January 2, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Residents of Nutley, N.J. are anxiously awaiting a new redevelopment plan for the former 119-acre Clifton/Nutley campus of Swiss drugmaker Roche , after the planning commission said it is considering repurposing the site for another biotech company and will issue its report by the end of the month.
Roche is slated to completely vacate the property in 2015.
Township Attorney Alan Genitempo told the Nutley Board of Commissioners this week that the Nutley Planning Board has chosen Dave Roberts of Maser Consulting to take a look at the Roche site and surrounding properties as he prepares a redevelopment report.
"[The property is] potentially valuable for contributing to, serving and protecting the public health, safety and welfare for the promotion of smart growth within the town,” wrote the commissioners in a resolution seeking redevelopment of the site last March.
Forty Nutley properties were included in that request, encompassing Kingsland Street, Montclair Avenue, Bloomfield Avenue and Windsor Place.
“Certain properties in the township...qualify as an area in need of redevelopment pursuant to the Local Redevelopment and Housing Law...,” said commissioners. “The redevelopment area determination shall authorize the township to use all powers under the Local Redevelopment and Housing Law, including the use of eminent domain.”
Proposals for the site were due May 8. This new plan, however, will differ from the ones already submitted, because Maser is a consultant and will be looking at how best to leverage the town’s clout to find new businesses and industry.
Rumors have swirled about whether or not Nutley will be able to repurpose the site for a continued biotech development, after master plan architect Perkins Eastman presented a mixed-use set of three different redevelopment plans for the area in January.
Those plans reimagined the site as a mixture of residential, retirement, biotech, hotel and research and development possibilities. Genitempo said the planning board would convene in January with a public meeting taking place following any special meeting about the fate of the site.
