The Smart Move Program application was submitted by a developer, not the Borough of Manville. A developer would be the applicant.

The requirements were changed for the application, which only required a letter of municipal support, and no public comment or hearing was required.

For the letter of support, the developer re-submitted "Partial Meeting Minutes" prepared by Mayor Richard Onderko from the February 26th 2024 council meeting. It is unusual for a Mayor to prepare meeting minutes. The Borough had a Deputy Administrator/Deputy Clerk who was completing meeting minutes during that time period.

These partial minutes go back to our Rustic Mall 2024 reporting, where the initial plans were first heard of, and seen, by the public. However, for this revised grant application, the Municipal Campus idea is not mentioned at all.

Curiously, the site includes not only Rustic Mall, but "69 S Main St" too, which is the former Bank of America building. According to public records, this building was sold at auction in 2022 for $250,000, sold again in early 2024 for $1,005,000.

ManvilleToday contacted the owner who purchased the property in 2022, inquiring why it was resold just two years later. The former owner stated:

"We bought it as an investment property and tried leasing it out,"

"We had some prospects, not many, but they did not materialize."

At the time of this article being published (October 10, 2025), property taxes on 69 S Main have not been paid since November 15, 2024, further adding to the curiosity. There appears to be a lien on the property. The Borough of Manville has authorized a lien as of August 25th 2025. It remains unclear why the Bank of America Building is included as part of the site address.

The Smart Move grant application states: "Negotiated with owner of property and have a verbal agreement subject to obtiaining (sic) approval from smart move program to move to a signed agreement; if unable to agree with homeowner township is ready to do a condemnation"

This verbal agreement could be why the 2023 lawsuit was dismissed before it reached a court hearing. The details of the verbal agreement are unknown.

The proposed development for the Rustic Mall site is 144 townhomes.

The application goes on to detail that the site was declared suitable for residential use back in 2008 as part of a final inspection by the EPA.

The project is not "shovel ready". Further, the Borough of Manville does not own the property. It is still owned by Rustic Mall LLC.

The developer states they have spent time with the township (Manville) and the engineer, and can have all approvals within 6 to 9 months after signing the Agreement of Sale (AOS) for the property.

Since the Rustic Mall is a former superfund site from creosote contamination, the land is capped. They cannot place stormwater infiltration on the site, per the application, but state that the site is well-positioned for solar energy harvesting.

In regards to "resilient infrastructure" the application proposes using an "active Rain Barrel Program".

The 144 townhomes would be targeted to low-to-moderate income candidates to have the affordability of new housing. The application stated: "Ultimately we fell (sic) this project is meant for the people who will live in the community"

There were several misspellings throughout the grant application.

Grant Denial

Ultimately, the grant application was denied. ManvilleToday received this response when inquiring with the NJ Department of Community Affairs in August for a status update:

"The application in question did not pass the Program’s threshold review, and was therefore not considered for an award."

"Only applications meeting all threshold criteria advanced to the technical scoring stage for award consideration."

"Among other criteria, applications had to be submitted on time with all required documents, including proof of insurance, a letter of municipal support, and demonstrated site control."

"A complete list of threshold requirements can be found in section 2.1.1 Scoring and Selection of Smart Move Program Phase I: Single-Family New Construction Policy."

If the grant were to be approved, the Rustic Mall site could have had 144 townhomes built, targeting low-to-moderate income households. This could create unintended consequences, such as an influx of students into Manville's school system, which is already running out of space.

ManvilleToday will continue to monitor the status of the current litigation between the Borough of Manville and Rustic Mall LLC in regards to Rustic Mall fighting the zoning map change.