Wegmans breaks ground in Hanover

Construction is underway on a long-awaited Wegmans Food Market in Hanover.

Trees have been cleared from a nearly 40-acre site — a first in Morris County for the growing chain — located close to the intersection of Ridgedale Avenue and Sylvan Way, which runs through the large Mack-Cali business campus on the north side of Route 10 in Parsippany.

The cleared construction site is visible to the west of Route 287 south in Parsippany, just north of the Route 10 interchange. Nearly a dozen pieces of heavy construction equipment, including backhoes and excavators, are parked there.

Fans of Wegmans have been waiting for the company to debut in Morris County for more than a decade. A previous bid to build one on the 37-acre former Varityper plant in East Hanover failed to gain approval in 2004 due to resident opposition. Long-running rumors about the current site were confirmed with a lease agreement in 2012.

A spokesman for the company could not offer details of the store or its construction, but the Hanover Planning Board approved plans for a 140,000-square-foot Wegmans on 38.5 acres, assessed at $9.5 million in June 2013. Last summer, Wegmans said it expected to have the Hanover store open within two years, along with a new location in Montvale and eight other new stores in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

“I can confirm work has begun in Hanover,” said Wegmans director of media relations Jo Natale. “I don’t have a lot of details to share, but the important thing is the process has begun.”

Another company spokesperson, Jeanne Colleluori, said they could not share details of the final store plan because that plan has not been finalized.

Natale said the Rochester, N.Y.-based company, which operates 85 stores in the northeast United States, is doing well in its existing New Jersey locations in Bridgewater, Cherry Hill, Manalapan, Mount Laurel, Ocean, Princeton and Woodbridge.

“We have had success in New Jersey, which is another reason why we are excited about coming to Morris County,” Natale said.

As the company has expanded in recent years, Wegmans has earned praise both from customers and employees. The company boasts an inventory of about 70,000 products, including standard groceries and a large market for gourmet and prepared foods. The cheese shop, for example, stocks an average of 300 varieties.

Its Market Cafe section includes separate stations for subs and sandwiches, pizza, an Asian food bar, sushi bar and hot and cold buffet.

The company also takes pride as an employer, having been named to Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work every years since 1998. It topped the list in 2005 and finished No. 12 in 2014.

Competition sued

The competition also has taken note of Wegmans‘ entry into the lucrative Morris County market.

Village Super Market Inc. the owners of 29 Shop Rite supermarkets, filed suit in Morristown in June 2013 against against the Hanover Planning Board and Wegmans applicant, Hanover 3201 Realty LLC, to rescind what it called the board’s “hasty” approval of the new Wegmans, and order a new hearing. Hanover 3201 is a subsidiary of Mack-Cali Realty LP, which was not specifically named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit cited “significant environmental and traffic concerns” at the site and claimed the planning board granted preliminary and final approval without public input.

Village’s holdings include the Shop Rite of Greater Morristown that opened last year in Hanover and replaced its shuttered market in Morris Plains.

Hanover 3201 — which stands for the tax lot number of the site — is a subsidiary of Mack-Cali Realty LP, an entity that is not specifically named in the lawsuit. The proposed Wegmans site is on 38.5 acres, assessed at $9.5 million.

The Village lawsuit charged that, despite the scope of the project and “significant environmental and traffic concerns,” the Planning Board on June 18 hastily and with no public input granted preliminary and final site plan approval to Phase I of the project and preliminary site plan approval to Phase II.

Hanover 3201 Realty countered with its own lawsuit in February 2014, claiming Village has engaged in “sham” litigation to block the new Wegmans in Hanover and preserve a monopoly position in the greater Morristown area.

Third Circuit U.S. Judge Stanley R. Chesler on Oct. 2 denied Hanover 3201’s claims in the suit related to violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act in October, but the developer filed an appeal of that ruling later the same month, according to Law360. That case is pending.

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-428-6627; wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com.