Expect to hear more in 2025 about potential new ShopRite supermarkets in Monmouth and Ocean counties.

Saker ShopRites, the Holmdel-based owner-operator of 39 supermarkets in Central Jersey and Jersey Shore, has a store on the drawing board for Route 33 in Manalapan.

It’s looking to replace an old location in Stafford with a new store at the site of the former Kmart on Route 72 at the Manahawkin Commons shopping center. Saker ShopRites also plans to renovate its Freehold Township store, built in 1963.

Here’s where things stand so far.

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Manalapan

A ShopRite supermarket is proposed for Manalapan Crossing, a village development on Route 33 at Millurst Road, with a hearing before the planning board expected to continue into 2025.

Cardinale Enterprises, the developer of Manalapan Crossing, wants to replace three previously approved retail and restaurant buildings that have not yet been built. The new Manalapan ShopRite Manalapan will be 83,559 square feet, planner Ian M. Borden, president of Professional Design Services in Lakewood, said at a planning board hearing last month.

The project encounters some opposition. A group of residents at K. Hovnanian’s Four Seasons in Manalapan Crossing, located behind the proposed supermarket, has hired Red Bank attorney Ronald S. Gasiorowski. Gasiorowski said he had no comment on the plans.

In a previous report, developer Vito Cardinale said Route 33 needs a large supermarket.. The Manalapan ShopRite will be located between Saker ShopRites on Route 9 in Freehold Township and Route 130 in East Windsor.

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Freehold canton

Saker ShopRites also proposed to renovate and expand its 60-year-old Freehold Township store at South Freehold Shopping Center on Route 9according to a redevelopment plan approved earlier this summer by township officials.

When completed, the Freehold Township store will be 86,500 square feet, 41 percent larger than the current 59,182 square foot store. The new store will also be attached to a new ShopRite liquor warehouse. An earlier plan called for building a new store from scratch.

The project has been in the works for years.

A Saker ShopRites spokesperson could not be reached for an update on the project. Mayor Anthony J. Ammiano said the project is moving forward.

“The ShopRite project is moving toward the redevelopment of the site, and many issues related to the complex design of the site have been resolved,” Ammiano wrote in an email to What’s Going There.

“We anticipate that work on the redevelopment agreement will be completed in the coming months and the planning committee should receive an application from Saker ShopRites by mid-year.”

Saker ShopRites controls the project schedule, he added. “The municipality partnered with them to try to keep the project moving toward launch,” he said.

The redevelopment will bring big changes to the South Freehold Mall, which is now largely vacant. Currently, it is ShopRite attached to a 72,729 square foot L-shaped shopping center.

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Stafford

A planning committee hearing on a proposal to convert the old Kmart on Route 72 into a new ShopRite will continue into the new year.

Saker Properties of Manahawkin LLC, owner of Manahawkin Commons, has proposed renovating the former Kmart and part of the adjacent shopping center to make way for a 120,000 square foot supermarket and approximately 18,000 square feet of retail space at the detail.

At the end of 2021, Saker ShopRites has purchased seven ShopRites stores in Ocean County, formerly owned by Perlmart Inc.including the current ShopRite of Manahawkin supermarket located at the Stafford Square Mall on Route 72, which would relocate to the former Kmart. If approved, the proposed new ShopRite would be more than 70 percent larger than the existing 70,000-square-foot grocery store.

David P. Willis, an award-winning business writer, has covered business, retail, real estate and consumer news at the Asbury Park Press for 27 years. He writes APP.com’s What’s Going There column and can be reached at [email protected]. Please sign up for their free weekly newsletter and join his What’s Going There page on Facebook for updates.

This article was originally published on the Asbury Park Press: ShopRite moves forward with 2025 projects in Manalapan, Freehold and Manahawkin