Lackawanna Plaza Makeover: "We Need To Do This All At Once"

A nice restaurant with a liquor license and outdoor seating. A space for artists and galleries. A renovated Pathmark. Loft apartments. New retailers.

This was all part of a grandiose plan to revitalize Lackawanna Plaza on Bloomfield Avenue, a plan presented Tuesday night at a community meeting organized by Councilor Renee Baskerville.

One hand to speak to the crowd was Robert Ambrosi, chief executive of Arc Properties, landlord of Lackawanna Plaza, as well as ARC's head of leasing and marketing, Michael Ambrosi. Both men, father and son, reside in Montclair.

Robert Ambrosi said the single most important aspect of the project is to either persuade Pathmark supermarket to undergo a $5 million renovation—or move out.

He said that Pathmark, which has been in bankruptcy, announced only last August that it planned to stay in Lackawanna Plaza—an uncertainty that had been stalling progress on the overall Lackawanna renovation project.

"There have been no improvements at that store for more than 10 years," he said.

Robert Ambrosi said he has been pushing Pathmark for the last two years to "do something."

"I think Pathmark would like to do something and they are not bad people but they've just had financial troubles," he said. "But the company has the money now and we want it to go into investment in the store in Lackawanna Plaza."

He said he's talked to other food store chains about taking over the Pathmark space at Lackawanna Plaza but noted that the 50,000-square-foot site is much too large for a retailer like a Trader Joe's.

Standing before dozens of 4th Ward residents, Robert Ambrosi also said Arc Properties has purchased a liquor license with an eye towards opening a new restaurant in the space left vacant by Hollywood Video.

"The restaurant we are talking to now is a local restaurant and a quality one," Robert Ambrosi said. "We have purposely not gone out to a chain or to a high-end restaurant.

"We want something nice though that has outdoor seating," he said, responding to concerns about the restaurant's affordability.

Other plans for the area include the creation of 20 residential units, each 700 to 800 square feet, that would be built in an old three-story office building on the site.

"The whole idea is to create an environment where people can live, they can eat, they can shop, they can go see some artwork, and to really blend it into the whole community and really to make it a very interesting place," Robert Ambrosi said. "That's the vision that we have. We certainly need the community's support."

Also in the works is the creation of a space for artists, working in conjunction with Studio Montclair.

"When we bought this site 15 or 20 years ago out of bankruptcy I remember we used to have art shows and all sorts of community events and we could do that again," Robert Ambrosi said.

ARC also is planning to paint, landscape, upgrade signage, improve lighting, and implement changes such as the installation of glass storefronts so that customers could see inside the retail shops.

"You don't want to see a broken Pathmark sign when you are driving down Bloomfield Avenue," Robert Ambrosi said.

Perhaps one of the main points made by Robert Ambrosi—much to the delight of those in attendance—is that he wants to do the project all at once.

"If we do one thing and then six months later we do another and then six months later we do something else, people will look at this as a project that's been going on forever," he said. "I want an explosion to occur."

Councilor Nick Lewis, who attended Tuesday night's meeting along with Councilor Rich Murnick, said that a beautiful Lackawanna Plaza would raise the quality of the entire surrounding neighborhood.

"When it's fixed up it will serve as a catalyst for economic development in the entire area," Lewis said.

When it comes to a timeline, Robert Ambrosi said the renovation could be completed within a year once the Pathmark issue is sorted out.