People will soon be able to live or stay overnight next to one of the country’s most upscale shopping centers.
A new development is coming to 233 Canoe Brook Road in the Short Hills section of Millburn Township, just a few yards away from the Bloomingdale’s store at The Mall at Short Hills. The project will be developed by the Roseland Residential Trust, which is owned by the Mack-Cali Realty Corporation. According to a report from Roseland posted on the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, there will be 200 apartments, 170 of which will be market rate, and a hotel with 200 rooms. The Hilton Short Hills is currently the only hotel near the mall.
The report states that “the combined features of the hotel, luxury multi-family, and 250,000 square-foot Class A Mack-Cali office will create one of the finest mixed-use developments in the region,” referring to the office building owned by Mack-Cali that is just steps away from the property in the opposite direction of The Mall at Short Hills.
The project was unanimously approved last June by the Millburn Township Planning Board, and according to Roseland, construction began at the end of 2016. Roseland’s Supplemental Operating and Financial Data from the first quarter of 2017 states that initial occupancy for the apartments is planned for the third quarter of 2019.
Previously, the property contained a small office building that was used as Roseland’s headquarters and surface parking, according to Mack-Cali’s 2016 annual report.
The Mall at Short Hills is located just off of John F. Kennedy Parkway, Route 24, and Route 124. There are around 150 stores and restaurants inside, including the Apple store, Legal Sea Foods, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and The Cheesecake Factory. Bus service to the mall is provided by NJ Transit on the 70 line to the Summit Train Station and Newark Penn Station.
In the past few years, as many malls across the country have seen increasing vacancy rates, there has been an effort by some developers to develop housing within close walking distance. For example, the Foster Square development was constructed near the Voorhees Town Center mall in South Jersey, the Village at Town Center Apartments were built near the Triangle Town Center mall outside Raleigh, North Carolina, and The Village at Valley Forge apartments have come near the King of Prussia Mall in Upper Merion, Pennsylvania.
