"BROADWALK WAS BANGIN.'" RED BANK PLAZA DRAWS CROWDS, QUELLS CRITICS

Workers from Yumi restaurant at 9 Broad Street load the restaurant’s streatery tables and chairs on the last day of the Broadwalk pedestrian plaza on September 30, 2026. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)

By BRIAN DONOHUE

“Broadwalk was bangin.'”

That’s how Rob Primiano summed up the season on Red Bank’s annual downtown pedestrian plaza Wednesday, as crews cleared restaurant tables from the street to make way for traffic to return the following day. Primiano works at BR Wealth, a financial firm at 10 Broad Street in Red Bank, and spends his cigar breaks on the sidewalk or sitting in Broadwalk’s Adirondack chairs, watching the world go by.

“It was packed every day,” Primiano (pictured below with cigar in hand) said of Broadwalk.

A few minutes and a block away, in the offices of Rivercenter, the nonprofit business promotion agency that runs Broadwalk, Executive Director Mairin Bennett sat at her desk with a printout of cell phone location data showing a sharp increase in visitors to the business district this summer compared to previous years – and the other nine months of the year.

“You can’t fight with data,” she said.

And a half block from Broadwalk at 5 Wallace Street, even Neapoli Italian Kitchen owner Louis Andrianos, who last year led a petition drive to end Broadwalk, conceded it was a very good year.

Asked if he was happier with Broadwalk this year, he replied, “Yeah. Last summer was terrible.”

Compared to recent years, he added, “This was the best summer, I think Red Bank has had.”

By almost all metrics, from the data collected by the weather app on your phone to the observations of cigar-smoking financial advisors, downtown Red Bank was busier this summer than perhaps any in recent memory.

And those increased crowds appear to have – at least for now – quelled the raging debate over the five-year-old program that turns the northern end of Broad Street into a traffic-free, European-style plaza.

A Country Line Dancing event on Broadwalk June 29, 2026 (Photo by Brian Donohue)

Rivercenter uses the vendor Placer Ai, which uses location data from apps on people’s cell phones, to gauge foot traffic. The data show an increase of more than 1,000 visitors to the special improvement district per day on average compared to last year, Bennett said.

The agency’s data also shows the district’s foot traffic this year rose significantly during the months Broadwalk was in effect, reversing the trend in years past when the area turned quiet as shore area visitors stuck to local beaches and boardwalks. And a typical visit lasted longer, with an average visit of 88 minutes.

“Not only were more people coming here, but they were staying longer,” Bennett said.

“Previously, summers were dead. “Summers now are busier than the holidays.”

Marin Bennett looks over the data on visitors to Red Bank’s downtown business district for the summer of 2026 inside her office at Rivercenter headquarters.

A number of factors appeared to be at play, including favorable weather, especially in May; new businesses that have embraced the Broadwalk concept, more events being held on the plaza; and Rivercenter’s use of free publicity provided by social media influencers who attend those events.

When a celebrity chef participating in a cooking contest posts a reel to their social media platform, it makes their followers want to check the place out. When a woman with a few hundred friends on Instagram posts a video of herself line dancing at the regular County Line Dancing event, it does the same for her friends.

Broadwalk on June 29, 2026. (Photo by Brian Donohue)

“When they start to have a good time and go on social media live, that’s content we’re creating and getting something that is really priceless,” Bennett said. “Instead of, you know, 22,000 people we’re now reaching 100,000 or 200,000.”

Andrianos cited fewer empty storefronts, including some newcomers that seemed to do well. He cited new businesses like Scoop ‘n Scootery, whose ice cream sundaes became a viral sensation; Street Kitchen & Pub, which opened in November in a building at 5 Broad Street that had been vacant for 13 years, and Insomnia Cookies, which filled a space at 74 Broad Street vacant since 2018.

“The occupancy rate went very positive,” he said.

Andrianos himself also opened a “streetery” with tables in the street for the first time this year. In a nod to the complaints of business owners outside the no-traffic zone, (like like Andrianos’s Neapoli) the Mayor and Borough Council significantly reduced the fees charged to businesses to operate sidewalk cafes and ‘streateries” this year.

Among the suggestions that came from business representatives who signed Andrianos’s petition last year was a shortening of the season. In our interviews, we found there’s still some remaining sentiment that the season is longer than it needs to be.

“Overall I think it’s good,” said Zoey Brodbeck manager of the Italian restaurant Via Sposito at 20 Broad Street. But she added outside business dropped off dramatically by Labor Day and she would like to see it shortened by a few weeks.

Others were more effusive about the season that just ended.

As workers loaded the outside tables and chairs from in front Yumi, a pan-Asian restaurant at 9 Broad Street into a U-Haul van, manager Priscilla Tan gushed about Broadwalk and uptick in business this year.

“The best,” she said. “We love it. It’s bringing us a lot of business.”

redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.