Summit Downtown, Inc. Chairman Offers Thoughts on Downtown Dispute

Tony Melchionna, owner of Salon 44 in Summit and retiring chairman of , added his comments to the firestorm that erupted after a Chatham borough business owner made a comment at Monday's council meeting regarding the many empty storefronts currently in downtown Summit.

Richard Crater, who owns d.j. crater on Main Street, said a planned Business Improvement District will help keep Chatham from becoming like its neighbor across the Passaic River.

"I don't know if you've been in Summit recently, but that looks like a ghost town in the center of town," Crater said at the meeting. "We don't want that to happen in Chatham."

Crater made the comment during a presentation from business owners and to the council about the planned BID.

Melchionna, who actually lives in Chatham, owns and operates two salons in Summit: Salon 44 and Salon 4 Kids, both on Maple Street.

"All my apples are really in Summit's basket," he said, adding that he and his wife rarely shop in downtown Chatham.

Chatham Borough Mayor Nelson Vaughan played down the comments Wednesday morning, saying Summit's own Business Improvement District is a good one. When he drives around downtown Summit, he said, he sees the area as a vibrant place.

"I don't think it looks bad at all," Vaughan said this afternoon.

Vaughan spoke this afternoon while having lunch at the Summit Diner, so he had a bird's eye view of downtown Summit as he commented on the matter.

When asked about the comments made Monday night, Summit Mayor Jordan Glatt laughed.

"I'd be happy to discuss it with them in Summit," he said, "if they can find a parking space."

Summit's downtown, according to City Administrator Chris Cotter at a downtown visioning meeting held last fall, has 150 retail store fronts including 40 restaurants, 21 hair and/or nail salons, 18 home decor shops, 11 women's clothing stores, seven banks, five jewelry stores, three florists and one movie theater. In addition, Summit also has office and residential spaces above the first floor retail stores.

Chatham's downtown? It stretches along Main Street from the Passaic River to Lafayette Avenue, which is the area the BID would encompass, and is comprised of roughly 120 storefronts, said Vince DeNave, Chatham's engineer.

The cause for Chatham's concern?

Summit has 19 vacant storefronts, the most some say they've ever seen in the Hill City. DeNave said Chatham only has about five vacant storefronts in its downtown area.

Chatham Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Carolyn Cherry said there are several vacancies in the Town Square shops near the Passaic River. There is also a vacancy on Main Street and an empty storefront on South Passaic Avenue, according to Cherry.

"This is going on everywhere," Melchionna said of the current 1o percent vacancy rate in Summit. "It's not a sign of SDI doing anything bad. It's the economy. Banks are not lending money to small businesses."

But Summit's downtown is proportionally larger than Chatham's. The Central Retail Business District master plan describes Summit's downtown as "five blocks long with busy cross streets." The CRBD is roughly 11 blocks total spanning from just past Summit Avenue almost to city hall on the corner of Morris Avenue and from DeForest Avenue to Union Place.

Melchionna suggested that maybe Crater meant to scare his colleagues by implying, "If Summit's hurting, we're next."

But to many, including Glatt, the comment that Summit is a ghost town is an unfair one, especially when compared to Chatham.

"We have more stores than they have a total downtown," he said.