Branchburg: Developer wants to convert Route 22 office building into self-storage facility

BRANCHBURG - A developer wants to convert an office building here into a self-storage facility. 

The 40-year-old office building at 3421 Route 22 East has been vacant for at least 2 1/2 years, according to Irv Cyzner of Cyzner Properties, a Green Brook-based company that owns properties throughout the state. Cyzner purchased the building about a year and a half ago, he said, hoping to turn it into a state-of-the-art Arthur's Self Storage facility. 

"We will take it back to its basic structure and rebuild it," Cyzner said. "It's 40 years old, it's obsolete. Our adaptive use will make it beautiful. In the first stage, we'll create a state-of-the art Arthur's Self Storage facility which will also have a cave with wine storage for restaurants and caterers. Then we'll build two more buildings for self storage, as well as an area in the back where people can store boats, trucks and cars under a roof covered with solar panels."

The planned solar panels will produce more than enough electricity to power the entire facility, Cyzner said. He is also enthusiastic about the architect who designed the three buildings and the vehicle storage.

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"He's a super talent, who has designed similar facilities and won awards for them in other parts of the country," Cyzner  said. "We're excited to have him. We waited until we could have someone who could do an architecturally interesting design for an upscale community like Branchburg."

Cyzner said his company has done a demographic study of Branchburg and surrounding towns and feel that the area can well support his new Arthur's Self Storage. He said the company has facilities in Kenilworth and 35 other locations, some of which have been adapted from factories or buildings built for other uses. This would be the first office-building-to storage-facility conversion, he said.

The Branchburg Master Plan and Land Development Plan ban commercial storage facilities in the township. According to Zoning Officer Tom Leach, mini-storage facilities are banned in the Master Plan in I-1 and I-2 zones. But the Land Development Plan goes further, banning commercial storage facilities anywhere in the township. 

Cyzner's proposed conversion from office building to storage facility goes before the Branchburg Board of Adjustment Tuesday, Oct. 2 to see whether the Board of Adjustment decides whether the proposed Arthur's facility would be valuable enough to the township to override the Master Plan and the Land Development Plan. 

Currently, Lennar is building a big community of Mt. Laurel affordable housing across Route 22 from the Cyzner property, and the Planning Board has received a proposal from Sycamore, a subsidiary of Premier Development, for more Mt. Laurel affordable housing within the same tax lot.

"We've been in Somerset County for 43 years. We have 80 properties throughout Somerset County," Cyzner said. "That demonstrates our commitment to this area."

Staff Writer Pamela MacKenzie: 908-243-6616; pmackenz@gannettnj.com