Chiropractor in Dunellen, NJ

The Nell in Dunellen. - Prism Capital Partners

Prism Capital Partners on Wednesday said it released the sixth and final residential building — containing the community’s remaining availabilities — at the Nell in Dunellen.

The redevelopment of the former Art Color industrial facility at 100 S. Washington Ave. has come full circle, as the finishing touches are being put on the community’s commercial spaces, as well.

Prism launched residential leasing at the Nell just eight months ago, and activity has been consistently robust. The first five apartment buildings are fully leased, with the sixth well on its way to lease-up.

“The Nell’s success reflects ongoing demand for multifamily in dynamic downtowns, as well as the wonderful sense of community that is developing here,” Prism’s Robert Fourniadis, senior vice president, residential, said. “We continue to receive rave reviews on the quality of the homes and amenity spaces from residents and prospective residents alike. The time is right for people interested in the Nell to make a move — before it’s too late.”

The Nell’s 252 one- and two-bedroom residences feature 9-foot ceilings, open layouts, luxury plank flooring, chef-inspired kitchens and spa-like bathrooms. On-site conveniences include garage parking, smart lock entry, in-home washer/dryer, secured package room and indoor bike storage.

Central to its fresh take on modern living, the Nell’s clubhouse is highlighted by a state-of-the-art fitness center, yoga room, resident lounge and community kitchen. Outdoor amenities include a resort-style pool, landscaped courtyard, barbecues, a firepit and a bar with televisions and lounge seating.

Prism’s Edwin Cohen, principal partner, credited the onsite leasing team — including the Marketing Directors’ Shanice Coull, Leo Loyo and Jamie Case — for their exemplary work.

“They have crafted and executed a leasing program that has delivered incredible results in a truly impressive timeframe,” he said. “We fully expect the community to reach full occupancy this fall.”

Residences at the Nell are ready for immediate occupancy. The leasing office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with tours of the community and model homes available.

The Nell’s free-standing retail building will offer essential services to both residents and the larger community. Tenants Blue Foundry Bank and Kessler physical therapy are gearing up for fall openings; the remaining retail space is ideally suited for uses such as an independent coffeehouse, restaurant or local convenience store. The Nell also includes 130 for-sale townhouses developed by K. Hovnanian Homes.

Dunellen needs your vote.

Voting closes Thursday in the first round of the online nationwide Strongest Town Contest, which features 16 towns from across America that "are working to build resilience from the bottom up."

Dunellen, in the first round of the competition, is facing Brattleboro, Vermont, a town in the southeastern portion of the state along the Connecticut River.

It's not a contest of which town has the fittest people who can lift the most weight, but a national competition that highlights the towns which "are doing the hard work of becoming stronger, putting in place the processes, systems, and commitments that build enduring resilience and long-term prosperity."

Dunellen is the only New Jersey town selected for the eighth national competition to determine which towns are "safe, livable, and inviting" by engaging the community in collaboration.

The nominating form for the competition asks questions about parking, roads. transparency and what makes the towns special.

Also see:Here’s what developer is eyeing for shuttered Roxy & Dukes Roadhouse site in Dunellen

In its application, Dunellen said it "prioritizes people over vehicles" by following a "mindful and holistic approach" in its planning strategies.

"The contributions of the residents, business owners, municipal staff and supportive organizations show the love they have for this small town – they go above and beyond in supporting the community’s goals," Dunellen's application reads.

The winner of this year’s Strongest Town Contest will receive accommodations for a representative to attend the Strong Towns National Gathering in Charlotte, where they will receive an award and serve as an honored guest. Strong Towns will also produce a video about the winning community for a national audience as an example of how cities can build economic resilience from the bottom-up.

The winner will be announced April 14.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account.

(New Brunswick and Dunellen, NJ) – Dunellen resident Diana Starace has received the Trauma Center Association of America (TCAA) Circle of Excellence award. The Award of Excellence is presented by the TCAA to an individual for their dedication, leadership and outstanding contribution to the trauma community.

This was the first time the award was presented to a non-clinician (surgeon or nurse) member. Starace, who serves as Injury Prevention Coordinator for the Level I Trauma Center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) and Safe Kids Middlesex County Coalition, was honored for her leadership in educating both children and adults in the community about safety and injury prevention.

