An area developer is seeking to upgrade a Union Valley Road strip mall and anchor it with a Dollar Tree discount store in 2019.
Raymond Eshaghoff, president of North Bergen-based BSG Management, said he has spent the past two years developing redevelopment plans appropriate for the site known as Belcher Run. Located in the development-restricted Highlands Region and within the Pinecliff Lake floodplain, the site abutting New Jersey Avenue is a challenging one to improve, he said.
“For a couple of years, we have been trying to reposition this center,” Eshaghoff said. “I think we finally have come up with a complex that works.”
The plans, which are expected to come before the local Planning Board in the coming months, are to reduce the complex’s 25,000-square-foot footprint. The existing fitness center, a flat-roofed building tacked on to the original structure, will be removed in favor of parking and a new wing will be added for an expected discount store, according to the plans submitted to the Highlands Council.
“We’ve gone back and forth with so many different concepts,” Eshaghoff said. “We finally said, let’s go back to the drawing board and if we need to reduce the square footage, we’ll reduce it.”
As the strip mall is currently configured, the structure is used for retail, office and apartment space. All those uses are expected to be retained, Eshaghoff said, but with a Dollar Tree acting as an anchor store.
As its name hints, Dollar Tree sells many of its products for $1. Cleaning supplies, candy, books, toys, seasonal décor, electronics and health and beauty items are all sold at the chain founded in 1986.
The Virginia-based company has North Jersey stores in Oakland, Wayne, Hawthorne, Clifton, Lodi, Fairfield and Paterson but few stores both north of Interstate 80 and west of Interstate 287.
The Belcher Run shopping plaza at 1592 Union Valley Road is assesed at