Four new retail buildings totaling 19,240 square feet are under construction along Route 206 in Bedminster, where Advance Realty Investors has broken ground on the latest phase of its Bedminster Village Square campus. The project is expected to be delivered in 2027 and will sit alongside Freshpet's new corporate headquarters and Advance Realty Investors' own home base on the property.
The retail buildup marks the second major phase of a long-term plan by Advance Realty Investors to convert its 15-acre corporate campus into a mixed-use destination, according to NJBIZ. The developer has used the site along Route 206 as its own corporate headquarters campus for more than 25 years, and the current retail push follows a 2024 conversation between Advance Realty and Bedminster Township officials about adding shopping and dining options to the property during the groundbreaking for Freshpet's office building that year, per the same NJBIZ report.
Bedminster Township's zoning approval for the broader mixed-use conversion gave Advance the regulatory greenlight to build retail on what had been a single-use suburban office complex, as CoStar has reported. That approval, paired with Freshpet's decision to relocate its headquarters from Secaucus, gave Advance built-in pedestrian demand for the four retail buildings now rising on the site, per CoStar's reporting.
What's Going Into the New Buildings
Per NJBIZ, retail buildings 1 and 2 will comprise approximately 5,770 square feet and frame a central courtyard with outdoor seating, while buildings 3 and 4 will each offer roughly 3,850 square feet with adjoining patios. The outlet's reporting notes that all of the retail spaces can accommodate venting for food uses, and that buildings 1 and 2 can be demised for multiple tenants. Additional outdoor seating is planned across the property, along with enhancements to existing on-campus office space, more landscaping, and pedestrian connections to Bedminster's hike-and-bike trail, the same report states.
Pierson Commercial Real Estate LLC is serving as the exclusive retail leasing agent for the development, with Robert Mackowski leading the leasing assignment, according to Pierson's own materials cited by NJBIZ. The firm's data shows the Bedminster Village Square site sits at the signalized intersection of Route 206 and Advance Drive, a junction the developer says supports more than 350,000 square feet of office space and over 1,000 employees.
Freshpet's Pet-Friendly Headquarters Anchors the Campus
The retail construction is designed to complement Freshpet's new headquarters, a 30,000-square-foot building that anchors the campus. Freshpet relocated its corporate headquarters from Secaucus to Bedminster.
Studio 1200 managing partner Nancy Dougherty, named 2023 AIA New Jersey Architect of the Year, designed the headquarters with outdoor collaboration spaces and sustainable building features, New York YIMBY reported. General contractor Iron Hill Construction Management built the two-story facility with pet-friendly amenities including an indoor dog playroom, an outdoor dog park, and paw-washing stations, reflecting Freshpet's policy of allowing employees to bring dogs to the office daily, according to Iron Hill's own account of the project.
Civil engineering firm Gladstone Design, Inc. directed site design, stormwater management, parking layout, and outdoor amenity planning across the multi-phase development, connecting the new retail spaces to surrounding parking and the municipal trail network, the firm has said. The Freshpet headquarters project went on to be named Office Deal of the Year by CREDA NJ, formerly NAIOP New Jersey, at its 39th annual Commercial Real Estate Awards Gala in May, an honor held at The Palace at Somerset Park in Somerset, and it also received NJBIZ's Leaders in Real Estate Top Projects honors, per NJBIZ's reporting. Alexander Cocoziello said retail amenities can help office redevelopments compete for corporate tenants, according to the outlet.
Part of a Broader Office-to-Mixed-Use Push
Bedminster Village Square includes four Advance Realty office buildings totaling 121,857 square feet, and major employers in Somerset County include AT&T's regional campus, Verizon, Insmed, and the New Jersey Center for Excellence tech and R&D life campus in Bridgewater, NJBIZ reported. Advance Realty also plans to introduce Continuum, a mixed-use campus in Bridgewater that will exceed 1 million square feet and aims to provide an end-to-end ecosystem for research and development, advanced manufacturing, and logistics tenants, according to the same report — a sign that the Bedminster retail build-out fits into a larger regional strategy for the developer.
The push to add shops and dining to office parks is playing out across Northern New Jersey, where the region recorded an office vacancy rate matching the national average of 13.8%, according to CoStar. CoStar has described suburban landlords adding retail and other amenities to office properties amid challenged office demand.
Existing retail options in Bedminster remain anchored by a Kings Food Markets location, while the chain is set to operate 14 stores statewide once the Hillsdale and Whitehouse Station closures take effect by January 2, 2027, Hoodline previously reported.
