WESTWOOD—Mayor Ray Arroyo is seeing an encouraging light emerge following the torrential downpours of recent weeks, apprising residents of good news on both the Covid and economic development fronts.
Among the projects taking shape are the long-awaited Five Dimes Brewery on Westwood Avenue, a contract for the former Jos. A. Bank site at Westwood and Fairview, and mixed-use redevelopment at the former site of NY Sports Club, 35 Jefferson Ave.
There also is an application before the Zoning Board to add a second story to the Five Corners Building at Westwood and Kinderkamack, itself offering potential for mixed-use tenants.
It’s a far cry from even this February, when Arroyo reported at the annual Greater Pascack Valley Chamber of Commerce Mayors Breakfast that, based on data he’d asked Celebrate Westwood to provide, over the past 12 months — 10 of which were within the global pandemic — 16 businesses had either closed or relocated out of Westwood.
With that, the pleasure of seeing local vaccine volunteer Lisa McKoy recognized as a Fifth District Hometown Hero (see story, page 25), and a happy spate of ribbon cuttings behind him, he said July 6 was the first day that passed without a Covid-19 death in New Jersey since the start of the pandemic.
“The two-shot vaccination regime continues to prove highly effective against the new variants, including Delta. And where vaccinated folks do turn up positive the chances of serious illness, hospitalization, or death are remote,” Arroyo said.
He added, “Despite post-pandemic supply chain issues, material shortages, and price spikes, businesses have readjusted their prices to reflect a normalization, all sectors have been posting positions available, and new projects to Westwood’s downtown are making slow but steady progress.”
Arroyo said, “While things may look status quo from the outside, businesses beyond the plate glass are in the process of changing, growing, and becoming.”
He pointed to businesses by entrepreneurs new to Westwood opening in the past few months, including Fitrition Juice Bar at 119 Westwood Ave. and Mí Flor Latín Café, 57 Kinderkamack.
He said established Westwood business owners have opened second business ventures at Luxe XII Lifestyle (31 Westwood Ave.) and Mexicana (425 Broadway), “doubling down on their faith in the strength of Westwood’s central business district.”
Arroyo said, “We look forward to the openings of Moxie Salon (162 Westwood Ave.) and Bourbon Street Beignet (301 Westwood Ave.); to the relocation of one business formerly just beyond the bounds of the central business district on to a main corridor; and the pending renovation and expanded offerings of yet another Westwood business later this summer. Exciting things are happening.”
Sharing our and many of our readers’ curiosity, Arroyo said “The familiar façade of L&N Grand is still intact as its interior transformation into 5 Dimes Brewery is well underway.”
Named for the longtime L.N. Grand five and dime store it’s replacing, the limited craft brewery has been granted variances by the Zoning Board.
Arroyo posted photos showing steel reinforcement in place amid installed rough floors, framing, and cement blockwork. He said a permit has been pulled for façade work to begin and to prepare for the brewing vessels to be delivered.
He said owner Chris Alepa, also a local chiropractor — whose innovative idea for Five Dimes led to a vigorous discussion of the master plan — was planning for an opening in late fall.
Meanwhile, said Arroyo, the NY Sports Club site on Jefferson Avenue “is reimagined into a mixed-use redevelopment.”
He explained a smaller personal training facility will return to an expanded structure that will feature 28 apartments “including five affordable units, in furtherance of the borough’s affordable housing obligation.”
“The site is just across the southern border of the central business district and features plenty of onsite parking.
The residential use footsteps from our local restaurants and bars, retail and service uses offers the mutually supportive, functional symbiosis that land use planners are always seeking to achieve,” Arroyo said.
Later in his update, Arroyo said owners of the Five Corners Building — the single-story building with the blue awnings on the corner of Westwood Avenue and Kinderkamack — are before the Zoning Board seeking to add a second level.
“If approved, the mixed-use redevelopment will add six market rate units and one affordable residential unit — again, counting toward the borough’s unmet need obligation per the terms of our Fair Share Housing–court approved settlement,” he said.
Those waiting for action on the long vacant Jos. A. Bank building are in for good news, as the plum corner property, at Fairview, is under contract for sale and is in the due diligence phase.
“No news yet as to what uses are planned for the site,” Arroyo said.
Overall, he said, “the projects in progress are consistent with a long and successful tradition of Westwood’s master planning. They will add new ratable value and functional, desirable uses in a way that does not blow up the intimate scale of our streetscape, or the modest intensity that makes shopping, visiting, and dining in The Hub a uniquely walkable and vibrant experience.”
By the numbers
According to Lauren Letizia of Celebrate Westwood, since January 2020, the first floor of the Central Business District of Westwood has seen 19 businesses close or relocate out of Westwood.
“A majority of these were lost in the 2020 calendar year; just three more have closed since the last time this information was analyzed in February 2021. Many of the businesses that did leave Westwood over the past 18 months were those open for less than two years (an unfortunate but normal threshold for small businesses to survive or fail).”
She said five of those vacated spaces remain unoccupied; two of them are now on the rental market.
“Over the same period, in the same zone, Westwood has seen 24 new businesses and an additional six businesses that underwent rebranding or new ownership, including a combination of businesses newly opened, those committed and approved to be coming soon, and those existing CBD businesses that expanded into larger locations or across multiple storefronts,” she said.
Letizia said, “Of these, four are secondary businesses by people already owning and operating within Westwood.”
She said the administration was relying on robust data collection to drive land use and day-to-day operations, including from the ParkMobile app via the Westwood Parking Authority.