New Developer Eyes Former Hightstown Rug Mill

A new developer is looking to take over the contentious rug mill site just off of Hightstown’s Main Street. The idea is to get the buildings there onto the National Register of Historic Places and turn them into affordable senior housing units. This could end litigation against the borough, but it wouldn’t add much to the tax rolls.

Larry Regan, president of Ardsley, N.Y.-based Regan Development, revealed at the Borough Council’s Monday meeting that he has been in talks about the Bank Street property with Hightstown and the former mill’s current owner, Wolfington Companies, who sued the borough in 2008 after revisions to the redevelopment plan that covers the land. Wolfington has been seeking to put in market-rate housing and office space, as detailed on its website.

Planning and Zoning Board Chair Steve Misiura also revealed that part of the mill complex, 101 Bank Street, has already been sold to the current tenant there, Trans USA Products Inc. The sale, he said, “changes the project somewhat significantly” from what Wolfington had proposed.

Misiura said TD Bank, Wolfington’s financer, put Wolfington in touch with Regan and the two developers agreed to meet with the borough to discuss the possibility of Regan purchasing the site. The talks began several months ago, he explained, but were put on hold around election time because a new mayor was going to take office.

“We came away feeling that he did good work,” Misiura said of his meetings with Regan. “We thought it was worth continuing the conversation.”

Regan said he has a tentative, unofficial proposal to get the two remaining buildings on the mill site put on the National Register of Historic Places, sell the credits they would receive from getting those buildings listed and then develop between 85 and 89 one and two-bedroom apartments for middle-to-low-income senior housing.  Studies, he said, have shown a local need for senior apartments.

Some units may also be for people with special needs, which, like the seniors units, fall under the Council on Affordable Housing. Under COAH, the rents for the units would probably be between $750 and $875 a month.

Commercial space is a possibility for some first floor space, he said, as it falls into a flood plain and could not be used for residences.

Regan said his company is asking to make payments in lieu of taxes, known as a PILOT, to the borough that would amount to $45,000 per year and increase three percent each year of the 30-year deal. That's more than the borough now gets from the site, he said, but is negotiable—as is everything else.

The large amount of parking on the site could be made available for borough use, he added.

“We feel that this is a great use for this property at this time,” Regan said. “I think you can all see the handwriting on the wall. This real estate market is not going to change in the long-term, it’s going to be here. And I know that this was going down the road of market-rate condos for families; I don’t see it as a real estate professional. There may be someone out there who wants to do it but I don’t see it happening quickly.

“I see us coming in and turning an eyesore into something that’s positive, I see us negotiating a tax arrangement that makes the town as comfortable, as whole as possible," he continued. "I see this as a proposal to strengthen and grow the community.”

Regan also insisted he had no interest in developing the site if it’s not what the borough wants.

“We’re here to work with you. We’re not looking to continue the animosities, I guess, that Mr. Wolfington has had with you as a community,” he said. “We almost look at ourselves as white knights trying to come in and work an arrangement that all parties can walk away [from] as whole as possible.”

He said he would be willing to consider trying to arrange a mix of market-rate and senior units that would give the borough more tax money, or even to give up and look elsewhere, if that’s what the borough wants.

In the public comment session of the meeting, borough residents said they wanted more information and told the Borough Council not to capitulate to any developer who showed an interest in the site, as some said the municipality did with Wolfington.

“This is our town. It’s not their town. We need to tell them what we want, instead of the other way around,” said resident Rich Pratt. “I think we need to think of ourselves as a commodity that has something to offer.”

Gail Doran said she needed time to think the proposal over, but also that she appreciated the topic coming up in public again.  “I have just heard more information here tonight than I have heard in four years, and I think this is a good thing,” she said.

But Dan Buriak, a former council member, expressed concerns about concentrating affordable housing in the area of the mill, near other similar residences.

“From a planning perspective, in a one-mile square space, we’re really heavily densifying a particular region of the borough with all of our affordable and low-income housing,” he said. “We need to understand what the densification does to a certain section of the town, and whether or not the principals that affordable housing are built under are better served, and even able to be served, in that type of densifying project.”

“This is development of old,” he added. "We have countless stories of how this did not work."

Mike Vanderbeck, a former council member and the owner of , echoed Buriak’s comments.

“At the very least,” he said to Regan, “ you have brought us the conversation of what this town needs to be thinking about and what we want to be known as, not in our lifetimes but maybe two lifetimes from now. What will this town look like? It will really be driven be these relatively large, small parcels of land that we can put together to see what the future of this town looks like.”

J.P. Gibbons said he would prefer the borough tell Wolfington to “bring it on” than to accept the PILOT that Regan is proposing. “$45,000 for the whole mill is ridiculous,” he said.

Reached for comment Wednesday, Regan said he thought the meeting was “fairly typical for a community that’s trying to make up its mind on how to move on a particular development proposal.”

“This is a resource for this borough that really needs to be thought about how it’s redeveloped and we should go about it in the most creative way possible,” he said, adding he would wait for word from the Borough Council before proceeding any further with his plans for the site.

He also noted he had been in touch with the state Historic Preservation office and was “very confident” he could get the mill buildings on the National Register of Historic Places due to its historical value to the community.

While he is not involved in Wolfington’s lawsuit, Regan said his purchase of the property would put it to an end.

“If we were to buy it, the lawsuit would go away,” he said. “We have no interest in doing any lawsuits.”