Rustic Mall, the large vacant lot behind Main Street, has been an ongoing topic in Manville for over a decade. ManvilleToday is providing an updated information series regarding Rustic Mall as a result of changes, and new information learned, since our detailed reporting in 2024.

On June 11th, 2025, Rustic Mall filed a lawsuit (Docket: SOM-L-000869-25) suing The Borough of Manville -- again. This time, the lawsuit focuses on Manville's zoning changes that were adopted back in 2024. (We reported on these changes here)

The owners of the Rustic Mall & The Borough of Manville were in negotiations for redeveloping the land dating back as early as 2005. In 2014, the Rustic Mall Superfund site was certified by the government as being complete, with the creosote problem being mitigated. Rustic Mall was removed from the National Priorities List. After Rustic Mall was no longer a Superfund site, redevelopment should have been able to commence.

In 2014, plans were presented to redevelop the property into a mixed-use property. This would consist of several buildings, referred to as "Village at South Main Street", which would contain residential and commercial property. Similar to that of Somerville -- some buildings would have a bottom floor for commercial usage, and upper floors for residential.

At the Council Meeting held on June 23rd, 2025, there was an escrow release in the voucher list to Rustic Mall LLC in the amount of $15,571.18. This money held in escrow was returned to Rustic Mall LLC. This escrow money is also referred to in Rustic Mall's lawsuit.

A resident at the June 23rd council meeting inquired about the reimbursement:

"I noticed in here there was a $15,000 release related to the Rustic Mall. I don't know if this can be disclosed at this point, or if it's related to closed session (intelligible) was there something that triggered that release of the $15,000?"

"The, um, termination of the redevelopment agreement with the developer, he had money in escrow and we gave him back the escrow amount that they had on hold." Responded Mayor Richard Onderko.

Attorney Ted Maciag added: "And that redevelopment agreement was terminated in 2018."

In 2021, the Mayor & Council passed a Resolution declaring Rustic Mall a "condemnation area in need of redevelopment", which according to the lawsuit harmed the value of the Rustic Mall property.

In May of 2024, Manville adopted a revised zoning map, re-classifying the property as "Municipal", along with almost all of South Main Street. Rustic Mall was not aware, or given notice, of such zoning changes.

Per the lawsuit, Rustic Mall only found out when they were given a property appraisal prepared for the Borough of Manville. "Rustic Mall, LLC was not given notice of this planned and adopted Ordinance in advance of its hearing and adoption by the Borough."

The lawsuit discusses the impact of the rezoning to Municipal: "This new zoning removes any and all remaining private and profitable uses for the Subject Property and all but removed it from the private market that remained after the redevelopment designation."

The value of the property is significantly lower than what it is being currently assessed at, per the lawsuit, citing: "This valuation significantly undervalues the Subject Property and is significantly below the valuation placed on the Subject Property by the Borough's Tax Assessor."

Manville's attorney filed a response to Rustic Mall's lawsuit on August 18th, 2025.

In the Borough's response, Attorney Maciag states that a Complaint challenging the validity of the zoning ordinance can only be filed within 45 days after adoption. And that Rustic Mall is filing their Complaint 387 days later. The response goes on to detail that Rustic Mall is 342 days out of time in filing their Complaint.

The Borough of Manville is seeking that the case be dismissed with prejudice, which means if accepted by the Court, the case is dismissed and cannot be refiled at a later time.

The response further goes on to detail the property appraisal of the Rustic Mall site, and how it's currently being assessed at $3,360,000.

The Court appears to have a motion hearing scheduled for October 24th. No oral arguments were scheduled, and the parties will not need to appear in Court for the Court's response to this motion.

However, no property owners were notified of the zoning changes taking place. Manville was able to avoid notification by modifying zoning via its Master Plan, which requires no notification to property owners.

Part 2 of our updated 2025 series on Rustic Mall will cover zoning changes along Main Street, as well as the property appraisal report for Rustic Mall.