During World War II, the Wright Aeronautical plant in Wood-Ridge built engines for the B-29 bomber, a mainstay of the U.S. Army Air Corps. Today, the Bergen County site has new industrial occupants and is slated to blossom into a vibrant mixed-use community.

The first phase of the 150-acre project, called Wesmont Station, will see the transformation of a 67-acre brownfield near the plant into residences and retail space. It will be a transit-oriented development anchored by a new NJ Transit train station just 15 miles and four stops from Manhattan. Somerset Development of Lakewood is the designated redeveloper of the project, whose initial phase is valued at up to $300 million. When completed in about five years, this phase is expected to bring in about $5 million in annual tax revenue for Wood-Ridge, up from the $1.2 million the site now generates.

Two years ago, a New York City developer called Cammeby”s International paid $51 million to acquire the site from Curtiss-Wright, the Roseland-based successor to Wright Aeronautical. Ralph Zucker, the president of Somerset Development, is a Cammeby’s partner.

Other Somerset projects include some 250 homes in Jackson, Lakewood and Tuckerton. Zucker, 42, saw vast potential in the Wood-Ridge site, which sits alongside railroad tracks. Sharing his vision were Wood-Ridge officials, who declared the site an “area in need of redevelopment.” The project will give a much-needed face-lift to a neighborhood now dominated by drab industrial facilities. Today Zucker navigates the site behind the wheel of a golf cart as he outlines the overall project.

It will total 737 residential units, including 266 single-family homes, 90 town homes and 381 apartments. Included will be 125,000 square feet of commercial space, mostly for retail, plus eight acres of ball fields and two acres for a new school. Zucker expects the single-family homes, which will have 2,200 square feet to 3,500 square feet, to sell for about $300,000 apiece. The 1,400-square-foot townhomes could fetch about $275,000 each.\

Last August, Zucker unveiled plans for the project to local residents, community leaders and government officials. They raised concerns about road congestion that Zucker promises to address. He expects to have a signed development agreement with the city by the end of the November, with groundbreaking scheduled for November 2004 and the first single-family homes ready for occupancy by late 2005.

Early next year, the firm will start work on the $10 million train station, for which approvals have been received from NJ Transit. It is scheduled to open by 2006.

Wood-Ridge, whose 7,600 residents have a median household income of about $61,000, is relatively affluent. The crime rate is low in the 1.1-square-mile community, which is near three major hospitals, airports and seven colleges and universities. Designing the project is the Miami husband-and-wife team of Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. They champion the so-called new urbanism, which features well-designed public spaces and innovative uses of planning regulations. The work of the couple, who met at Princeton University’s School of Architecture, includes Seaside, Florida, an 80-acre oceanfront community.

“A Duany planning trademark is extensive communication with the community,” writes James Ahearn, former managing editor of the Bergen County Record in his column for the paper. “He is not an inflexible guru imposing a plan on dubious clients.”

Westmont Station is to be a walkable community with shops and restaurants close at hand. “We’ll keep the car in mind, but hide it in the rear of the buildings,” Zucker says of the overall design. It will include some “live-and-work” units with apartments atop retail outlets.

Also at the site are 10 two-story concrete sheds where Curtiss-Wright tested airplane engines at full throttle over 48-hour periods.

“Any other architect would have wanted to tear down these structures for new development, but [Duany] wanted to retain them and build around them,” Zucker says. While the sheds are not part of the first-phase plans, they could eventually be converted into commercial space and lofts. For the second phase of the project, Zucker wants to put an entire community on the 32-acre roof of the engine factory, which is built into the side of a hill. This phase of the redevelopment could start in about 10 years. Architectural renderings depict a 850,000-square-foot project with residences, shopping and parking facilities, along with trees and open spaces.

One question Zucker never tires of answering is how an industrial plant can support a mini township on its roof. “It’s a bomb-proof building,” Zucker says. He and Wood-Ridge hope the redevelopment will prove to be as financially strong as it is structurally sound.

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