The Sayreville Planning Board recently voted to approve a plan to redevelop the former Sunshine Biscuits factory, which fronts Jernee Mill Road and Bordentown Avenue.
Officials voted unanimously to approve a second site plan for the factory in five years during the board’s regular meeting on September 16. Application documents the board made public show that the applicant, HCI DP Land Acquisition LLC, an affiliate of Houston, Texas-based Hanover Company, intends to tear down the existing industrial building at 4000 Bordentown Avenue and replace it with two new 40-foot clear industrial buildings totaling 714,500 square feet.
A site plan shared by the board shows that the first warehouse would span 308,200 square feet and include 42 loading docks and 155 parking spaces. The second proposed building would span 406,300 square feet and include 59 loading docks and 175 parking spaces.
A report in The Sayreville Insider says that each building would be configured to allot up to two tenants, which may operate 24 hours a day with as many as three work shifts.
Professionals working on behalf of the applicant said the developer agreed not to build 90 parking spaces and to keep that portion of the property as unpaved grass after board members questioned the excessive parking proposed at the site. A planning report states that the borough’s statutes call for 193 total parking spaces, substantially fewer than the 330 proposed in the application.
The report says the board will need to review the additional 90 spaces further. The applicant also agreed not to use the additional parking for storage or temporary buildings.
The approved plan does not call for a direct connection to the existing Conrail rail line fronting the site, but the developer and the board agreed to allow a connection to the line if a tenant requests it.
While the board’s site plan approval marks a step forward for the developer, it remains to be seen whether the applicant will actually move forward with redevelopment of the former Sunshine Biscuits factory, which has been the subject of two other proposals in the last three decades.
A Middlesex County Planning Board resolution states that it approved another application to redevelop the factory in May 2021.
Although the county board has not made that application public, a MyCentralJersey.com report from October 2021 states that another developer, Bordentown Park LLC, sought approval for a site plan application to redevelop the same premises. The applicant sought to erect a 246,400-square-foot warehouse with 52 loading docks and 288 parking spaces. However, it is unclear whether the Middlesex County Planning Board approved the application from Bordentown Park LLC, which the borough approved in November of the same year.
That proposal came 20 years after the former factory was repositioned as a data center and high-tech manufacturing hub.
A November 2000 New York Times report says Sayreville LLC invested $50 million to retrofit the former bakery and manufacturing plant for high-tech manufacturing after purchasing the property in 1999. The LLC acquired the 48-acre site from New York investor Joshua Gutman, who bought it that same year from Keebler Foods Company.
Kellogg agreed to acquire Keebler Foods for $3.9 billion in October 2000, one year after Keebler had shut down the factory in Sayreville.
Sayreville LLC invested $15 million in high-tech infrastructure alone to retrofit the property in 2000. But Cushman & Wakefield marketing materials show the building had about 550,000 square feet of space available as of October.
Keebler acquired Sunshine Biscuits in 1996 and shut down the factory in May 1999 after the plant operated for over 30 years. Sunshine Biscuits was the second-largest manufacturer of cookies and crackers, and employed around 600 workers in Sayreville by the time the factory was shut down.
Records from the Middlesex County Tax Board state that the 47-acre site was last sold in August 2014. The current owner, Newark-based Gen III Holdings, paid $24 million for the property. The property had an assessed value of $12 million as of 2025.
