Last year the the former SS. Cosmas and Damian School property was sold to HOW Properties for $502,000. The original plan was for Princeton Education Academy to open an early learning center on the property, but that fell through.
HOW Properties is now going through the Zoning Hearing process to obtain relief to convert the former school into a mixed use building. The first floor would consist of office space and a residential unit. The second floor would be all office space and the third floor would be four residential units.
HOW Properties gave a presentation on May 16th to Borough Council, who can vote to support the plan, vote to not support it or take no action.
During the presentation, the main concern from members of Borough Council involved parking. The attorney for the property owner stressed that the office tenants in the building wouldn’t be ones that generated a lot of visits or have large staffs. And the nature of the building would lend for the office tenants and residents being able to utilize the same available parking during different hours of the day.
Borough Council voted to support the zoning application by a vote to 6-0 (one member was absent). There was one caveat in that an issue with a small piece of Borough-owned property that is adjacent to the building be resolved. This is a recommendation to the Zoning Hearing Board, not an actual approval.
The property owner will now go before the Zoning Hearing Board on a future date.
You can watch a video of the presentation here (jump to the 19:19 point).