East Brunswick Approves Brunswick Square Mall Plan With 250 Apartments

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — Up to 250 apartments could be built at Brunswick Square Mall after the East Brunswick Township Council approved a redevelopment plan for the property on Monday.

The plan covers about 47.7 acres along Route 18 and Rues Lane. It keeps the mall focused on retail while allowing housing for the first time, which officials say is needed to meet the township's court-ordered affordable housing obligation.

At least 20 percent of the units must be affordable housing.

Mayor Brad Cohen said the township had little choice. If East Brunswick did not put the 250 units on the mall property, the township would still owe them somewhere else, he said.

"We're not getting out of it," Cohen said. "If it doesn't go there, where we can include that in a redevelopment plan, then it goes somewhere else, on somebody's postage-sized piece of land that the state makes us build it on."

What The Plan Allows

The plan splits the site into two phases.

Phase I covers the former enclosed mall, which is being renovated into an outward-facing shopping center. AMC Theatres, Barnes & Noble and Old Navy are staying, and new tenants are expected to open in late 2026 and early 2027, according to the plan. Owner E&P at East Brunswick, a partnership of Paramount Realty and Edgewood Properties, bought the mall in August 2023.

Phase II covers the 244,000-square-foot Macy's building and the Olive Garden lot. Housing is allowed only in this phase.

Under the plan:

• Apartments can be up to four stories or 55 feet tall and must sit at least 250 feet back from Route 18. At least half of the market-rate units must be studios or one-bedrooms, and no market-rate three-bedroom units are allowed.

• New retail includes two new buildings of about 35,000 and 25,000 square feet, with up to two new pad sites per phase.

• A public plaza of at least 10,000 square feet will be built between the new retail buildings.

• A new traffic light must be installed by the developer at Rues Lane and Hillsdale Road.

• Banned uses include gas stations, fast-food drive-thrus, car washes, car dealerships, auto repair shops, vape shops and all cannabis businesses.

The plan also calls for more trees and landscaping to break up the mall's large parking lots, better walkways and possible upgrades to the NJ Transit bus stop behind the AMC, according to documents.

Councilman James Wendell said residents have raised concerns about the height of the apartment building. He said the plan's limit is close to the height of the Macy's building now on the site.

"Currently, the Macy's building stands at 51 and a half feet tall," Wendell said.

Wendell, who chairs the township's redevelopment agency, also said the agency has never built on open space. Its projects have been on vacant or underused properties along Route 18, he said.

Why The Rush

Cohen said the timeline was set by the courts, not the township. The deadline for the township's fourth-round affordable housing plan was in March. East Brunswick was given an extension for the mall site because it was already a designated redevelopment area, but that extension runs only to the end of September, he said.

He said the plan went through four public hearings, before the redevelopment agency, the Planning Board and twice before the council.

If the township missed the deadline, Cohen said, it could face a "builder's remedy" lawsuit, which lets a developer go to court and skip local land use boards.

The developer could then "build whatever he damn well pleases, because all he needs is permission from the court," Cohen said.

"I know there's a lot of people that don't want development," he said. "We're not tone deaf."

Township Administrator Joseph Criscuolo said a Feb. 5 court order agreed that the mall was a good place for affordable housing. Because of that, the township received 12 bonus credits toward its obligation, he said.

Schools & PILOT Money

During public comment, a resident asked whether the township would set aside money for schools from any PILOT agreement for the mall housing. PILOTs, or payments in lieu of taxes, are deals in which developers pay the township a fee instead of regular property taxes.

Council President Dana Zimbicki said the township received about $1.6 million in additional PILOT money in 2025 and 2026. Some of it went to school parking lot paving and plans for new bathrooms at the high school football field. The rest went to hiring three police officers and keeping services such as twice-weekly garbage pickup and leaf collection.

Cohen said he is open to sharing more PILOT money with the schools once new housing starts to affect enrollment. He said enrollment has stayed flat for about 15 years.

"Once the impact of this development starts to be seen on the schools, I think a conversation about how we can help shoulder that burden is not unreasonable," Cohen said.

The plan runs for 30 years. The developer must sign a redevelopment agreement with the township before applying to the Planning Board.

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