“We are extremely proud to see Diana’s tireless work recognized with this prestigious award,” said Lisa Falcon, MSN, RN, TCRN, NE-BC, Director of Trauma and Injury Prevention for RWJUH. “Throughout her career Diana has been a passionate advocate for injury prevention who has brought together countless community-based organizations, volunteers and professionals in our field to educate the public and keep our children and families safe. There is no more deserving individual to receive this recognition.”

Starace adds, “I see my job as an opportunity to teach individuals how to stay out of the emergency department and trauma bay. Keeping the community safe is what we do.”

Starace is a certified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as a Child Passenger Safety Instructor (CPST-I) and is a member of both the NHTSA Region 2 CPS Committee and NJ Teen Driver Safety Coalition. She serves as co-chair of the Executive Board of the Middlesex County Coalition for Healthy Communities and is a member of the

Operating Council of the NJ Coalition Against Human Trafficking and the Middlesex County Sexual Violence Coalition. Starace is active on Underage Drinking and Prescription Drug Task Forces within Middlesex County and is called upon to lecture on numerous prevention topics in schools, organizations and corporate settings throughout Central New Jersey.

She has presented at a variety of state and national conferences including the NJ State School Nurse Association, NJ Planned Parenthood Teen Conference, NJ Association of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, NJ State Council on Compulsive Gambling, NHTSA Region 2 CPS Technical Conference, Trauma Center Association of America, Lifesavers and Safe Kids Worldwide Leadership Conferences.

Starace is an Honors graduate of Barry College in Miami Shores, Florida with post-graduate studies in Public Health Administration at Florida International University and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

About RWJUH’s Level I Trauma Center Injury Prevention Program

RWJUH’s Injury Prevention Program identifies injury risks in the community, initiates related prevention strategies, and conducts outreach, research, education and awareness programs;

ensuring that injury prevention is a public policy priority. RWJUH’s Trauma Center has strong community partnerships that have proven successful in reaching at-risk individuals and families in New Brunswick, including school districts, community service organizations, first responders, and local and state transportation agencies, for almost 30 years. RWJUH has been the lead agency for the Safe Kids Middlesex County, an affiliate of Safe Kids Worldwide, since 2003, supporting a focus on our most vulnerable population, our children.

About Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) New Brunswick, an RWJBarnabas Health Facility, is a 640-bed academic medical center that is New Jersey’s largest academic medical center through its deep partnership with Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. RWJUH is the flagship Cancer Hospital of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and other Centers of Excellence include cardiovascular care from minimally invasive heart surgery to transplantation, cancer care, stroke care, neuroscience, orthopedics, bariatric surgery and women’s and children’s care including The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (www.bmsch.org). A Level 1 Trauma Center and the first designated Pediatric Trauma Center in the state, RWJUH’s New Brunswick campus serves as a national resource in its ground-breaking approaches to emergency preparedness.

RWJUH has earned significant national recognition for clinical quality and patient safety, including the prestigious Magnet® Recognition for Nursing Excellence and being named to Newsweek’s 2022 list of Best Maternity Care Hospitals. The RWJUH Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center has been recognized by The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association as meeting The Joint Commission's standards for Disease-Specific Care Comprehensive Stroke Center Advanced Certification. RWJUH has also earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for Disease-Specific Care Certification for Spine Surgery; The Joint Commission Gold Seal Certification for Bariatric Services; and The Joint Commission Gold Seal Certification for Hip and Knee Replacement services. The Joint Commission also awarded RWJUH a Gold Seal Certification as well as an Advanced Certification in Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) Implantation.

DUNELLEN – Downtown Dunellen will never be the same again.

The long-awaited redevelopment of the Art Color on Washington Avenue next to the train station, seen by many as the savior for downtown, has begun with the groundbreaking for Prism Capital Parner's construction of 194 one- and two-bedroom market-rate rental apartments and 58 units reserved for low- and moderate-income residents, along with 10,000 square feet of retail at Dunellen Station.

The site of the former printing facility will also include 130 for-sale townhouses, which will be developed by K. Hovnanian.

With this project, Dunellen joins the ranks of towns along NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line – Plainfield, Bound Brook, Fanwood, Somerville and Raritan Borough – which are hoping to cash into future direct rail service to Manhattan without having to change trains at Newark.

