Board OKs pair of eateries at Woodbridge Center Plan to put Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze at mall passes 7-0 BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer WOODBRIDGE - A little bit of Tuscany and the Caribbean will make its way into Woodbridge next year. The restaurants Olive Garden and Bahama Breeze, which are owned by Darden Restaurants Inc., based in Orlando, Fla., will be built next to the Woodbridge Center mall by May 2008. Board member Lorraine Luban motioned in favor of the two restaurants at the Planning Board meeting June 13. "I vote to approve the application for the fact that they comply with the stipulations made," she said. "I think this is good for Woodbridge." The Planning Board voted 7-0 in favor of Woodbridge Center LLC's proposal to construct the two restaurants on the western corner of the Woodbridge Center mall. "I'm excited to bring two great restaurants to Woodbridge," said Karen Butler, senior development director for General Growth Properties Inc., based in Chicago, which is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns more than 200 malls, including Woodbridge Center mall. "The restaurants will bring in ratables to the mall and the township," she said. "They will generate foot traffic for the mall and bring in over $20,000 in sales, over 100 constructions jobs, and over 225 restaurant jobs." The site is on the Woodbridge Center mall property on Woodbridge Center Drive at the intersection of Route 1 northbound and Route 9 southbound. The site contains approximately 132 acres and has frontage on routes 1 and 9 and Woodbridge Center Drive. The property also contains an existing nine-story office building on the lot and a number of satellite retail buildings throughout the site. Woodbridge Center LLC proposed to construct two separate buildings, both on the western corner of the site, which is in the B-4 Regional Shopping Center zone. Both pad-style restaurants would be built over a previously paved parking area and would use the existing system of interior driveways and shared parking spaces with the existing shopping mall. The proposed Olive Garden building would contain approximately 7,732 square feet and would be approximately 30 feet in height. The proposed Bahama Breeze building would contain approximately 8,842 square feet and would be approximately 30 feet in height. Landscaping improvements are proposed around both buildings and the parking areas surrounding both pad sites. Freestanding and facade signs are proposed for the new restaurants. Robert Hornacek, president of Colwell, Ray, Hornacek, Okinaka, Architects Inc., based in Tustin, Calif., described the Olive Garden as having an Italian country design with the ambiance of Tuscany, Italy. "All our restaurants are made of stone and have a tile roof," he said. "There are a lot of elements of Tuscany in the restaurants." The architect for Bahama Breeze said the restaurant has a Caribbean island theme and has an outside patio, which would have entertainment by a single guitarist or a steel drum. Woodbridge Center LLC brought graphic-design displays of the two restaurants to show the board. The Bahama Breeze restaurant displayed palm trees around the restaurant, which brought laughter to the board. "We want to see those palm trees," joked board member Patricia Osborne. Luban added that she also would like to see the palm trees and "didn't care if the palm trees were fake." Woodbridge LLC said they could not promise palm trees but would have seasonal landscaping in place. Neil Terwilliger, site development manager for Darden Restaurants Inc., said he expects to have 100 employees for the Olive Garden, with approximately 30 employees for the larger shifts, and 125 employees for Bahama Breeze, with approximately 30 to 35 employees for the larger shifts. Both restaurants operate seven days a week. The hours of operation for Olive Garden will be 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and for Bahama Breeze, Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight. Terwilliger said the deliveries to the restaurants by tractor-trailer would be made between 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. "Deliveries of breads and liquor will be made locally," he said. Resident Jay Kaplan, who lives next to the mall, said he had concerns about the traffic, noise and crime that the restaurants might bring into the township. "The mall closes at 10 p.m. and these restaurants will stay open until 11 p.m. to midnight," said Kaplan. "I'm worried that our neighborhood, which is quiet now, [the restaurants] will bring more people into our neighborhood." Planning Board Attorney Marc Rogoff said that since the police department did not submit a report, "it usually means the department does not feel that crime would be a problem." Woodbridge Center LLC said they would abide by the township's noise ordinance. Amy Bellisano, senior general manager for General Growth Properties Inc., said Darden Restaurants Inc., which also owns restaurants Red Lobster, looked at the township's market demographics. "The Olive Garden restaurant is the number-one request we get by patrons of the Woodbridge Center Mall," she said. "And we are excited about bringing Bahama Breeze here. We look to start construction in August and potentially open the restaurants by May."