When most people think about the New Jersey Turnpike, they see toll booths, traffic and trucks. Kris Kolluri is trying to get people to see something else: a vast real-estate portfolio that could be leveraged to help stabilize the state’s entire mobility system, including NJ Transit.
The idea, which he and Gov. Mikie Sherrill have begun to talk about more openly, borrows from an idea already underway at NJ Transit. The agency has been building what it calls a Land Plan — a rigorous way of looking at every piece of land it owns and asking whether it’s being put to its highest and best use. Stations, park-and-rides, rights-of-way and surplus parcels are viewed as a portfolio, not just a series of cost centers.
Now, with Sherrill putting both NJ Transit and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority under Kolluri’s leadership, that same mindset is being pushed onto the highway side of the house.
“We think there are opportunities at interchanges to not just build park-and-rides, but maybe even developments based on land we own,” he said. “Now, all of a sudden, we’ve gone from a park-and-ride to a live-and-ride system, integrating Turnpike with Transit and making livable communities next to highway centers.
“That is a departure from everything we’ve done before.”
Kolluri, in a recent sit-down with BINJE, said he is already working with NJ Transit’s head of real estate to map out a Turnpike version of the plan — a first for an agency that historically has focused on lane miles and toll revenue, not what sits on either side of the right-of-way.
“Within the next 70 or 80 days, we’ll have a Land Plan here,” he said.
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The timing of all this is no accident.
NJ Transit is still staring at a structural funding gap, despite the new corporate transit fee and federal dollars. Riders are demanding visible improvements: cleaner trains, newer rail cars and buses, more reliable service. The Turnpike, for its part, is committing $500 million to help NJ Transit modernize roughly 800 railcars and 250 buses by 2031 — a clear signal that the state sees roads and rails as financially intertwined, not separate entities.
A Land Plan for the Turnpike is the longer-term play: instead of relying only on tolls and transfers, the highway authority would begin actively managing interchanges, park-and-rides and adjacent parcels as long-term mobility assets that can throw off revenue and support smarter station-area development.
In practical terms, a Turnpike Land Plan could encompass several buckets:
- Joint developments near key interchanges: This would add structured parking, bus bays and, where appropriate, mixed-use projects. The Turnpike gets a ground lease or other revenue; NJ Transit and local communities get better access and more riders.
- Repositioning underused park-and-rides: They could serve as hubs for express buses, microtransit and, in some cases, future rail links, rather than as half-empty lots that sit idle most of the week.
- Strategic use of surplus parcels: There is plenty of land the Turnpike Authority owns but doesn’t use. Could they be used for logistics, EV infrastructure or transit-oriented development that supports the broader mobility network?
Getting it done will be no easy task.
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Kolluri, who has long experience working at the intersection of infrastructure and economic development, is careful not to oversell what a Land Plan can do on its own.
He describes it as part of a “practical, pragmatic” toolbox — a way to uncover value that is already on the state’s balance sheet, not a magic pot of money that replaces state appropriations or fares.
“We think, conservatively, in the near future, we can put out almost 50 to 60 parcels of land into play — land that’s just sitting, essentially sitting fallow,” he said.
And they can do it at no additional cost and without delay, two things that fit nicely into the governor’s agenda, Kolluri said.
“What is intriguing about this is that it is an idea that does not raise taxes — everything is based on what we already own,” he said. “And unlike New Jersey Transit, there is no federal interest in these properties. I could start this tomorrow morning.”
Kolluri says a Land Plan also fits neatly with Sherrill’s broader bet on integration.
Her decision to put NJ Transit and the Turnpike under one leader, Kolluri says, is rooted in a simple idea: stop treating agencies as separate fiefdoms and start treating the state as a single, complex network whose parts need to be optimized together. The World Cup, the corporate transit fee, the $500 million Turnpike commitment and a potential Land Plan are all pieces of the same puzzle.
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There are, of course, risks and trade-offs.
Communities around Turnpike interchanges are likely to have strong views about what, if anything, should be built near them. Local officials will want assurances that projects don’t simply export congestion or undercut existing commercial districts. Environmental advocates will watch closely to see whether new development truly supports transit and cleaner mobility — or merely bakes in more car traffic.
Internally, shifting a highway agency’s mindset from “paving and plowing” to “portfolio management” will require culture change. Engineers and maintenance crews still have to keep the road functioning safely; adding a real-estate and development lens can’t be allowed to distract from that core mission.
Kolluri seems to understand that tension. In his broader comments about Sherrill’s transportation strategy, he leans heavily on the idea that execution and outcomes are what matter — that new structures and financial tools only count if riders see tangible improvements and taxpayers feel they’re getting value.
That’s where a Turnpike Land Plan will ultimately be judged, Kolluri says.
If, in a few years, South Jersey commuters can point to a revamped park-and-ride tied into a reliable bus or microtransit service, or North Jersey riders can see new station-adjacent development that shortens their trips and helps pay for modern trains, the concept will feel obvious in hindsight: of course we should have been using this land more intelligently.
If not, it risks joining a long list of clever frameworks that never quite made it off the PowerPoint slide.
For now, the significance may be less about any single parcel and more about the signal it sends: New Jersey’s most powerful transportation agencies are being told to stop thinking only in terms of lane miles and train miles — and to start thinking in terms of the entire landscape they control. The Land Plan is how that shift could move from rhetoric to reality.
