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Since 1947, Hampton House Furniture, owned by the Fisch family, has served Montclair. Now, after 70 years in business at the corner of North Fullerton and Bloomfield Ave. in the iconic Art Deco building that bears its name, Hampton House furniture store will be closing, so its owners can retire. The store is closed now to markdown prices on all items for a closing sale that starts Friday, June 9th, at 10 a.m.
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After seventy in Montclair, it is sad to learn that this long time retailer is going away. My parents made more than a few purchases there and I’ve always enjoyed the building’s unique Bauhaus architecture. Hope the new owners decide to keep it and not redesign with some hideous Siena, etc crapola.
silverleaf – I expect someone to add some dryer vents and steel canopies, convert it to residential use, go for a parking waiver, get the parking waiver, and market it as the”MontclairBauhausCondoLoft” or something like that. Perhaps they’ll kick it off with some kind of 1930’s Weimar theme party, with free sauerbraten and bier, at the open house.
My bet is a future application removing the non-historic, non-art deco hipped roof, add another half story to leverage the 15% addition rule, add 12 condo units above ground floor retail, ask for parking variance to provide only 10 parking spaces to be met by buying 10 parking permits from the PU, and…voila! Approved.
Ummh, let’s see, who do we know who specializes in adding floors to existing historic district buildings…
STQ – Yes, with biergarten on roof and an “offene luft” viewing of “Triumph of the Will” hosted by celebrity guests Lisa Minelli and Joel Grey. Oy!
Frank – Add a ground floor nail salon for good measure and I’m all in!
Yes, I will miss a unified store front with their sign. Without both, it really isn’t a special building.
With the adjacent Chase Bank being sold, it will be interesting to see how this iconic corner changes.
One thing is clear. The Council really needs to get their heads in the game on the 15%/more intensive use rule and the Planning Board’s, out-of-the-blue, Master Plan revision to eliminate limits on housing density in Montclair Center. I’m fairly certain most of them aren’t even aware of it. I have no doubt they don’t understand the implications of the 1-2 punch. Not a terribly big problem. We’ll just let the marketplace work it out. Works for me. I just ask that we don’t use the term SmartGrowth anymore. That’s all I ask.
I believe I read a few months ago that this property was sold to Bobbi Brown’s husband, I am not 100% but fairly sure I am correct. The price the owners got was mostly likely a good retirement package. Now the fun begins. He will try and keep it quiet and move in a stealth mode through the town processes. Then, viola, we have a new building and many people will say “how did that happen” Mark my words
If Mr Plofker is the developer, then I am not worried. His best work of recent years is taking a building with good bones and transforming it into a plus for Montclair Center. This is a high visibility parcel. Who knows, he may keep the signage as a brand for the building.
Most likely the ‘historically appropriate’ and ‘harmonizing’ windows will be yanked out and replaced with something with noise buffer capabilities, so the condo owners can sleep happily.
I have to correct myself on a post I wrote yesterday. I said I thought I heard Plofker would be buying this place. Well, I was wrong. I read in Montclair Local – which is quite a good newspaper by the way – the Grabowsky has purchased it. In my mind that is worst. How long will it sit vacant after he does some construction on it? He has more empty spaces downtown than anyone else and it hurts Montclair on the whole, in my opinion. Too late to do anything about it but the building does hold a critical place in Montclair Center. I hope he proves me wrong but his history is not good.
Hampton House will end up demolished, replaced with a 6-story Styrofoam-clad “luxury rental” with a parking variance and PILOT, and the Planning board will laud it as a win for Montclair.
Yes, STQ, the windows have to go. Don’t worry, the replacements will be “harmonizing”.
It is good news that the pocket liquor license might actually find a use.
And, as to my point above about the 15% rule, this is the worst-case scenario. The Council was so proud of their Seymour Street Plan requiring the developer to provide an additional 100 new public parking spaces. Well, the Midtown Deck is not even approved and those 100 spaces just went poof! With just one building!
Actually, the worst-case scenario is the office space is for medical office uses.
Actually those 100 new parking spaces in the new Midtown parking desk are already spoken for by the customers and employees of the 3 big restaurants on Glenridge Ave.
As I said, “Not a terribly big problem.”
We can triple the parking rates to manage demand. Win-win, I’d say.
Actually, the thing to do is add a 4th story to the Midtown Deck. Since this the Council made this deck a separate, stand-alone approval, the PB can rectify its mistakes in one stroke. The PB is hearing the application Monday, the timing is perfect.
This wouldn’t work for families, and probably too expensive for starter couples, and I’m not sure why an empty nester would grab a condo in this location without a year’s supply of Sominex.