Our View

a new look on Ford Ave.

Take some good solid planning by Milltown officials and add to it a lot of interest and willingness to invest in this quaint, old-fashioned community. The result? What appears to be a very promising future for the nearly 20-acre span between Ford Avenue and the Mill Pond.

With a developer now selected for a major redevelopment project, it’s beginning to look more and more likely that this section of the borough that abuts Main Street will be transformed from run-down factory buildings to an attractive, vital and tax revenue-producing development.

Borough residents stand to benefit not only from tax revenue, but from having a prominent section of their downtown area cleaned up and revitalized.

Milltown officials involved with the Ford Avenue Redevelopment Agency have practiced due diligence with each step of the process thus far. After brainstorming in recent years about what they would like to see on the site (age-restricted housing, for example) and what they didn’t want to see (light industrial uses, such as those currently in existence there), they set out on a course to make it a reality.

The agency then found nine developers interested in a variety of projects in line with its wishes. In recent months, a selection committee of various professionals and agency Chairman Anthony Zarillo narrowed that field, first to four developers and now to one — Boraie Development of New Brunswick.

There remains plenty of work still to be done before a shovel goes in the ground, but with the developer on board and assistance from county, state and federal sources, the borough should now have the economic wherewithal to overcome the remaining obstacles.