The fish could not go into Bass Pro Shops' new Sayreville aquarium on install day. Kevin Polston of the Riverton development team explained why at a SERA meeting covered by The Sayreville Insider. The store's 65,000-gallon shipwreck-themed tank, and the separate 12,000-gallon stingray tank around it, need their water conditioned first. "We have to condition that water for 30 days before we can introduce any fish," he said.
That 30-day wait is a good way to read the whole project. Riverton is going up on the old National Lead property along the Raritan River, and it won't open in one day. Each piece has its own schedule. Bass Pro is the only one close to a finish line. The waterfront that gave the project its name has the longest wait.
Four Clocks on One Riverfront
Here's where each part of Riverton stands as of late October 2026:
- Bass Pro Shops, 1 Bass Pro Drive. In its September recap, SERA said the store is "anticipated to open this fall." As of mid-October, Bass Pro hadn't announced a grand opening date.
- The in-store restaurant. It's hiring now, but in July the development team projected it would open in spring 2027.
- QuickChek, the Gateway Services area and the pad sites. All are under construction. None has a public opening date.
- Heroes Walk, the waterfront promenade. The base is built. The promenade on top of it has no public timeline.
Each item on that list is further out than the one before it. That's the order in which Riverton will open to the public.
The Store's Clock Is the Only One Counting Down
Bass Pro is close. TAPinto Raritan Bay toured the store in July. General Manager Alex Rusanov, a 25-year company veteran, said it covers more than 200,000 square feet and will be the largest one-story Bass Pro Shops in the company. At that point more than 200 employees had been hired and oriented, and staff were assembling fixtures and stocking shelves as trucks arrived.
The store sits right on the Raritan River. Rusanov told TAPinto, "It's very rare to get a location like this that's next to a highway and a river or a big body of water." The store will have a boat showroom with Ranger, Tracker, Tahoe, Mako, Nitro and Hatteras yachts. It will also have a full-service marine department that handles routine maintenance and winterization, for other brands' boats as well as Bass Pro's. Inside, Bass Pro's traveling artists are painting New Jersey marshes and wildlife on the walls, and there's an indoor archery range with hand-painted murals for testing gear before you buy it.
The first date to watch is this Saturday. Bass Pro's chainwide holiday announcement has Santa arriving at its stores on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 5 p.m. local time, with a free outdoor celebration and a Mini Reindeer Plush giveaway while supplies last. Santa's Wonderland runs Sunday, Nov. 8, through Christmas Eve, with free photos with Santa, kids' crafts and holiday giveaways.
Sayreville isn't guaranteed a spot on that list. Rusanov told TAPinto that families can expect Santa's Wonderland "if the store opens as planned this fall." Whether the event happens here depends on whether the store is open. Check the Sayreville store page before you plan the weekend around it.
The Restaurant Is Hiring for a Kitchen With a Later Target
On Oct. 13 and 14, Bass Pro held a two-day hiring event at the Sayreville store for 120 restaurant jobs. It was looking for hosts, servers, bartenders, cooks and dishwashers, TAPinto reported. Bass Pro's hospitality job listings for the store name the restaurant as Uncle Buck's, which the brand's own site calls Uncle Buck's Fishbowl and Grill.
Hiring doesn't mean opening soon. In July, Polston told SERA that the restaurant was not expected to open with the store. He said Bass Pro planned to run it itself, with a projected opening sometime in spring 2027. The October hiring push gave no restaurant opening date. Until Bass Pro posts a date, spring 2027 is the latest target anyone has stated publicly. On your first visit, expect to browse the store and then eat somewhere else.
For a sit-down meal nearby, Latin Port at 500 Ernston Road serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. According to The Sayreville Insider, it's open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. most days and until 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
The Money Comes In After the Work Is Done
Beyond Bass Pro, Riverton is still under construction. Executive Director Himanshu Shah's September report to SERA said work was continuing at the Gateway Services area, QuickChek was progressing, and work had started on more pad sites around the development. No pad-site tenants have been named publicly. At SERA's Oct. 8 meeting, the board reauthorized QuickChek's access agreement but announced no opening or completion date, The Sayreville Insider reported.
The financing runs behind the construction too. On Sept. 10, SERA closed its first round of Redevelopment Area Bonds for Riverton. According to the agency's recap, that money will pay for infrastructure improvements that are already finished. The roads and utilities under the store went in first, and the bonds that pay for them closed later. The pieces still to come will follow the same order.
The Waterfront Is Built Underneath, Not on Top
Most of the river work at Riverton happened years ago and is hard to see. In its project FAQ, the development team describes raising grades near the waterfront by more than eight feet in some areas. It also rebuilt the marine bulkhead that once served barge traffic for the site's industrial operations. In July 2023 it finished an 8-foot velocity-zone wall built on reinforced concrete over 40-foot wooden piles. The same FAQ explains what the bulkhead is for:
"The new and improved bulkhead establishes the platform for Heroes Walk, our future waterfront promenade and activity zone."
The master planner is Cooper Robertson, the New York firm behind the master plan for Battery Park City. In 2023, MyCentralJersey described plans for about 50 acres of open space with walking and biking paths, pocket parks and public waterfront amenities. As of SERA's August 2026 recap, a federal grant for a multimodal transportation study was still being pursued, and none of the 2023 open space or paths has been reported as finished.
So the base for Heroes Walk is in place, but the walk itself isn't. It's the furthest-out item on Riverton's list.
The Rest of Sayreville's Redevelopment Calendar
Riverton isn't the only redevelopment project SERA is working on. Shah's September report said the redevelopment plan for the former Sunshine Biscuit site, also known as the Hanover site, was set to be introduced by the Borough Council. That would be followed by a public hearing and a vote at the next meeting. SERA is also reaching out to property owners in the proposed Raritan Street study area about redevelopment and a possible Transit Village designation, since the NJ Transit Park and Ride is nearby.
Dates to know, from this weekend into 2027:
- Saturday, Nov. 7, 5 p.m. Santa arrives at Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's stores. Sayreville takes part only if the store is open.
- Nov. 8 through Christmas Eve. Santa's Wonderland, with free photos and kids' crafts, under the same condition.
- Sunday, Dec. 6, 6 p.m. The Sayreville Recreation Department's Holiday Parade of Lights on Main Street. The date comes from the department's 2026 event schedule, released in February, which said more details would follow.
- Spring 2027. The projected opening for the restaurant inside Bass Pro, as of the July SERA meeting.
SERA Chairman John Zebrowski asked one more question at that July meeting. He wanted to know how many of Bass Pro's new hires live in Sayreville. "That's important to SERA and to the town," he said. Bass Pro expects to employ more than 300 people at the Sayreville store once it's fully staffed.
If you own a home near Route 35, Chevalier Avenue or Main Street, Riverton will keep changing what's around you through 2027 and beyond. The DeVizio Home Selling Alliance team follows each stage closely across Sayreville and Parlin. If you want to know where your home stands as the riverfront fills in, ask us: What's My Home Worth?
