Listen to this article

The fate of the former Nabisco cookie factory in Fair Lawn has been decided, with local officials signing off on a plan to transform the site into a warehouse development.

At its Sept. 18 meeting, the borough’s nine-member planning board unanimously approved Greek Real Estate Partners to develop a 644,000-square-foot warehouse at the site once the remaining buildings on the 40-acre property along Route 280 are torn down.

According to an application filed by CLPF Greek Fair Lawn LLC, an affiliate of Greek, the project also calls for the addition of parking for 263 cars and 100 trailers, as well as 100 loading spaces and 10,000 square feet of office space.

Since acquiring the location in October 2021 for $146.5 million from the cookie and cracker maker’s parent company, Mondelez International, Greek has been moving toward revamping the site into a new, modernized distribution facility.

Following the start of asbestos cleanup and demolition last fall, the firm expected to complete that phase of work in March with implosion of the plant’s signature tower scheduled for April. Amid community concerns about possible soil, air and water contamination as a result of the implosion, though, Greek said it will take a different approach to clearing the property, utilizing a method that does not include any explosives. 

In recent months, residents in Fair Lawn and neighboring Glen Rock have increasingly expressed concerns about the potential release of asbestos or other hazardous materials during the demolition, as well as noise and traffic issues that could stem from a new warehouse.

Making concessions

Fair Lawn planning board member Gail Friedberg Rottenstrich told NJBIZ she felt comfortable supporting the application after Greek agreed to several conditions, including 100% capability for solar panels on the roof – instead of the 40% required by state law.

Other concessions ranged from reducing the number of trailer spaces from 120 to 100, adding conduits for future electrified trucks, decreasing the number of trees to be removed from 111 to 41, and planting more than 1,500 trees, she said.

“They also, in cooperation with a subcommittee of the planning board, the Visual Impact subcommittee, they made substantial changes to the look of the building,” Friedberg Rottenstrich said, who added that the main difference is that there will be more windows “that break up the façade.”

There is no timeline for demolition since asbestos remediation is still underway, according to Friedberg Rottenstrich. A tenant is not yet lined up for the warehouse; however, she said Greek has indicated a Fortune 50 company may occupy the space.

“It was a long process. We had eight long hearings on this. There were a lot of questions from the community, which everyone made efforts to answer adequately. I know not everyone is happy, but I know that the planning board, which is made up of residents of Fair Lawn, did its best to make the application the best that it could be,” Friedberg Rottenstrich said.

A spokesperson for Greek declined NJBIZ’s request for comment.

The property – which falls within a designated redevelopment zone – has sat vacant for the past two years after Mondelez closed local operations, resulting in the loss of about 600 jobs and costing the borough about $1 million in rateables.

After opening in 1958, the local plant produced some of Nabisco’s most popular brands, including Oreos cookies, Ritz crackers, Teddy Grahams graham cookies and Lorna Doone shortbread cookies.

In shuttering the facility in July 2021, Mondelez said its factory in Fair Lawn, as well as a facility in Atlanta, Ga., were “no longer strategic assets from a geographic footprint perspective and both face significant operational challenges, including aging infrastructure and outdated production capabilities, which would have required significant investment to bring them to the modernized state required for the future.”

The company still maintains a presence in North Jersey, employing about 1,500 employees at its North American headquarters in East Hanover. It also recently opened a global innovation center in Whippany.