Somerset initially proposed a re-use plan for the emptied-out Bell Labs campus in 2006, when the notion of putting anything there but another big employment center was essentially anathema to the local citizenry and planning authorities. It took a concerted, unstinting campaign of outreach—hearings, open houses, design charrettes, public tours, brochures, briefings—to shift hearts and minds.

“That was a Herculean feat of persuasion,” says developer Eugene R. Diaz of Prism Capital Partners, which has launched its own major mixed-use projects in two suburban towns. “I think it's pretty much what anybody has to do today to get a master-planned project on line in New Jersey.”

At the spring NAIOP gala, Zucker accepted his industry award and then called for radical change in the state's “archaic” and hyper-localized “home rule” approach to planning and zoning. Sam Morreale of Vision Real Estate Partners, who followed Zucker to the podium to accept recognition for his company's work in converting suburban office “dinosaurs” into mixed-use “diamonds,” exhibited the same bifurcated response: Morreale basked for just a moment, then gave a clarion call for municipalities to flex their “mentalities” and lower the barriers to mixed-use development.

Developers in the Garden State are exasperated, they're fed up with what they see as blockades to progress, but they do not exhibit signs of giving up or rolling over. “Mixed-use development is the wave of the future—well, actually, it is wave of the present—that can't be stopped,” says Morreale. While big projects can be as difficult as a moon landing to pull off, requiring years and years of planning and point-counterpoint with hidebound local powers-that-be, he and other developers say, they provide the most compelling opportunities to revive worn-out real estate, neighborhoods and entire communities.

“You can have a truly significant impact on a municipality,” says Diaz. “The right mix in a project can change the course and the feeling and the identity of a town. It can help determine whether the bar gets raised substantially.”

The problem is that changing the feeling and identity in a town is not equivalent to raising the bar in the eyes of many suburban residents. As a grand debate begins in Nutley and Clifton concerning redevelopment plans for the now-vacant Roche pharmaceuticals campus, this truth pushes to the forefront once again: “We're looking to maintain the character of the town,” Nutley Commissioner Mauro Tucci said bluntly at the first public work session to consider possible redevelopment schemes in March.

“One can only hope that is a starting position,” sighed one real estate attorney who talked to Real Estate Forum after the session.

Roche (formerly Hoffman-LaRoche) announced nearly two years ago that it would close the site where it had been based for more than 80 years. Seeking to facilitate a transition for the towns it is abandoning, Roche provided a $300,000 grant to evaluate redevelopment proposals for the property before it goes on the market and architecture-and-design firm Perkins Eastman was hired to do the study.

The towns set three basic criteria before the study was begun: First and foremost, they seek substantial new tax ratables (Nutley is already confronting a $3.5-million gap in its budget this year due to lost taxes.) Also, they want no extra burden on the school systems and upgrades to their current business districts. Oh, and one more thing: no big-box retail.

Perkins Eastman devised three possible scenarios that each involve the addition of some retail and apartment space, but no big-box retail. Each of the plans would keep a substantial amount of Roche's existing high-quality office/lab space in the mix. Still, municipal authorities seem to be approaching the plans with the proverbial 10-foot poles. At that first session to consider them, Nutley's assistant township attorney hastened to describe the consultant's report as “all conceptual.” “This document is a concept on what possible repurpose can be,” said Alan Genitempo. “Nothing has been agreed on, including by Roche.”

A number of the state's major development players—Vision REP and Prism among them—are known to be interested in the redevelopment project, even given the fact that several of the development scenarios could take up to two decades to fully build out, even given the inherent difficulties in securing approvals from two separate townships. The 118-acre Roche site straddles the boundary between Nutley and Clifton, running alongside the east-west artery, Route 3. Nutley lies within Essex County and Clifton is part of Passaic County. “That definitely isn't going to make it any easier,” says Diaz, whose company completed the first phase of its Parkway Lofts project last year on a site straddling Bloomfield and East Orange (which are both in Essex County.) “You never get two for the price of one in these negotiations. Home rule is one of the biggest reasons these projects take so long.”

Prism acquired the 115-year-old General Electric Co. warehouse site back in 2005 with a plan to convert it into 365 apartments. The hip, new loft units designed to attract Millennials opened earlier this year. The physical conversion of the behemoth building overlooking the Garden State Parkway was a huge challenge, Diaz says. “It wasn't the most difficult part, though,” he says, without further belaboring the point.

