$130M Fort Monmouth redevelopment was sunk because of nervous retailers

EATONTOWN - The whims of anchor tenants plus a host of other issues doomed the $130 million Freedom Pointe plan, the developer said.

The mixed-use lifestyle and entertainment destination was to be one of the "jewels" of Fort Monmouth, the shuttered army base vying for a new life in the private sector.

Maurice Zekaria, the president of the development company Paramount Realty Services, which took a crack at the project, still thinks the concept can work at the fort, but said it depends on retail stabilizing.

"Due to the recent e-commerce revolution and the evolving state of retail, our leasing momentum came to a halt and several anchor tenant prospects changed their minds and backed out of the project," said Zekaria.

The news last week that Paramount and the fort's redevelopment team ended negotiations after a year was a letdown to some people.

The site, located in Eatontown at the fort's Route 35 entrance, would have drawn new people to a town that has seen a nearly 5-percent drop in population in the last 10 years. Take a virtual tour of Freedom Pointe in the above video.

"I am disappointed. The town has been down since the fort closed," said Larry Fisher, owner of Eagle Specialty Coffee, located a few minutes from the fort on the same road.

Fisher stood to get some spillover business from Freedom Pointe and was even considering moving his coffee shop to the site.

Related: Fort Monmouth's $130 million town center plan falls through

"This type of development would have been a benefit to everyone. There would have been jobs, it was what millennials wanted," said Fisher, referring to the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s.

Some residents who took to social media posted concerns about additional traffic on the roads from the influx of people or questioned the need for more retail with Monmouth Mall a mile away on Route 35.

The owners of the mall are proposing a massive overhaul of their own in order to reposition the property for the future, adding apartments to the property.

Eatontown's challenge

Attracting people in their 20s, 30s and 40s is one of the biggest challenges Eatontown faces, according to Peter S. Reinhart, the director of the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University.

Eatontown ranked eighth in New Jersey in population loss, a recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau found. Data from 2007 to 2017 were examined for the report.

Reinhart: N.J. must reverse low population growth

Reinhart does not think Eatontown can compete with places such as Hoboken, Jersey City or New Brunswick, which grew during the same period, by relying on its old housing stock.

Freedom Pointe would have added 302 new townhouses on top of 350,000 square feet of commercial space.

The retail component would have encompassed a diverse mix of uses surrounded by amenities and social gathering areas, which Zekaria said "embodies the future of retail."

Reinhart said Eatontown could absorb both Freedom Pointe and The Heights at Monmouth, the proposed redesign of the mall that would add 700 apartments.

"I do think both projects are doable and what the town needs. It appeals to the younger generation," said Reinhart. "Jersey City, Hoboken, Manhattan, they're getting expensive, Eatontown could be a viable choice."

Related: Monmouth Mall's public hearing on final redesign postponed

Can the town center be done?

A mixed-use lifestyle center at the Route 35 entrance was in the original reuse plan for the fort drawn up in 2008.

Fort Monmouth's redevelopment team said it remains committed to the plan and will look to negotiate with another developer for the 89-acre parcel.

Zekaria understands how much of a heavy lift the project is. Paramount was to buy the land for $22.1 million and invest $130 million in Freedom Pointe.

But securing retailers proved to be one of the project's difficult hurdles, according to Zekaria.

That, along with rising interest rates and construction costs, the requirement for substantial traffic and infrastructure improvements, demolition and asbestos removal, and the timing requirements imposed by the fort's redevelopment team became too much for them, Zekaria said.

"We wish them the very best of luck," said Zekaria. "We do think that the development of this project will be very viable one day once the retail industry fully evolves."

Dan Radel: Twitter@danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com