The long-dormant Lord & Taylor building at 609 North Avenue West in Westfield has a new owner. Mayor Jeremy Berman told the town council Tuesday night that the sale to Premier Development closed the week before, ending months of uncertainty over who would take control of the prominent downtown property after its previous redevelopment plan collapsed.
Berman said Westfield plans to begin conversations with Premier Development in the coming weeks and will share new information about the company's plans as it becomes available, according to TAPinto. The mayor added that the town would maintain rigorous oversight and protect its long-term interests as the new owner moves through its planning process. No details have yet emerged about what Premier Development intends to build on the site, or when.
Premier Development is described as a housing development company with properties throughout New Jersey, including rental properties in Branchburg, Franklin Park, Hillsborough, Livingston, Raritan, Scotch Plains and Somerset, and homes for sale in Whitehouse, Hillsborough, Somerset and South Brunswick. The company already has a working relationship with Westfield: it previously partnered on the Parkside development at the former Williams Nursery property, a connection town officials and the local paper's report both point to as a reason for some familiarity between Premier and local leaders.
How the Previous Plan Fell Apart
The site has sat without a clear future since Saks Global, which owned the property amid earlier discussions about its sale, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2026. That filing ended the previous One Westfield Place plan, a proposal unveiled in September 2022 that called for adaptive reuse of the freestanding, 140,000-square-foot former Lord & Taylor store alongside new ground-up construction, according to CoStar.
The financial pressure behind that collapse was substantial. CoStar's reporting noted a $428.1 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan tied to the joint venture's broader retail property portfolio, underscoring how the real estate turmoil at Saks Global reached well beyond Westfield's borders and into similar stalled projects across North Jersey.
Berman had addressed the site's uncertain status as far back as the town council's July meeting, when he said the property sale was intended to happen soon amid ongoing conversations with Saks Global. That timeline held, more or less, with Tuesday's confirmation that the deal had finally closed.
What Premier's Track Record Looks Like Locally
For a sense of what Premier Development has built in Westfield before, its Parkside project offers the clearest local comparison, even though it does not indicate what the company plans for the Lord & Taylor site specifically. Parkside, a joint undertaking between Premier Development and Garden Communities at 524 Springfield Avenue, is slated to include 162 luxury rental apartments on roughly six and a half acres, with 32 units set aside as affordable housing, according to Jersey Digs.
Berman also said the community has significant interest in the site's future, and that any redevelopment should reflect the needs and character of Westfield. With the sale now finalized, the mayor's comments suggest residents can expect the town to weigh in as Premier's plans take shape, though neither the scope nor the timeline of that process has been spelled out publicly.
