Dollar General Pulls Application To Open First Middletown Store

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — In a stunning turn of events, Dollar General has withdrawn their controversial application to open their first store in Middletown.

Representatives from Dollar General announced at the Planning Board meeting Wednesday night they are officially pulling their application.

This was confirmed Thursday morning by Middletown Mayor Tony Perry.

Dollar General applied to open a store at 62 and 74 Leonardville Road in North Middletown, where the empty Wells Fargo bank is currently located. The Wells Fargo building would have remained; a Dollar General was going to be built next door. Dollar General also said they were going to have a parking lot for 70+ spaces.

However, the backlash was swift and intense: Asbury Park Press was first to report the Dollar General applied to open, and then the Middletown Patch wrote its own report.

After those two news articles were published this week, dozens of Middletown residents lamented on Facebook and NextDoor that they were displeased a Dollar General sought to open.

About a dozen residents attended the Wednesday night Planning Board meeting, said Perry, held at 6:30 p.m. in the Township building. He said he only popped his head into the meeting for a minute, but said the bulk of those residents were there to voice their objections to the Dollar General opening.

A lawyer for Dollar General was at the Wednesday night meeting, as was a planner and an architect.

Dollar General sought to obtain a list of variances from the Township. They requested 11 variances total from Middletown, which you can read here, all publicly accessible in their filing application, which by law must be a public document.

Perry called it "a laundry list of variances. When they realized the Planning Board was not going to approve their application, they pulled it."

The nearest Dollar General stores are in Keansburg and Eatontown. This would have been the first in Middletown.

62 and 74 Leonardville Road is owned by Hampshire Belford LLC.

Dollar General Store Seeks To Open In Middletown (Tuesday)