Midtown Commons Project Receives 2010 Smart Growth Award

MidTown Commons Project Cited

in Category of Main Street Community Revitalization

A project to revitalize one of Neptune Township's "Gateway" areas, the West Lake Avenue or "MidTown" district, is one of six exemplary projects to be honored with a 2010 Smart Growth Award from New Jersey Future, the nonprofit smart-growth research and advocacy group.

The MidTown Commons project-a collaboration of CityWorks, Inc., Neptune Township, New Jersey Economic Development Authority and TD Bank-is cited in the category of Main Street Community Revitalization.

The honorees will receive their awards at New Jersey Future's ninth-annual Smart Growth Awards ceremony on June 2 at the Newark Club, where longtime New Jersey Future board member W. Cary Edwards will also be honored with a special Leadership Award. A former state assemblyman, Mr. Edwards served as chief counsel and attorney general in the Kean administration and was a key player in passage of the State Planning Act in 1985.

The initial phase of the Midtown Commons project is a 51,000-square-foot, $18.5 million office/health center complex on West Lake Avenue. Its principal tenant is the Family Health Center, relocated from the Jersey Shore Medical Center campus. In the new facility, the health center occupies 30,000 square feet, a 35 percent increase over its former site, and brings 50 permanent professional and administrative jobs to the West Lake Avenue corridor. The New Jersey Division of Taxation will occupy an additional 15,000 square feet of office space and will bring 75 permanent jobs. A second phase of the project will add 22 units of mixed-use affordable rental units, followed by an additional 97 units in a mixed-use configuration with 27 units pledged for affordable housing. Also included in the balance of the project are an additional 60,000 square feet of retail/commercial space that will provide the neighborhood with a daycare facility and a .75-acre urban park.

"To address the needs in the West Lake Avenue or 'Midtown' district, the township partnered with three entities: CityWorks, a nonprofit corporation whose mission is to facilitate real estate projects in economically distressed neighborhoods throughout New Jersey; the Neptune Economic Development Corporation; and the Midtown Urban Renaissance Corporation, a nonprofit made up of residents, business owners and religious and civic leaders," reads the citation honoring the project. "Together, they spearheaded an effort to redevelop the commercial corridor. Input from the community was fundamental to the planning, with more than a dozen meetings held with residents from the planning stages into the construction phase."

Peter Kasabach, executive director of New Jersey Future, hailed the project, as well as the other award-winners, for establishing a trend-setting example for other municipalities to follow. "The winners of these awards demonstrate how New Jersey, the nation's most developed state, can sustain a robust economy and a healthy environment through smart growth and redevelopment in the 21^st century," Kasabach said.