'For Rent' Signs Abound in Short Hills

While much attention has been focused on the economic health of downtown Millburn, with debates over a revitalization plan, business owners a few blocks away on the Short Hills end of Millburn Avenue say they are already hurting.

“Do you see all the stores for rent?” Farhad Langaroodi asked. “It’s everyone.”

Langaroodi is the owner of Short Hills Rug Gallery, a massive specialty store now displaying “Going Out of Business” signs and 70 percent discounts.

He is among many store owners on the Short Hills end of Millburn Avenue who aren't surviving in the recession. The street is becoming pockmarked with vacancies. One of the main reasons, he said, is that there aren’t enough shoppers in the area.

Next door, Bernie Robbins Fine Jewelry is already out of business. There are four other empty storefronts within two blocks. It's not the worst it’s ever been – in the early 1990s the opening of the Mall at Short Hills caused many store closures – but it is getting close.

Unica owner Rachel Chayon said after a tough winter, sales are starting to pick up.

“Fall and winter were awful," she said. "Now, in the last month or so, people are starting to come out and they’re spending. Everyone is sick of being in hibernation and feeling deprived."

Langaroodi sees an easy way to draw more shoppers to the area.

“They need to decide what to put in the Saks building. It’s been empty so long, it’s terrible,” he said. Saks relocated to the Mall at Short Hills when the mall opened.

His suggestion may soon become a reality. Stop & Shop is rumored to be going into the long-empty building, technically located in Springfield but right across the street from the rug gallery. The plan would need to be approved by the Millburn Planning Board because its driveway feeds into Short Hills, but no application has been filed.

Struggling and successful store owners alike look forward to seeing the building occupied.

“We’re a destination store and we’ve been in business 96 years, so the economy doesn’t affect us the same. We’re in good shape,” M. Blaustein Furs co-owner Lloyd Perkel said. “But [the Saks building] has been empty for so many years. It’s becoming a blight. I hope it goes through. It will bring people around; bring walkers around. The town is concerned that it will cause traffic. Well, we need traffic. We need people.”

“The Stop & Shop will be a help not a hindrance,” said Fruit and Nuts manager Suzan Cordasco. “We need traffic. People go right through here. Stop & Shop would be a boom to this area.”

Perkel is on the board of the Millburn-Short Hills Business Coalition, a newly formed joint effort of the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Millburn Development Alliance and the Township of Millburn. He hopes his presence will bring more attention to this end of town. “We don’t seem to get much pull. We have to keep reminding the town that we exist.”

Cordasco is skeptical that anything will really be done. “We’re the forgotten child of Millburn," she said. "I’ve been here 25 years and it’s always been this way.”

Chayon agrees that the Short Hills end is often ignored.

“Last year, I didn’t even know about the sidewalk sale until the day of when one of my customers mentioned it. The town didn’t even tell us. Why not include this side?”

Cordasco remembers the day well. “They had trolleys to bring people out of this area. I just don’t get it,” she said. “I just don’t get it.”

“With the mall so close, it is so important for the town to join together, to organize and promote the small boutiques and all of the shopping as one," Chayon said. "We can use all the help we can get.”