Montvale, N.J.––The borough will welcome its new Wegmans with the store’s planned grand opening on Sunday, Sept. 24.
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Published reports said about 24,000 people were at Wegmans’ Hanover store in July for a similar grand opening.
In an email to constituents, Mayor Mike Ghassali said the borough was expecting 15,000 to 20,000 cars to flow through Grand Avenue on Sunday, about the number of vehicles that pass through town every workday.
“It is expected that Sunday the 24th will be the busiest day and then traffic will normalize 2-3 days after that, with full normalcy taking affect in about two weeks,” Ghassali wrote. “We will have 14 police officers on traffic detail paid for by Wegmans, and 750 overflow parking spots on the Mercedes property.
The mayor warned that no one is allowed to camp overnight anywhere in the borough.
“…Those who will wish to line up early before the the 7 a.m. opening will be monitored and patrol will be on duty,” Ghassali wrote.
The 140,000 square-foot Wegmans is the anchor tenant of The Shoppes at DePiero Farm, the development that owner The S. Hekemian Group of Englewood values at $125 million.
The grand opening marks the complete transformation of the former DePiero’s Country Farm, known as a year-round destination for farm products and groceries, to a full-blown retail center on Grand Avenue. (The DePiero’s still operate green houses on Craig Road in Montvale.)
Ghassali wrote that that the borough expects to receive about $850,000 to $950,000 per year in tax revenue from this property.
–Tom Clancey