“These big mixed-use projects really are like a moon shot,” a capital markets specialist who has a hand in funding them told Forum. “Even when you have highly professional, well-versed planning officials who are actively on board with making it happen, there will be myriad issues with phasing and approvals and design, etc.” Add into the mix a suburban mindset that is staunchly opposed to change, and, well, “Houston, you definitely have a problem,” he says.

In June—just before developer proposals were due for the Roche site—another long-running redevelopment saga took a turn and appeared to move forward. Still, it would be too bold to assert that all roadblocks are now cleared away in that one, involving the Honeywell property in Morris Township. The Honeywell redevelopment has now progressed all the way to the beginning of the site plan approval process. That took more than four years.

Honeywell has maintained its world headquarters on a 147-acre property in the Morris County township for more than 50 years. Amidst the downturn in 2010, the giant manufacturer reassessed its space needs and subsequently put forward a plan the next year to renovate its headquarters and add townhouse condominiums to the site. In Morris Township, the resistance of municipal authorities was not the roadblock; fervently hoping to keep Honeywell as a major taxpayer, the township speedily agreed to rezone the property to accommodate new uses.

However, a citizens' group led by neighbors of the property swallowed not a drop of that particular Kool-Aid. The Citizens for Better Planning in Morris Township warred against the rezoning plan at every hearing opportunity and, after it was approved anyway, the group filed a lawsuit charging that the town had indulged in illegal “spot zoning” to suit Honeywell. By the time the legal case was heard last February, Honeywell had long since changed its mind about redeveloping in Morris Township. The company announced 18 months ago that it would move its headquarters five miles away to Morris Plains, where it is currently renovating a complex originally built for Pfizer pharmaceuticals and owned by Johnson & Johnson.

Meanwhile, a judge ruled against the citizen group. The Rockefeller Group of Manhattan waited out the appeal period and in June, when the citizens group had not made another move, it announced it will purchase the Honeywell property and proceed with redeveloping the campus as office/lab space and housing. K. Hovnanian, the veteran home builder based in Red Bank, is to construct the 235 townhouse units. First, the township's planning board must approve the Rockefeller/Hovnanian site plan, though.

Some real estate companies strictly avoid suburban “opportunities,” no matter how great the promise might seem. “We wish everyone well in finding a vibrant future for those properties,” KRE Group's Jonathan Kushner says about the Honeywell and Roche sites. “Honestly, though,” says Kushner, whose company is prominent in the pack of those working to turn Jersey City into a “live-work-play” mecca and currently has several projects under way, “there are towns that we would be afraid to spend time on.

“Every company has a finite amount of resources, and a finite number of people and talent to devote to projects,” Kushner adds. “Whether a project involves 100 apartments in a town that doesn't want them, or 1,000 units in a town that does, we would always be looking to be careful with our time and talent and opt for a town that wants to work with us in improving its look and feel.”

On the other hand, a really big piece of property coming available for redevelopment is a rarity in northern New Jersey these days, Kushner agrees. KRE has approvals to build three tall towers on just 1.5 acres beside the Journal Square train station in Jersey City, a 10-minute ride from Manhattan. That kind of density is unimaginable at any other locale in New Jersey, however.

The sprawling Roche property has exceptional highway accessibility, it is situated only about 30 minutes from New York City and some of its research and development buildings are heavily equipped with technology, notes Thomas Stanton of JLL, which is marketing the site. Two of the largest buildings on the campus are connected by a $6-million sky bridge that was built just two years ago. The campus has a heliport, a central utility plant and two power substations. Roche is performing a thorough environmental remediation of the site, picking up a tab of about $200 million.

“There are always going to be developers with the vision to perceive the potential of a property like this,” says Stanton. Several developers—including Diaz—raised the issue of whether lenders are prepared to lay out capital for redevelopment that will include more than one kind of property use, saying that lenders tend to be “segmented” in their focus.

But Jonathan Liefer, director of acquisitions with Case Real Estate Capital in Rochelle Park, says there is—and will be—capital available to pursue properties offering “diverse value-add opportunity.” His Rochelle-Park based company just expanded its focus to lending for acquisitions and redevelopment of properties that have been under-utilized or have become distressed in some way.

“The key to repositioning a property for mixed use is that the overall project aligns with the needs of a community,” says Liefer. “Frankly, it's not just about what city or the developer wants, but what overall challenges a development can solve for a community. What can a development achieve from a standpoint of place-making?” It may not be a simple discussion—or a short one—he concedes, but Liefer says without equivocation, “That's the key, creating a place that fills the needs of the surrounding community.”