Two store closings last week and the rumored sale of some longtime Bayonne restaurants have raised concern among some resident. But a local business leader says that the process is all part of a market correction after years of changing consumer buying habits.
On Wednesday, Aug. 19, W. Kodak Jewelers on 24th Street and Broadway closed for good after one last sale with up to 85 percent off certain items. This ended the store’s 40-year run and added to the list of Bayonne jewelers, like Wigdor’s and Altschulers, gone by the wayside.
“Thank you Bayonne” signs were virtually all that was left of the once-thriving Kodak, which is now shuttered, empty, and dark. The majority of stores on the block just south of W. Kodak, on the west side of Broadway from 23rd to 24th streets, have gone out of business over the last few years.
All the buildings on that block, except for Barney Stock on 23rd Street and Broadway, have been sold, and a new medical arts building is expected to break ground in the fall at the site. Owner Mel Stock filed suit against the city to be kept out of the redevelopment plan.
On Saturday, Aug. 22, only three days after the W. Kodak closing, Staples, on Lefante Way in the South Cove Commons, closed after nearly nine years in business.
Local business leaders and the company itself attributed the closing to the success of the chain’s online buying system. Customers can purchase online and have their orders delivered before many of them would have a chance to get to the brick-and-mortar store, one business owner said. On Saturday, the store appeared totally empty, with two “We’re closed” signs flanking the electronic doors. Two additional signs thanked past customers for their business and directed them to stores at the Hudson Mall and Newport Plaza in Jersey City and on 88th Street in North Bergen.
Some potential customers arriving at the site on Aug. 22 were surprised by the closing, and one questioned why the store would leave before the lucrative back-to-school shopping season was over. An employee at the store said on Thursday that she would be working at Staple’s Hudson Mall outlet on Route 440.
During last year’s municipal elections, store closings became a hot political topic, with opponents of then Mayor Mark Smith riding the length of Broadway videotaping empty lots and closed storefronts, set to Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown,” and then posting the video on YouTube.
Bayonne city officials, such as Mayor James Davis, Business Administrator Joseph DeMarco, and Director of Municipal Services and Economic Development Robert Wondolowski have used the shrinking of the city’s main business district as the rationale for the recently approved 9-story Resnick’s and 22-story North Street residential projects. They say bringing in these developments to attract young, high-earning professionals will reignite spending at city businesses.
Buying into the economy
Bayonne Chamber of Commerce President Matt Dorans supports the Resnick’s project, writing in a letter to the editor that these new residents will “buy into the local economy.”
Chamber vice president and membership chairman Ben Costanza said that Bayonne’s business community needs to reinvent itself after the change of consumers’ purchasing habits following the successes of suburban malls in the 1970s and ‘80s and the rise of internet sales, starting in the 1990s.
Costanza says the city needs to transform itself into a service-oriented business venue.
“We’ve got to do something to fill that void, and it’s going to be restaurants, dry cleaners, and barber shops,” he said.
But one longtime eating and drinking establishment has closed and at least a couple more are expected to change hands.
Churchills Inn of Broadway closed weeks ago, and the Venice is rumored to be up for sale.
A man who answered the telephone at the Venice and identified himself as an “owner, kind of,” denied that the restaurant was up for sale.
But the owners of both the Big Apple and Mediterraneo on Broadway said they are trying to sell their businesses. Both said the decisions were not due to economic downturns.
“We’ve got to do something to fill that void.” – Ben Costanza
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“It’s been too many years and it’s time to go,” said Mediterraneo co-owner Andy Rios. “It’s time; it’s time for somebody else to take over.”
Owner Toni Bottino of the Big Apple, a Bayonne staple for 39 years, said the family was in the process of finding a buyer.
“It’s time to change,” Bottino said. “We’re just ready.”
City must adapt and change
Costanza said that in order for Bayonne not to become a dinosaur commercially, it must adapt and change with the times.
“I don’t know if it’s anything more than average that is happening to Main Street in any hometown USA,” he said. “Main Street continued to lose customers to these malls. And then to internet shopping in the ‘90s.”
Costanza is in favor of Bayonne building tall residential structures, agreeing that tenants will go down to ground-floor stores to patronize them and spread out from there. He also believes the city’s population needs to grow, possibly to as high as 85,000 like it was after World War II, to lure other retailers.
Joseph Passantino may be reached at JoePass@hudsonreporter.com.To comment on this story online visit www.hudsonreporter.com.