Those mounds of shattered concrete blocks and twisted steel spread across acres of prime downtown real estate are a thing of beauty to long-suffering merchants and landlords along West Main Street.

The demolition of the former Somerville Shopping Center is seen as a new beginning for the blighted property and comes six weeks after Mayor Brian Gallagher announced that developer Jack Morris, owner of the 13.5-acre tract, had signed a letter of intent with the Saker family, owners of 26 New Jersey supermarkets, to build a ShopRite where the former Pathmark supermarket now stands empty at the southeastern corner of the tract along Veterans Memorial Drive.

Somerville has been without a supermarket since Pathmark closed its doors in October, 2007.

Preliminary plans call for ShopRite to expand the current building from 56,000 to 70,000 square feet, according to Colin Driver, Somerville’s director of Economic Development.

Private financing would be involved, but Somerville stands to gain from a pilot project sponsored by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. The Economic Redevelopment Growth Grant Program would permit the borough to bond for construction costs, with state sales tax revenue generated on the site helping to repay the bond.   

Morris and his company, JSM Properties, had proposed an ambitious $65 million redevelopment project for the tract, having received final site plan approval from the borough in April, 2005, but the project has stalled over repeated disagreements between JSM and the borough.

Bank failures and tightening credit have also stalled the project, according to Driver.

JSM envisioned a mixed-use of brick storefronts and 153 residential apartments above the two-and three-story structures, with up to 160,000 square feet of retail space and parking.

The status of that long-dormant plan is uncertain, but Gallagher is optimistic that the demolition activity bodes well for the development of the property.