the entire community,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at the time.
The developer said Riverton "will primarily be marketed to empty nesters and single Millennials, however some families may also be part of the resident mix."
NJ Economic Development Authority CEO Tim Sullivan called Riverton a "long-anticipated project" and one that will "transform a vast tract of land that had been rendered unusable many years ago."
Riverton will "reinvigorate Sayreville," he said.
The developers are working to build Riverton under a limited partnership called Sayreville Seaport Associates Urban Renewal, L.P.
Prior Patch reporting on Riverton in Sayreville:
Riverton Development In Sayreville Gets $400 Million In Tax Breaks (Dec. 2023)
Heads Up, Sayreville: Massive Luxury Apartment Complex 'Riverton' May Be Coming (December 2019)
https://riverton.com/
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