NEW BRUNSWICK — With hours to go before Rutgers University's beloved grease trucks are due to be kicked out of their current location, campus administrators and the food truck owners have reached a deal "in principle" to relocate the vendors to various locations around New Brunswick, school officials said today.

The five iconic food trucks parked in Lot 8 on College Avenue will begin moving out Thursday to make way for construction of an $84 million student apartment complex. Tomorrow morning,the trucks can begin serving their "fat" sandwiches in their new locations, provided they have finalized their paperwork with the university, said Antonio Calcado, Rutgers’ vice president of university facilities and capital planning.

"There are certain requirements they need to give us — for instance, an insurance certificate," Calcado said. "We have an agreement in principle with all of them ... We’re working through those issues."

Calcado said he expected to meet with several owners late Thursday to complete the relocation deals. Several still had to produce their food vendor licenses and other paperwork.

"Anything holding them up is their doing," Calcado said.

George Gussis, a New Brunswick attorney representing the truck owners, did not return calls for comment.



Rutgers officials have been negotiating with the truck owners for several weeks to relocate the trucks, which have been in Lot 8 near the corner of College Avenue and Hamilton Street for nearly two decades. Rutgers offered the trucks a place in the lot in the 1990s after city officials objected to the lines, garbage and noise the vendors were generating parked on city streets near campus.

The sandwich vendors are considered a Rutgers tradition and have attracted national attention for their gut-busting, calorie-laden sandwiches featuring names like "Fat Elvis," "Fat Beach" and "Fat Buddah." The "Fat Darrell" (chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, french fries and marinara sauce on a roll) was named best sandwich in the country by a national magazine.

Lines at the trucks stretched down College Avenue in recent days as grease truck fans savored a last sandwich in the lot to mark the end of an era. The new apartment complex being built in the lot will eventually include a boardwalk-like area with kiosks where at least one of the grease truck vendors can return to sell "fat" sandwiches, developers said.

Until then, the trucks must leave the lot and move to new spots on Rutgers property chosen by university officials.

Calcado, the Rutgers vice president overseeing the relocation, said two grease trucks will move a few blocks away to a university-owned site near the corner of Senior Street and College Avenue. One truck will move to George Street, near Rutgers’ dormitories overlooking the Raritan River.

The remaining two trucks will be on Rutgers’ Douglass campus, near the student center, and on the Cook campus, near Neilson Dining Hall.

The RU Hungry truck posted a banner on its truck last week announcing it is moving to Rutgers’ Livingston campus in Piscataway. But Rutgers officials said the truck owner was unable to get the proper permits to move to Piscataway and will be moving to one of the locations on Senior Street in New Brunswick instead.

The new locations come with new rules. The trucks will no longer be able to park permanently and must leave the location at least three hours every night, Rutgers officials said. They can stay open from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

Rutgers will charge the trucks a $1,000 permit fee per semester, Calcado said. That is less than the $750 per month rent the university was charging each truck in Lot 8. However, Rutgers will save money by no longer providing the trucks with water, electricity, bathrooms or other services.

The permits will expire Dec. 31, when the grease trucks can apply for another six month permit, campus officials said. Rutgers will also open the application process to other food vendors.

"After that, we hope to expand the number of spots," Calcado said.

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