WEST MILFORD — A Dollar Tree discount store could be coming to Union Valley Road in 2020, after Planning Board officials granted approvals for a strip mall renovation in the town center.
The project to upgrade the Belcher Run complex has been in development for three years, said Raymond Eshaghoff, president of North Bergen-based BSG Management. First pitched to government officials in late 2018, the project to downsize the mixed-used building and anchor it with a discount store was ratified by municipal land use officials late last week.
The project will retain four apartments, two offices and additional retail spaces, but the 7,500-square-foot annex that once held a fitness studio will be demolished, records show. A reconfiguration of the structure is planned to make way for a 5,450-square-foot Dollar Tree while reducing the overall footprint of the complex by 20 percent, records show.
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John Leoncavallo, the applicant’s Sayreville-based planner, said the project should reactivate the large vacant retail space, double the life of the complex and generate new jobs. The Dollar Tree is expected to employ eight to 10 local people, records show.
Dollar Tree, based in Virginia, has stores in Oakland, Wayne and Hawthorne, but none in upper Passaic County. The company sells cleaning supplies, candy, seasonal decorations and more. Many items cost $1.
Nine variances were sought and approved for the project, which is within the Pinecliff Lake floodplain. Access to the site will be retained through New Jersey Avenue, a dead-end road where work to accommodate truck traffic is proposed and Nicholas Haftek lives.
Haftek cited concerns over increased traffic and lighting, spurring local officials to push for less intense lighting and a vegetative buffer at the rear of the property during the application’s public hearing. Officials also mandated proof from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that the contaminated groundwater on site was being property managed.
Other proposed work includes relocating the two utility poles positioned in the middle of the sidewalk leading to the adjacent Bearfort Shopping Village.
David Zimmer is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: [email protected] Twitter: @dzimmernews