{"id":19542,"date":"2022-02-23T03:25:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T08:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=19542"},"modified":"2022-02-23T14:56:57","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T19:56:57","slug":"heres-the-real-reason-why-royal-farms-hasnt-opened-in-brick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2022\/02\/heres-the-real-reason-why-royal-farms-hasnt-opened-in-brick\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s The Real Reason Why Royal Farms Hasn’t Opened in Brick"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Royal Farms store in Brick, N.J., prior to opening, Sept. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

It still isn\u2019t open, and people are wondering why.<\/p>\n

The Royal Farms convenience store at the corner of Route 70 and Route 88 in Brick was approved for construction in the fall of 2018, with the work beginning in the spring of 2020. Within a year, the store looked to be just about completed and the company was advertising job opportunities. But many local residents have told Shorebeat they simply never heard back from the company after applying for jobs \u2013 and even amidst the current labor shortage, skepticism began to grow as the doors remained closed.<\/p>\n

Royal Farms would not comment on the status of the store for this story, but it is unlikely the store will be opening any time soon, according to officials and public records. While residents hungry for the chain\u2019s much-anticipated fried chicken could place some of the blame on the labor market and supply chain crisis, the company has now put its own opening on hold as it seeks permits to change crosswalks and street ends surrounding the building.<\/p>\n

Officials now say the reason for the long delay in opening \u2013 which is likely to grow even longer \u2013 is a permit from the New Jersey Department of Transportation that has not yet been approved. Royal Farms is effectively surrounded by roadways under state jurisdiction \u2013 the two state highways as well as the small service roads that run between several neighboring businesses and the nearby jug-handle.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoyal Farms filed a DOT application in December, so the anticipation is that it\u2019s going to take them about nine months to go through that,\u201d said Mayor John Ducey. \u201cThey cannot open until the DOT reviews it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The application calls for moving the locations of crosswalks around the store and making various improvements to street ends. The proposal would include upgrades to make the entire area around the store more accessible to those with disabilities, and curbs will be required to be modified with new cuts with traction surfacing (commonly red in color).<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Royal Farms store in Brick, N.J., prior to opening, Sept. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Royal Farms store in Brick, N.J., prior to opening, Sept. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The work will mainly affect the area of Olden Street, which runs behind the store and connects routes 88 and 70 and also feeds the U-turn at its terminus with Route 70.<\/p>\n

While the timing of the DOT permit application suggests the company may suggest the company has delayed its opening for the time being, the modifications to crosswalks are not compulsory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can always simply withdraw that application,\u201d said Ducey.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, while the company\u2019s job website still lists some positions available in Brick, the location was removed from the front of the Royal Farms recruiting page<\/a> as a soon-to-be-open store. It is still listed, however, in the company\u2019s list of future stores<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It still isn\u2019t open, and people are wondering why. The Royal Farms convenience store at the corner of Route 70 and Route 88 in Brick was approved for construction in the fall of 2018, with the work beginning in the spring of 2020. Within a year, the store looked to be just about completed and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,1649],"tags":[24,4484,2295,2294,287,3371],"class_list":["post-19542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-local-business","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-featured","tag-new-jersey-department-of-transportation","tag-njdot","tag-route-70","tag-royal-farms"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/royal_farms_brick_nj_store_083-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-55c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}