Flemington Approves PILOT Program for Liberty Village

FLEMINGTON – With George Vallone, director of Hoboken Brownstone Company in the audience, the borough council, on May 13, gave its final approval for the transformation of Liberty Village from a deserted shopping center to a collection of new homes.

Vallone’s company has been before the borough boards since 2021 with the plan.

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After the vote, as he was leaving council chambers, he told the council his company was ready to move forward.

The measures passed on May 13 set in place the financial arrangement for a 22-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) negotiated by the parties; the $500,000 redevelopment area bonds issued by Flemington, which will be reimbursed through the PILOT; and other details of the project.

The arrangement supersedes all other proposal for the 23-acre site between Route 12, Church Street and Brown Street, each of which called for more housing units.

The project now calls for the construction of 111 for-sale townhomes located in 21 three-story structures, of which seven will be designated as affordable homes; 12 rental units in two, three-story buildings designated as affordable housing for veterans; the renovation of a building at 1 Church Street into a 1,452-square-foot commercial building; and improvements to the Brown Street park.

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The reduction in size of the Liberty Village project was in part the result of a 2022 study that showed Flemington had more than 550 approved but unbuilt housing units on the books.

The developer suggested the market townhomes could range in price from $529,000 to $625,000, according to the report by NW Financial Group LLC, the borough’s financial consultant for this project.

The PILOT, by the end of its life, will inject $26.4 million in additional tax dollars into borough coffers, according to figures presented April 1 by Dan Banker, of NW Financial.

The report offered by NW Financial showed that in the first year of the PILOT, the  borough will collect an additional $205,815 in taxes from the site. By year 22, that amount will rise to $1.8 million in additional tax dollars.

The site, the former Liberty Village Outlet Center, now pays $173,130 in annual property taxes. If left undeveloped, the report said, in 22 years that amount would rise to $262,407 annually.

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