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Friday, March 12, 2010

New South Avenue businesses a focus of lively Plainwood Square meeting



Cake celebrating Plainwood Square Park
and South Avenue Streetscape, 2001
.


It is always instructive to watch Plainwood Square Merchants Association president Donna Albanese conduct a meeting, but never more so than when there is good news.

And in these challenging economic times, there was some good news indeed with fresh prospects for the tight-knit South Avenue business district. Announcements included a new 7-Eleven slated for the former gas station at the corner of South Avenue and Terrill Road; the planned relocation of the Central Jersey Arts Charter School from downtown to the former ARC building next to G.O. Keller's; work is under way on a new C-Town in the former Drug Fair location; and the opening of Jersey Landscape and Garden Supply at the former D. Altman site next to Dairy Queen.

My table mate turned out to be Jennifer Hartman, who with her husband is opening the new garden supply business. With an April 1 opening date slated, they are busy at the moment with the final touches to the building, and then will start stocking up the spacious lot with landscaping materials and garden supplies. Mark your calendars, this is going to be a 'keeper'.

The 7-Eleven is a longer-term project, with remediation and construction slated to take about four months, according to Albanese, with a further four months for 7-Eleven to complete the outfitting of the store. (CORRECTION: One month to outfit store, so it should open late summer. -- DD)

With about 30 merchants and guests gathered, each business present was asked to make a brief presentation updating the group on their latest news.

There was lighthearted bantering among the 'burger kings-and-queen' owners representing the busy McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's outlets. Jeff Lichtman, whose South Avenue store was his father's first, let it slip that they now have 52 stores. Burgers weren't the only food champs, though, with KFC's Percy Fennell also getting to do a star turn.

Guests who gave presentations included --
  • Harvest Radio (1070 AM, www.enjoyharvest.com/) whose marketing rep outlined free business promotion opportunities with the Plainfield-based station, which is broadening its community programming;

  • UCEDC (formerly the Union County Economic Development Corporation), a certified statewide small business development nonprofit that is getting a lot of press attention recently for its 'microloan' program -- which makes possible small loans from $500 to $35,000 for qualifying small businesses; and

  • LAURIE WOOG, ESQ., an immigration attorney who specializes in employment-related immigration matters and is based in Westfield and Scotch Plains.
The long-running Thursday evening summer concerts and car shows at Plainwood Square Park will be featured again this year, on an every-two-week cycle from May through August, all under the nimble leadership of Plainfield's favorite event planner, Pat Fields. (I'll have more on that as time approaches.)

Keeping an eye on the clock -- and her promise to keep the meeting to one hour -- Donna gently moved along those who took a little too long with their presentations, leaving time at the end for some remarks and a good-natured give-and-take with Council President Annie McWilliams.

A topic of concern addressed to the Council President was the proposed health inspection fee changes. (Health Officer Mark Colicchio had been expected at the February meeting -- postponed on account of weather -- and was re-invited to this meeting, but was a no-show.)

Councilor McWilliams took pains to assure the merchants that the Council was aware of their concerns, both as to the size of any proposed increases and how to phase them in.

Saying there were questions about whether some of the municipal comparisons made by Colicchio were apt, McWilliams reassured business owners that the Council was looking at a phased introduction of the new inspection fees.

However, she was firm in pointing out that they have not been revised for many years (Colicchio has said fifteen years), while the cost of performing the inspections has gone up. She noted that the fees (by state law) are not allowed to be set as 'money raisers', but are supposed to reflect the true costs of maintaining the public health aspect of food-handling businesses, which requires both time spent in inspecting businesses and administrative overhead for record-keeping mandated by the state.

After some short, sharp repartée over whether merchants receive any benefits or services for the taxes they pay (thank you, Joe Albanese, 'mayor of South Avenue'!), which McWilliams handled with aplomb, Donna adjourned the meeting at 10:05 AM, an hour after its start.

Maybe the Council could offer her a consultancy in meeting management?




-- Dan Damon
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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish I could be excited about the opening of
a C town store and a 7-11, but somehow I
don't see this as a successful revitalization effort, just another urban ghetto establishment. Perhaps that's the look we're going for?

Anonymous said...

In answer to the previous comment -- it sure beats empty storefronts. Places like 7-11 love busy intersections like South & Terril. Who amongst us hasn't stopped at one for milk, bread ...? The Fanwood A&P isn't much bigger that what the C-Town will be and that has been a long-standing neighborhood business for years. If the entire building were available if would be nice but regardless I am sure I'll go to that grocery for things the way I patronize the Farmer's Market on South Ave.

