NEW YORK WHOLESALE

PRINCETON BOROUGH — The president of the company poised to buy the Princeton Shopping Center said the firm has no plans to mess with success.

“This is a very well-established part of the Princeton community and its vibrancy,” said Jodie McLean, president and chief investment officer of Edens, a South Carolina company.

“The things we will focus on here are community events, consistency and a commitment to continue that love of community. Our own values feel very aligned with the history and current operators. We are community oriented, quality-driven and the classic, mid-century architecture of the shopping center needs to be celebrated.”

Shopkeepers in the North Harrison Street center have been told Edens is the new owner, taking over from George Comfort & Sons. Sitting in the shopping center’s Bon Appetit cafe on Friday, McLean would not confirm or deny the impending sale but said there would be a “formal announcement” about the shopping center in the first week of June. She also declined to put a price tag on such an acquisition.

She did say there would be no plans for a second floor and denied the company has any ties to a French ownership concern. The 255,000-square-foot mall has about 50 ground-level shops and other businesses in a rectangular layout with a large, open-air courtyard. It last underwent a major renovation in 2007 and is about 60 years old.

“We want to enhance small gathering places, like the European Bistro,” McLean said, pointing out the customers who walked through the shopping center’s landscaped commons.

“We have known about this shopping center for 10 years and it absolutely fits in with the kind of shopping centers we have on the East Coast. A typical customer for us would be proud to be a Princetonian and would be part of a family community.”

Looking to expand its reach into New Jersey and the New York Metro area, Edens currently has 130 retail centers, two-thirds of them located between Boston and the District of Columbia. The remaining third are in the Charlotte-Atlanta-Miami areas. A center in Sewell and another in Closter are the only two New Jersey holdings owned by Edens, which has been in business since 1966.

A number of store owners in the shopping center expressed concern over the sale when they learned about it through letters they were required to sign acknowledging there would be a change of ownership. No one saw it coming.

“We love the community orientation of the Princeton Shopping Center,” said McLean. “I think they will find there is a very consistent philosophy with what we are doing as retailers with what they are doing.”

McClean also said that having a supermarket such as McCaffrey’s as the anchor helps attract foot traffic and keeps all of the stores and businesses supplied with customers.

“People make two to three trips a week to a supermarket,” she said.

Other businesses include a hardware store, a dress boutique, a Mexican restaurant, a gym, a gourmet shop, and an outdoor sporting goods store. Longtime owners George Comfort & Sons did not return calls about the sale of the shopping center.

Almost every shopkeeper contacted about the sale praised the current ownership.

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