Kara Homes gets OK to build headquarters

Developer moving
operations from East Brunswick to Old Bridge
BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer

OLD BRIDGE — A successful area home builder will soon be building its own corporate home in the township.

East Brunswick-based Kara Homes, developer of the recently approved Birch Hill Estates age-restricted community, expects that their new corporate headquarters will be instrumental in aiding their company’s planned growth in the coming years.

On Thursday night, Kara came a step closer to realizing its goals when the township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment approved the company’s application for several bulk and use variances as, well as preliminary and final site plans for its proposed three-story headquarters.

The 51,887 square-foot building will be built on three acres at Cliffwood Avenue and Morristown Road.

At the recommendation of Board Attorney Jerome Convery, the zoning board members separated the application, voting first on the variances and later on the preliminary and final site plan.

Although an office building is permitted in the commercial zone where Kara plans to build, use variances were needed for floor area ratio and height, Convery said.

Kara’s plans, calling for a 40-foot-high building featuring a 65-foot high spire at its entry point, required a use variance.

Bulk variances were needed to allow for three stories, 180 parking spaces, and landscaping around the site, according to previous testimony by James Higgins, Kara’s planner.

The seven members present voted unanimously in favor of granting all of the use variances and bulk variances.

Board Member Terri Settlecowski, concerned that the water table located below the site might be too low to adequately sustain the building, cast the sole dissenting vote on the preliminary and final site plans.

Robert McGowan, Kara’s executive vice president, said the company expects to begin construction sometime in February.

Once completed, Kara expects to move its corporate offices from East Brunswick to Old Bridge, according to an earlier testimony provided by Charles Appelbaum, Kara’s corporate counsel.

Plans also call for the building and its parking lot to be located to the east side of Carter Drugs and a small shopping center now housing Evan’s Restaurant.

The lot will abut the Matawan Village Garden Apartments and Sherwood Court condominium community, both located in neighboring Matawan Borough.

Kara representatives have said they were attracted to the site, in large part because it is located less than a half-mile from Garden State Parkway Exit 120.

A 10,000-square-foot sales center will be housed on the building’s first floor and the remaining floors will consist of employee workspaces, Appelbaum has said.

The existing five-story Atrium II office building is located across Cliffwood Avenue and a variety of retail stores, eateries, and gasoline stations also dot the area.

Kara and all of its subsidiaries would be housed in Old Bridge, McGowan said, noting that the company is looking to expand its holdings and hopes to go public in 2005.

Because a public hearing on the application was completed during the previous hearing, there was no public portion prior to the votes.

At the previous hearing on Oct. 16, several residents of Sherwood Court had asked the board to consider locating the building elsewhere.

Although those residents complimented the building design, many were concerned they would lose their privacy once the office building opens behind the condominium complex.