The Anderson Building at 200 Bridge Avenue in the snow last Sunday. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
A longtime home furnishings business on Broad Street is outta here.
A liquor store and a convenience store venture to new locations. And plans for a new market in the iconic Anderson Building are taking shape in mouth-watering fashion. You think that’s it? We have not yet begun to churn!
redbankgreen has an extra churny January edition of Retail Churn. Read on for the deets.
The idea of slurping an oyster or two (or ten, if you’re us) and then going home with some locally caught fish, cheese and fresh baked bread for dinner could be a reality inside the iconic Anderson building at 200 Bridge Avenue by this summer if all goes well.
The plan for a new multi-kiosk food market in the space vacated by Sickles in the old Anderson Building continues to take shape, with an opening target date of this spring.
In a chat with redbankgreen, Chris Viola, founder and Chief Development Officer of Culture Collective, which runs the Asbury Park restaurants Reyla and Barrio Costero, laid out a few more details of the company’s plans for the space vacated by Sickles Market’s abrupt closure last year. Unlike the Sickles arrangement, which turned most of the space over to one single tenant, Viola said the market will have about eight kiosks operated by separate vendors.
Among them, are Molly Boards, a charcuterie and custom catering business based in Point Pleasant, and Local 130 Seafood, a fresh fish vendor that sources much of its product from east coast fishing boats. Local 130 has a retail location in Asbury Park and operated a stand at the Red Bank Farmers Market for several years before discontinuing that around 2022, totally bumming out local seafood lovers. 
Viola also said current plans call for a “noodles and dumplings concept,” a “hot chicken concept” and a salad and soup spot. A few of those kiosks will be operated by Culture Collective itself as opposed to outside vendors.
He’s hoping half the kiosks will be open by spring, with the rest by summer, pending any complications with the ongoing Sickles bankruptcy case. Building owners Metrovation East received borough approvals last year for the “Chelsea market” type plan for the 8,000 square foot space.
- Moving just a bit east on Monmouth Street, Super Savers convenience store has completed the shortest move imaginable, moving one door west from its location at 178 Monmouth Street to a new home in the former location of the Wall Street Pub at 180 Monmouth Street. It’s brighter inside, but it feels strange walking into the place and not seeing folks nursing Budweisers. Change takes time, I guess.
- Speaking of booze, Spruce Liquors at 205 Shrewsbury Avenue is looking to move to bigger digs directly across the street from the weathered storefront where it’s been for years.
Owners Hiral Patel, Narayan Baniya and Falguni Patel applied on Nov. 12 to the planning board to move Spruce Liquors to a larger location inside the former home of Green’s Auto Performance Center at 204 Shrewsbury Avenue (pictured below right)
Plans submitted to the borough show the shop would have 3,700 square feet of retail space. A hearing has not been scheduled. Spruce Liquors shares the same building with a storefront that has been vacant for years and is considered an eyesore in the neighborhood.
The owner of the building at 204 Shrewsbury Avenue is listed as Steven Goodman. There has been a sign in the window advertising the space for lease since the mechanics moved out.
Red Ginger Home, the home furnishings and interior design firm, has bounced around the downtown quite a bit during its two decades in business, moving from Monmouth Street to a storefront on Broad Street in 2011 before moving again to 66 Broad in 2015. Now it seems like it’s bouncing out of town altogether.
The storefront at 66 Broad is closed but Owner Rob Amend said the 20-year-old business is not closing, just moving to another still-unannounced location. “It’s a 20-year-old business and 90 percent of my clients are repeat business,” he said.
Good news, though: this address will not be adding to the list of empty storefronts downtown.
A sign put up in the window this week declares the address will be the new home of Toy Utopia, which will be moving there from its current location at 18 East Front Street.
Toy Utopia’s website says they are planning a “smooth transition” to the new address in early spring. Husband and wife Bruce and Mira Brach opened Toy Utopia in 2022, and Bruce tells us they’re excited to move to a larger spot with more foot traffic and better parking. “It’s going to be great,” said Bruce.
- The building at 30 Monmouth Street, home of Agara Indian Masala and former longtime home of Monmouth Music has been sold. The story below from the business news site ROI New Jersey touts the sale and says Agara Indian Masala has a long-term lease, good news for those who have taken a liking to the place’s Tikka Masala and mom-and-pop vibes.
Deeds recorded with Monmouth County show the building was sold on Sept. 11 for $1.235 million to Hudson Auto Realty LLC with an address at 7500 Westside Avenue in North Bergen.
That’s the address of the Bram Auto Group, which owns 21 car dealerships in Brooklyn and New Jersey, according to its website. The seller is listed as Abe M. Cohen, with a business address in Tinton Falls. The Sept. 11 deed is signed by Ignazio Giuffre, identified in multiple news reports as the owner of multiple car dealerships in the region.
NAI DiLeo-Bram & Co. arranges sale of 3,600-SF building in Red Bank
- Finally, a new coffee shop/smoothie juice bar Green Beanery has announced plans to open at 205 West Front Street. The storefront in the West Side Lofts used to house Freshica’s a juice bar.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
