TOMS RIVER, N.J. – The former Reich Farm property — once the center of one of New Jersey’s most notorious environmental contamination cases — is back in the spotlight, now being marketed for sale as a major light industrial development opportunity along Route 9.
The 22.7-acre site, located at 1599 U.S. Highway 9, is being offered for $18 million and includes approved plans for self-storage, warehouse, and office facilities.
Zoned for light industrial use, the property has approvals for 91,650 square feet of self-storage space, 73,686 square feet of warehouse use, and 11,252 square feet of office development. An adjacent 10.6-acre parcel could allow for an additional 152,000 square feet of warehouse space in the future.
According to the listing, permitted uses include light manufacturing, distribution, research laboratories, childcare centers, hotels, motels, and mini-warehouse facilities. The property, one of the largest remaining industrial parcels in Toms River, is being marketed to developers, builders, and investors looking for scalable projects along a major Ocean County commercial corridor.
The site’s history stretches back more than half a century. Originally a poultry farm owned by Holocaust survivors Samuel and Bertha Reich, the property became infamous in 1971 when a waste hauler illegally dumped thousands of drums of chemical waste from Union Carbide Corporation.
The dumping led to widespread groundwater contamination, triggering one of New Jersey’s earliest environmental crises and contributing to a nearby childhood cancer cluster.
Reich Farm was designated a federal Superfund site in 1988, prompting decades of cleanup overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency and Union Carbide. After extensive remediation — including the excavation of contaminated soil and long-term groundwater treatment — the site was removed from the EPA’s National Priorities List in 2021, signifying the completion of cleanup and restoration efforts.
Now, more than 50 years after the contamination was discovered, the land once synonymous with pollution and litigation is being repositioned as a cornerstone industrial redevelopment site in the heart of Toms River.
