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Tri-State

NJ developer buys Fairfield Metro dev site

Transit-oriented project approved for apartments, hotel, office and retail space

Accurate CEO Jack Klugmann and the Fairfield, CT Metro North train station (Accurate, Robert Mortell/via Wikimedia Commons, iStock)
Accurate CEO Jack Klugmann and the Fairfield, CT Metro North train station (Accurate, Robert Mortell/via Wikimedia Commons, iStock)

A languishing development project next to the Metro North train station in Fairfield is ready to ramp up behind an incoming developer.

Accurate, a New Jersey-based developer, purchased the site for The Crossings at Fairfield Metro, CT Insider reported. Black Rock Realty was the seller of the development site. The price of the transaction has not been disclosed.

The 24-acre site has frontage on Ash Creek and approvals in place, so Accurate won’t have to start from scratch. The site has been approved for 357 apartments, 118 hotel rooms, 70,000 square feet of office space and 40,000 square feet of retail space.

CBRE’s Louis Zuckerman was part of the team that represented the seller.

Mark Barnhart, director of the Office of Community and Economic Development, said the city has been working with Accurate for some time and anticipates construction could begin in the next few weeks. Barnhart also said the developer is weighing some changes to the site plan.

Plans for the site have been in the works for more than a decade. The development, initially planned for 1 million square feet, was first pitched in 2005 to include primarily office space, as well as retail and hotel space.

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The developer hoped to pre-lease much of the office space, but that was complicated by the 2008 financial crisis. This led to Black Rock revising its plans, incorporating a five-story, 197-unit apartment building into its plans.

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As the project remained dormant, Black Rock ceded control to its partner, Enclave Equities. Enclave ensured site approval for the project, but never started construction.

Accurate last year received approval for a project on the Passaic waterfront site where the defunct Newark Bears baseball team once played.

The proposed 11-building complex will ultimately include 4,200 housing units, 3,000 parking spaces, wellness and co-working amenities and 100,000 square feet of commercial space, split between office suites, retail space, dining and a hotel.

[CT Insider] — Holden Walter-Warner

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