The New York Shaving Company has leased 65 Broad Street, at the corner of Wallace Street, according to the broker. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
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By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank is about to get another tonsorial parlor, one whose arrival would end a sore-thumb vacancy in the heart of town, redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn has learned.
Also in Churn: we identify the business that’s taking over the former Prown’s Home Improvements space on Monmouth Street, in the building that’s about to be acquired by the Red Bank Charter School.
Red Bank Frameworks will be the sole retail tenant at 135 Monmouth, which is under contract to the Red Bank Charter School. Below, the former Roses R Red Bank, on Maple Avenue, has changed hands and name. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
• Taking up just 800 square feet at 65 Broad Street, at the corner of Wallace Street, New York Shaving Company plans to create a “very boutique, 1940’s style” shop offering both barbering services and its own brand of men’s grooming products, broker Joann Clark, of Blue Winn Commercial, tells Churn. Products include pre-shave oil, shaving brushes, razors, and beard-and-mustache combs.
A plan for the shop has was approved by the borough planning and zoning office last week, though no opening date was available. Owner John and Scala, who has two barber shops in Manhattan — one in midtown and the other in Nolita — did not respond to a request for comment.
Downtown Red Bank is already home to a several barber shops, including Rocky’s, just a few doors west of 65 Broad, on Wallace, and another with a turn-of-the-century tonsorial vibe, Old World Shaving Parlor, at 12 West Front Street.
A search of the archive of the defunct Red Bank Register, and Churn’s own archive, reveals that 65 Broad has served over the decades as home to businesses as various as the Second National Bank, Triangle Shoes, Lorstan’s photo studio — offering a “selection of props!” according to an ad —Littman’s Jewelers, Sheldon’s Card Shop, Silver Aztec jewelry, Red Bank Art Gallery and most recently, a short-lived rug store called Rugs and Floors.
• Red Bank Frameworks has leased the retail space formerly occupied by Prown’s Home Improvements at 135 Monmouth Street, the building that the Red Bank Charter School announced plans to acquire for $1.725 million last week.
Framer Steve McMillion tells Churn he negotiated the lease with building owner A.C.S. Monmouth Associates LLC, and didn’t know the charter school might become his landlord. The school, which has leased space in the building for its science and technology lab, plans to build a gym in its warehouse space while collecting rent on the storefront and from a handful of office space tenants.
McMillion opened his shop just a block away, at Monmouth and West streets, in late 2009, and has hosted a number of art shows there. But the space, at 940 1,200 square feet, is tight, he said. The former Prown’s space offers 2,200 square feet, plus a basement. “I’m getting a lot more space for a little more money,” he said.
He hopes to complete the move in July, he said.
The building he’s vacating, at 160 Monmouth, is owned by Frank Wyckoff and has been for sale the entire time McMillion’s been there. [Correction: Wyckoff tells Churn the building has not been for sale since 2009. Rather, he says, he listed it for six months in 2012, and again since last year.]
• The former Roses R Red Bank flower shop on Maple Avenue at Gold Street is now Love at Last Florist, under new ownership of Lisa Smith, the prior business’ head floral designer, and her husband, Allen Smith, according to a notice on the business’ website.
