When the wraps come off, the retailer is expected to occupy all the street-level space formerly divided among four businesses.
After months of speculation, it’s official: Urban Outfitters is coming to Red Bank, delivering what retailers hope will be a caffeine jolt of foot traffic to an increasingly lethargic downtown scene.
Keith Alliotts, owner of 2-10 Broad Street, confirmed today that the youth-market clothing and apartment-goods retailer has signed a multiyear lease on 10,000 square feet of street-level retail.
He told redbankgreen that Urban would be taking possession of the space in the late summer or early fall, and “they’ll probably have a few months” worth of customizing to do before opening for business.
The deal, which had been said to be pending for months, has been widely viewed as a potential game-changer for the business district, which has seen as many as 40 storefronts vacant in recent months.
Business owners regard Urban as a powerful magnet able to draw not only large crowds of young, credit-card wielding shoppers and their parents into town, but household starters on a budget. They’re drawn by the store’s offerings of bedding, tableware and other items.
“Wow, that’s wonderful news,” said Margaret Mass, director of the Red Bank Visitors Center. “It couldn’t come at a better time. We’ll be expecting lots of new visitors.”
A recent sneak peek inside the building, which is undergoing major renovations.
Urban Outfitters officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alliotts’ building, at the corner of West Front Street, is one of the oldest and most prominent commercial locations in Red Bank, dating back to the middle of the 19th century. Recent renovation work revealed an old wagon wheel hidden in the rafters, we’re told.
But the largest of the storefronts, on the corner, has been plagued by tenant turnover. It was most recently occupied by the bizarrely named Studio Bling, which sold household lighting fixtures and lamps.
Urban would take over that space as well as storefronts now occupied by A.H. Fisher Diamonds, which is moving to the corner of Broad and White Street, and Fashion Nails, which is also relocating elsewhere on Broad. A fourth storefront has been vacant since the departure last year of the short-lived Cold Stone Creamery ice cream store.
