NJ-based Ridgewood plans 449 homes on defunct commercial site

A Florham Park-based real estate firm has big plans for a 100-acre defunct corporate campus in nearby Wayne.

Ridgewood Real Estate Partners is proposing a gigantic townhouse project at 1361 Alps Road, NorthJersey.com reported. It would be the largest redevelopment project in the recent history of the New Jersey township.

Jonathan Grebow’s 15-year-old firm would build 439 townhomes and 10 single-family homes, dubbed the Villas at Wayne Hills. It would have 90 low-income units, a clubhouse and 70,000 square feet of amenities, including a pool and a sports court.

GAF Materials was formerly headquartered at the site, which spans 99 acres east of Kiwanis Drive. The roofing supplies maker purchased the property in 1972 and owned it for nearly half a century. In January 2020, township officials and GAF reached a deal on the redevelopment of the property.

The corporate campus has been dormant since February 2015, when the manufacturer packed up and moved to Parsippany-Troy Hills. GAF ultimately sold the campus to Ridgewood in September 2021 for $17 million.

Among the concerns the township and developers will need to address for the project is stormwater drainage for the sloped property. Ridgewood’s engineer pitched planting native grasses in the site’s basins to suck up pollutants. A rendering indicates that the development would require felling many of the mature trees that cover most of the property.

Several other big projects are in the works in the Passaic County township.

In February, Monello Landscape Industries pursued the construction of a four-story warehouse. The 70,000-square-foot building would feature a dozen loading docks, 39 parking spaces and 3,300 square feet of offices.

Meanwhile, the future of 1 Geoffrey Way, better known as the former headquarters for Toys R Us, remains unsettled. Multifamily housing and retail have emerged as prominent possibilities.

— Holden Walter-Warner