Two New Businesses Proposed at Cranford Crossing

Town officials considered two businesses, a restaurant and a day spa, for Cranford Crossing at a Monday workshop meeting. While town officials were enthusiastic about welcoming a new restaurant to the downtown area, they were reluctant to give the go-ahead for a proposed day spa.

The restaurant, which will be called Pairings, is set to open in May. It will be an upscale, BYOB establishment that may offer cooking classes on Monday evenings.

“Once you get a tenant like [Pairings], the rest follow,” said Anthony Nataline of Jeffery Realty. “I would hope you would welcome [Pairings] with open arms.”

Though the committee members seemed enthusiastic about the restaurant, they remained skeptical about the day spa.

“I would think that the proposed day spa, looking at the list of services, is yet another hair-and-nail place that we seem to have all over town,” said Robinson, perusing an information sheet about the spa. “We do have a number of businesses in town that are doing all of these things.”

The developers were quick to reject the label of “another hair-and-nails place.”

“They focus on the package, and unfortunately in the package people generally want hair and nails, so it needs to be there to complete the package, but it’s not their core business,” said Rimas Petrulis of Jeffery Realty. “About half of the space is taken up by massage tables. They have a water message table, they have a steam room. So there are a lot of high end features planned.”

Nataline said it’s all about strategy.

“It goes back to bringing in foot traffic,” he said. “These [customers] come in, and it’s a destination spot, they might come in and shop at other stores. That’s one of the things [about a day spa] that has always worked out well.”

The committee was ill at ease with the prospect of the spa taking customers from existing businesses.

“The goal was always not to cannibalize existing businesses in Cranford,” said Robinson. “This was supposed to complement.”

”Most of the people that go to a day spa has their own place that they go to,” said Nataline. “Most people stick with one person… so [a new store is] usually not going to steal from [existing establishments], but at the same time, they will bring in more traffic.”

But even Nataline, who lives on Hillcrest Avenue in Cranford, was less than enthusiastic about a day spa.

“I wish we could be a little bit more picky, but the economy is tough right now,” he said. “We’d rather bring in some retailers. If we can bring in some nice men’s clothing, women’s clothing, that would be great for everybody.”

“I’m not ready to make a decision yet,” said Deputy Mayor Mark Smith.

Though the day spa is ready to start moving in they must wait for an amendment to the redevelopment ordinance restricting what types of businesses can operate at Cranford Crossing. Committee members will vote whether to adopt an amendment that allows a day spa at the next workshop meeting on December 14.

“I doubt the town committee will just give blanket day spa permission as a matter of right without any respect to size,” said Robinson. “You should probably expect to see some restrictions.”