Monmouth Mall has big plans

By Coleen Burnett
Eatontown — 2016 will be a year of changes in Eatontown. The month of February contains events on the docket that are guaranteed to change the physical look of the borough in the years to come.
One of the big changes proposed will be for the Monmouth Mall.
Representatives of Kushner Companies, which bought the shopping center outright last August by buying out their partner, Vornado Realty Trust, have big plans for the iconic location on Route 35.

Nobody is talking specifics on those ideas — but Borough officials are strongly urging residents and other interested parties to attend a workshop meeting at Borough Hall February 10 at 7 p.m.

At that time, Kushner is expected to unveil their new concepts for the Mall.
“The Kushner Group is looking to make a large investment to redevelop the property,” Mayor Dennis Connelly told the council.

Borough Administrator George Jackson was so anxious to spread the word about the meeting that he took the somewhat unusual step of handing out a press release to the media at the Jan. 27 council meeting to make certain that the word got out.

In the release, Jackson said the Kushner Group has expressed a desire to do what he called “reinvent” and “reinvigorate” the shopping center, which was opened in March, 1960.
The Mall last went through a large expansion in 2009 and had smaller renovations in both 2010 and 2012.

Kushner Companies also owns Pier Village in Long Branch.
In other big development news, on February 3 (after The Link went to press), the Borough’s Ad-Hoc committee on Fort Monmouth was scheduled to hold a special meeting with the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) board to discuss the final bids on Parcel B.

The area has long been envisioned as the borough’s brand-new Town Center.
Bids for the possible development of another Fort Property, the Suneagles Golf Course, are due into the FMERA offices in Oceanport on February 5.
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