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Similarity breeds frustration for some in Ridgewood
Similarity breeds frustration for some in Ridgewood
THURSDAY AUGUST 23, 2012, 3:37 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Anyone who knows Ridgewood’s downtown knows two things: There used to be a lot of banks, and now there are a lot of restaurants.
Gus Lainis, owner of the Daily Treat, said for ‘every new restaurant that opens, you lose three or four customers.’
However, it wasn’t always this way. Longtime residents and seasoned Ridgewood shoppers recall the days when the Central Business District (CBD) featured a larger variety of stores, including many retail shops selling unique goods.
While banks have been on the wane in the village since the global financial crisis, some current residents, while saying they enjoy the restaurants, have expressed dissatisfaction with the village’s high percentage of eateries. They argue that besides the village’s notoriously high rent and parking issues, the downtown’s saturation with certain services may be driving retailers away.
Gene Callaghan, a longtime Ridgewood resident, operated Irish Eyes Imports in Ridgewood for more than 20 years before moving his shop to its current Westwood location about two years ago. He called the move to Westwood, where he pays about 40 percent less in rent, a no-brainer from a business standpoint.
“My landlord was upping the rent,” Callaghan said. “From a business point of view, I had to move. It was one of those offers I couldn’t refuse.”
http://www.northjersey.com/news/167223985_Similarity_breeds_frustration_for_some_in_Ridgewood.html
And for those of you new arrivals, we used to have lots of liquor stores and gas stations (every corner on Franklin and a few more on Godwin) Such is life. The rents will only come down when the stores stay vacant. If someone is willing to pay the asking price, then that entrepreneur must be confident of their ability to pay the rent and make a profit. I’d expect due to consolodation in the banking industry, many of those leaseholds will be vacant at the end of their lease (as already seen with Bank of America at the former citizens branch on Rwd ave, and across the street from that…was it Credit Suisse?)
If I was a shopkeeper in town, I would take advantage of the ‘foot traffic’ generated by the restuarants in the evening, and keep my store open. Apparently most do not.