A former corporate headquarters and bank building on Route 206 may be converted into a self-storage facility.
Melillo Equities, of Far Hills, is scheduled to appear before the borough’s Land Use Board on Nov. 20 with a proposal to repurpose and expand the existing 10,090-square-foot, two-story office building at 158 Route 206 into a three-story, 21,545-square-foot self-storage building.
The building served as the corporate headquarters for Fedders, once the world’s largest air conditioner company that filed for bankruptcy in 2006, and later as administrative offices of Peapack-Gladstone Bank.
Melillo also plans to construct a two-story, 2,012-square-foot building with five apartments on the 10.7-acre property. The apartments will be restricted to affordable housing.
The borough’s prospective need for affordable housing is 75 units.
According to its website, Melillo says the local market demand for self-storage facilities has “far outweighed supply” because of local zoning that has led to residents and businesses driving more than 20 minutes to the nearest storage facility.
The website also states, “Even as it takes on a new purpose, this building will remain true to the historically sensitive community’s traditional architectural vernacular.”
The addition, according to the website, “will be positioned unobtrusively behind the building’s stately brick colonial façade.”
Converting an office building into a self-storage facility has already been done in Somerset County.
In Branchburg, the former Sun National Bank headquarters on Route 22 has been transformed into a self-storage facility.
The Bridgewater Zoning Board of Adjustment has approved a plan to demolish a two-story office building at 1661 Route 22 and build in its place a 129,827-square-foot self-storage facility.
Also in the Route 22 corridor, the Lebanon Borough Land Use Board earlier this year approved a plan to convert an office building into a self-storage facility at the intersection of Corporate Drive and Route 22.
Melillo has also presented to Peapack-Gladstone a conceptual plan to transform the adjacent 150-acre Pfizer campus into 200-plus units of 55-and-over rentals with a set aside for affordable housing, 95 assisted living units, including 10 affordable units to meet Medicare requirements, or as an alternative a 100,000-square-foot extended stay hotel.