Anonymous said...

On the Fanwood border the 7-11 will do fine. The C-Town will languish until it's lease is up and then it will close. If Altmans closed, and the Terrill Road plant/landscape shop is marginal, why should a new one thrive in the same location?

Why oh why do we need two arts schools in Plainfield? We may as well open up a charter school sports academy for all the good it will do the students further along in their lives.

And whatever happened to residential development on the South Avenue corridor? Are we subscribing to a "build it please-we-hope and they will come" development plan, like the Monarch?

Anonymous said...

The introduction of a 7-Eleven ( usually a suburban Store) which typically leads to more up market stores is a great vote of confidence for Plainfield. The introduction of a C-Town is also a positive sign. There are too many individuals in this city who are anti progress to the extent they cannot appreciate positive progress when it occurs. Plainfield is on the move. We do have some major challenges such as taxes and the quality of our government. however, we are adding retail space in the most viable section of the city (South Avenue) in vey trying economic times. For those who insist on using the word "ghetto" whenever describing a business that he or she does not appreciate, maybe you should consult the dictionary's definition of the word so that you may use the word appropriately in the future.

Anonymous said...

With regards to the comment on the Monarach, the Monarch is actually a good development. The monarach should be embraced for what it is;the first major new construction housing development in the city in more than than a decade. The Monarach can be successful as a market rate rental property and it would result in a new ratable for the city. .

Anonymous said...

The Charter School makes no sense in that location. The idea of a transit village will generate tax revenue and help to improve the viability of the town.

Dan said...

@11:37 -- I have to disagree about the rental aspect. Tenants are not homeowners. Homeowners have an investment in the community, and feel it directly out of their pocketbooks.

Secondly, the developer's agreement calls for it to be condos, not rentals.

So if it's a good project, and we want people to have an investment in the community, they should buy.

Problem seems to be the developer is not willing to sell in the truly capitalist manner: selling by what the market will bear, which evidently is not the prices being asked.

Anonymous said...

7-11 at 3am in Plainfield should be very interesting.

Can't wait for the new clean C-Town to open.

Anyone heard of Trader Joe's or coffee shops or jazz clubs or nice restaurants?

Anonymous said...

we need art schools in town can't you not see all the artwork sprayed on your walls fences and steel gates in town if we open art schools our street artists can express there talents on canvas

Anonymous said...

the last charter school shut down and this one will too

Anonymous said...

Dan, this is a response to your comments on the rental approach: I agree with you that when someone purchases a property he or she is making a direct investment. I would also agree that the direct investment is most likely a superior investment than a person investing indirectly through rental. You are correct in stating the agreement was for a condo development. I think we need to consider the Monarch’s best use of the property based on the current economic reality. Due to the size of the property (60+ units) it will be very difficult for the owners of the property to dispose of units as condos even with FHA financing because of FHA’s presale requirements which have been reduced to 51% from about 70%. As such before anyone can take possession of a unit in the property, the property owner must have contracts for 51% of the units. That can be extremely difficult in this market. I still contend that quality rentals can be good for a community because there is a strong likelihood that the renter in a true market rate rental will ultimately become a property owner in the city eventually. Plainfield’s problems with rental properties are not necessarily due to the properties being rentals, instead the issues with rental properties in Plainfield are due to a failure of this administration and past administration to seriously enforce the code by addressing overcrowding which leads to potentially higher risks of injuries for firemen and of course a higher probability of deaths due to fires plus other increases in crime due to higher incidents of domestic violence , rapes and incest.
A true capitalist will seek the option that leads to the highest profitability at the lowest possible risk.
We need a solution to the Monarch’s issues and the party that is most likely to lose if we do not arrive at one soon is the Plainfield tax payer. The Monarch’s owners have already made a significant profit on this transaction through general contractors’ profitability, lower interest rates for construction financing through HMFA’s insurance, a non recourse loan and of course a developer fee on each unit in the building that was probably worth about 20K per unit.

Anonymous said...

A 7-11 is an excellent idea, C-town isn't a bad idea but i was hoping for a trader joe's or staples in the olod drug fair lot, I also think that South avenue needs a ups store or fedex kinko's and another bank. I noticed that work is being done on the building that use be larry's restaurant does anyone know what they are doing with that, and what about the space that use to be the chinese buffet what are they doing with that? it would be nice to have a restaurant like panera bread or manhattan bagel or maybe a mini movie theater like dunellen, westfield, and cranford have.