A new ShopRite store will be opening in Newark’s Central Ward as part of a major mixed-use redevelopment project. The store will anchor the Springfield Avenue Marketplace, an 11-acre site that has sat vacant for 20 years. In addition to ShopRite, the marketplace will include 60,000 square feet of retail space and 150 residential units.
Rumor had it that Wal-Mart was going to snatch up the spot, but that community groups–and Cory Booker–opposed the store for its low wages and potentially harmful effects on local business.
“Today’s announcement is wonderful news for our city,” Booker said in a statement. “Newark residents deserve convenient access to fresh and healthy food options, and there is no better place for a large grocery store than Springfield Avenue. Located in the heart of the city, this new ShopRite will strengthen our local economy by retaining more of our citizens’ buying power in Newark, in addition to providing hundreds of new job opportunities for residents.”
The president of the new ShopRite, Neil Greenstein, also owns and operates the ShopRite of Brookdale in Bloomfield. Greenstein is a member of Wakefern Food Corp., the distribution arm for ShopRite.
“This is a homecoming of sorts for Wakefern, which located its first warehouse in Newark in 1946,” he said. “Now, nearly 70 years later, this site is set to become the city’s premier retail destination, and it is an ideal time to open a supermarket here.”
The firm developing the site, Tucker Development Corp., said ShopRite will service the shopping needs of approximately 280,000 Newark residents, 180,000 members of the city’s workforce and 60,000 college students and faculty–the site is within close proximity to six of the city’s major colleges and just one block from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
At the corner of Springfield Avenue and Jones Street, the development is part of Newark’s Urban Enterprise Zone, where customers are entitled to a 50 percent reduction of sales tax on most purchases along with the full exemption of taxes on grocery and clothing purchases in New Jersey. Groundbreaking is expected to begin in the fall.
Vegan bakery Sweet Avenue Bake Shop in Rutherford will host its sixth annual Cupcakefest and this year, the owners have selected Montclair Township Animal Shelter (MTAS) as the recipient of all proceeds. Cupcakefest will be held on Saturday, June 22, from 1-7 p.m. at Lincoln Park, 176 Park Avenue, Rutherford.