Dunellen Station, like the other residential developments along the Raritan Valley Line, is seen as the catalyst to downtown revitalization, bringing revenue to the borough and new residents escaping the high rents of New York City, Hoboken and Jersey City, while still being able to enjoy the amenities of a downtown.

Prism anticipates the community may be completed in spring 2022.

Dunellen: 'If we don’t do this redevelopment, we’re going to have to merge in 20 years with Middlesex or Piscataway'

“Dunellen Station will offer a diverse range of housing options in order to meet the needs of multiple segments of the market,” said Robert Fourniadis, Prism’s senior vice president, residential. “Future residents will enjoy all the benefits of downtown living, along with onsite support retail and abundant lifestyle amenities. We are so pleased to be moving forward with this outstanding project.”

Designed by City Invincible, the community reflects the character of the former Art Color building with the clubhouse and retail elements incorporating a transit theme to complement the neighborhood.

The apartment community will feature amenities including a clubhouse, meeting rooms, fitness center, outdoor pool with patio and entertainment area.

The apartments will be in six four-story buildings and the townhomes will be grouped into nine eight-unit buildings, four 12-unit buildings and one 10-unit building.

The project is expected to generate 950 construction jobs and when it is completed, about 220 full-time and part-time jobs.

Nutley-based Prism Capital Partners' projects also include Avenue & Green, a mixed-use, transit-village community in Woodbridge; Wonder Lofts, the conversion of the former Wonder Bread factory site on Clinton Street in Hoboken; and Edison Village, the redevelopment of Thomas Edison’s historic Invention Factory and Commerce Center campus in West Orange.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

DUNELLEN – The apartment construction boon in towns along NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line is continuing with a proposal to build 40 apartments on North Avenue.

The borough planning board will conduct a public hearing at 7 p.m. Aug. 26 on a plan to build the apartments in a three-story building at 520-528 North Avenue.

Six apartments will be designated as affordable units. Sixty parking spaces will be on the ground level while the apartments will be built on the two above stories.

The developer, 528 North Ave. LLC, will combine four lots in to one lot. The properties are in the borough's Downtown Redevelopment Area.

Dr. Brian Katz, a Highland Park-based gastroenterologist who has successfully dabbled in the Middlesex County real estate market for the past decade, plans to make his first venture in construction with the redevelopment of the three buildings near where North Avenue and Bound Brook Road meet.

READ: Dunellen: 'If we don’t do this redevelopment, we’re going to have to merge in 20 years with Middlesex or Piscataway'

Katz previously described Dunellen as a “diamond in the rough” on the ground floor of gentrification at a price point contractors still can afford.

“Dunellen is a town with great potential for vast improvements, similar to what has happened in Somerville over the past 10 years,” Katz said. “There is great opportunity in Dunellen, and the borough has been receptive to new development and wants to jump start and revitalize the entire downtown area.”

Dunellen is one of the towns along the former Jersey Central railroad enjoying a construction boon.

Work has begun on the ambitious Dunellen Station transit village, a mixed-use redevelopment of the long-underutilized Art Color factory site across South Washington Avenue from the train station.

The $105 million project will include 252 high-end rental units and 9,200 square feet of retail developed by Bloomfield-based Prism Capital Partners and 130 townhomes that will be sold by Matawan-based K Hovnanian, both in partnership with Richard Brudner, owner of the 19-acre site.

READ: $105M Dunellen Station project receives final approval

Borough officials have said the development is key to the economic revival of the borough's downtown.

Dunellen's two neighbors along the Raritan Valley Line, Middlesex Borough and Plainfield, have also seen a dramatic spike in multi-family development.

Middlesex Borough officials are considering a plan to build 63 apartments in a five-story building at the corner of Lincoln Boulevard. The Lofts apartment on Lincoln Boulevard nearer to the Bound Brook border have been completed while more apartments are being constructed on Lincoln Boulevard by the former Pathmark.

In Plainfield, the Quin Sleepy Hollow, the largest apartment project in city history, is preparing to open next month near the Netherwood station on the commuter line while 42 more apartments are proposed in a five-story building at the corner of South and Woodland avenues.

Staff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com