Developer Bryan Hekemian Testifies Against ShopRite Application

Attorneys opposed to an application before the Wyckoff Planning Board to build a new supermarket here called Boulder Run developer Bryan Hekemian as an expert to testify about the hardships he and his family faced following an agreement to add low income housing to the township shopping complex.

The 16 low income housing apartments in Boulder Run are a financial loss for Munico Associates, the company which owns the shopping center, according to Munico partner Hekemian.

"It's our cross to bear," Hekemian said.

Without providing specific figures detailing his loss, Hekemian spoke about the issues he faced as a property owner in Wyckoff during a Planning Board hearing Wednesday for Inserra Supermarkets' proposed 62,000-square-foot ShopRite at the site of the former A&P on Wyckoff and Greenwood Avenues. Both Munico and Stop & Shop have hired attorneys to object to the plan.

According to their website, Hekemian & Co. own properties worth a total of more than $1 billion, including Boulder Run.

The 16 affordable housing units were included as a compromise when the Hekemians, as Munico, applied to add more retail space to the shopping center, Hekemian said. Their plan was closely scrutinized by local officials and residents.

"This town painstakingly reviewed all my elevations and looked at all my screening," Hekemian said. "I expect nothing less for this applicant."

Board Chairman Richard Bonsignore said he disagreed with some of the conclusions drawn by the objectors' witnesses.

"I just find it ironic, how from your points of view, your experts, how vicious a developer is and how disrespectful he is to a community, yet we have Mr. Hekemian being the poor poster child for someone who's been beaten," Bonsignore said.

"The simple truth is, we have a reasonable application before us," he said.

Hekemian's testimony included some history of the site, dating back to the 1950s when his family purchased Boulder Run and when they worked with the township in the early '90s to find a solution for the municipality's low income housing requirement. An application to build 104 housing units on Greenwood Avenue was blocked, Hekemian said.

"Every word of the ordinance was used to stop the application," Hekemian said.

Inserra's attorney, James Jaworski, and members of the board repeatedly interrupted attorney Robert Inglima's questioning of Hekemian, saying the testimony was irrelevant.

Inglima said he was trying to show "adverse impact" on Hekemian's property rights. Hekemian said he was concerned that drivers might cut through Boulder Run to get to Greenwood Avenue and that increased traffic on the corner of Greenwood and Godwin could make it more difficult to develop residential property his family owns there.

The hearing will continue March 26 at 7 p.m. Hekemian will not be available at that meeting, so the applicants attorneys will continue to cross-exam him during the April 23 meeting. Bonsignore said he is concerned the large number of objectors' witnesses is discouraging members of the public from attending the hearings. The objectors' witnesses began testifying at Planning Board meetings

"We are pushing the public away," Bonsignore said.

The April 11 Planning Board meeting, during which time had been set for public comment, has been canceled because it falls during Passover and a school break. Mayor Chris DePhillips said they may hold public comment during the April 23 meeting and hold a second public comment session after all the testimony is complete.