Kid business concept born in Manhattan to see how it plays in Ridgewood
JANUARY 15, 2015 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY JOAN VERDON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* Early education and play center scheduled to open Saturday in Ridgewood
Michael Pickholz has 20 years of experience working on mergers and acquisitions and venture-capital deals. Now he’s switching from high finance to little kids and betting that a children’s educational and play facility born on Manhattan’s Upper East Side also will be a hit in northwest Bergen County.
Pickholz and his wife, Jessica, are opening a Ridgewood branch of the Manhattan-based franchise chain Kidville on Saturday. It will be the sixth Kidville in New Jersey and the second in Bergen County. An Englewood location opened in 2012.
Kidville centers, which offer developmental early childhood classes in art, music and gymnastics, as well as an indoor play space and birthday party services, have won raves from Manhattan moms and dads, and the Hoboken Kidville classes tend to sell out. However, their success in suburbia is less of a sure thing.
A Kidville franchise in downtown Westfield in Union County that opened in mid-2013 closed this week, with the owners saying the business was not bringing in enough money to balance the high operating costs.
Kidville is competing against similar play space and activity chains, such as The Little Gym, which has three locations in Bergen County, as well as with long-standing enrichment programs at YMCAs and Jewish community centers.
Michael and Jessica Pickholz, however, are confident Kidville is just what parents in Ridgewood and surrounding towns have been looking for.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/kidville-settles-in-the-burbs-1.1194628
38 Oak Street
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
973-869-9608
