Developer Seeking to Build 500 Homes on Ridge Road

The South Brunswick Zoning Board of Adjustment will consider an application in April for a huge housing complex on Ridge Road, located at the former site of the Wyeth Pharmaceuticals research facility. 

Ridge Road Properties, LLC, is seeking a variance to develop 238 age-restricted multi-family homes and 270 age-restricted single-family homes on a 177-acre parcel in an OR zone.

"It's a gigantic sized development and I don't know enough about their plans yet to say whether it's a good or bad thing," said Mayor Frank Gambatese. "The parcel of land is a good size, and 500 homes could certainly fit, but that's a lot of homes to add to this community. We have other developments from Toll Brothers and Bellagio that aren't finished yet, so that's a lot of adult community homes up for sale and I don't know if the market can hold that. So there's a lot of issues the zoning board will have to consider."

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals was purchased by drug giant Pfizer Inc. in late 2009. Soon thereafter, Pfizer announced the closing of Wyeth’s 354,500-square-foot research facility on Ridge Road, a move that eliminated 450 jobs. Pfizer closed six of Wyeth's 20 research and development facilities as part of an effort to consolidate its operations following the $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth.

The Ridge Road facility was the home of Wyeth's efforts at developing a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. The facility generated approximately $1.6 million in tax revenue for the township during its final year of operation, according to the South Brunswick Tax Assessor’s office.

Gambatese said it's unclear at this point whether the developer would tear down the high-tech research building on the property.

"Pfizer pays well over $1 million a year in taxes for that building and property so we don't want to see that torn down," he said. "Whoever owns the property has the right to do that, but we would hate to see the loss of that kind of ratable. That would be heartbreaking. We would like to make sure Pfizer does everything possible to get a buyer in there to keep that building up. The developer may want to tear it down and put up more homes, so we don't know what their goal is, but 500 homes on Ridge Road is an awful lot."

The application for the housing development is scheduled to be heard by the zoning board on April 11. Gambatese added that Pfizer is seeking an answer on the sale so it can seek alternatives for the property should the housing development be rejected. 

"Pfizer needs to know an answer because they want to see if they can sell the property, and if the answer to the development is no then they have to look somewhere else," Gambatese said. "This is a zoning board issue and the developer is going to have to convince the board that this variance is acceptable, but there are certainly some concerns from residents about a development of that size."

What are your thoughts on the possibility of 500 homes being added to Ridge Road? Share your opinion in the comments.