Retail space tucked inside 12 Broad has been leased by a store specializing in jewelry infused with “vital force.” (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Downtown Red Bank’s comeback is about to get a jolt of extra energy.
Alex and Ani, a designer and retailer of wrist bangles and necklaces infused “with the positive energy that ancients refer to as vital force,” has signed to take over retail space at 12 Broad Street, next door to the newly relocated coffeehouse Zebu Forno.
Even the walls are expected to hum with good vibes.
On her store’s website, owner and designer Carolyn Rafaelian says her mission is “to design products that adorn the body, enlighten the mind, and empower the spirit.”
On a page labeled “philosophy,” the site says Alex and Ani
is a company dedicated to creating products of unparalleled quality and beauty that promote consciousness and unity. Manufacturing in the United States and re-using and recycling materials is an integral part of Alex and Anis mission as a conscious and eco-friendly company. Alex and Anis collections are not only Eco-friendly, they are made up of powerful, meaningful, and spiritual pieces, which uplift and inspire all who wear them.
The website says Alex and Ani has 10 stores, seven of them in New England. The Red Bank shop would be the first in New Jersey, according to the list.
The shop may need some supplemental positive energy to attract walk-in traffic. The space the company is leasing has no storefront: the tall glass windows outside the shop frame an elevator foyer.
But the retailer seems to have that covered. Contractors will be installing vital force crystals between studs before closing up walls with Sheetrock, redbankgreen has learned from reliable sources.
Rafaelian did not respond to a request for comment left at the company’s store in SoHo.
