The Rockefeller Group, which sought to build 715,000 square feet of new office space at the former Honeywell headquarters in Morris Township, has backed out of the project.
That’s according to Douglas Henshaw, attorney for K. Hovnanian, the company that plans to build 233 town homes on portions of the 147-acre tract on the Columbia Turnpike.
Henshaw noted the Rockefeller Group’s departure, without further explanation, in a recent letter to the Township planning board seeking amendments to a general development plan approved on Jan. 11, 2016.
Those requested changes are scheduled to for a public hearing on Monday, March 20, 2017, at 7:30 pm in the Township municipal building on Woodland Avenue.
Hovnanian seeks to push back the donation of a 14-acre parcel to the Township. Henshaw’s letter also refers to contamination of that parcel by the pesticide Dieldrin.
Another major project, the redevelopment of the 49-acre Colgate/ Mennen site, also is on the planning board’s revised agenda.
The board is scheduled to consider a resolution forwarding to the Township committee a conceptual plan, discussed earlier this month, for a mix of commercial/retail space and town homes at the East Hanover Avenue location.
Colgate-Palmolive announced plans in 2013 to lay off 350 workers and sell its Township plant, where it has manufactured liquid hand soap, body wash, antiperspirant and deodorant.
