A new, state-of-the-art Target department store is coming to West Orange Plaza. On Wednesday, the Township’s Planning Board, at a special meeting, approved plans for the plaza that have Target as the new anchor store alongside Whole Foods, taking over the old KMart that served as a vaccination center during the pandemic. The shopping plaza, located at Prospect and Eagle Rock Avenues, will feature a “village” of shops, restaurants and a pocket park, slated to open late spring of 2024.
Eco-friendly features in the project include a pollinator garden and a substantial landscaping plan along with larger and added tree islands in the parking lots. There will be 16 charging stations for electric vehicles, with a total of 48 to be installed over three years. To make the plaza more pedestrian friendly, sidewalks are being added around the plaza and within the parking lot.
There’s been buzz about the possibility of Target coming to the plaza for more than a year.
“In an era when other communities are seeing stores close, we are excited to have this long-awaited, large-scale investment in brick-and-mortar retail in our community,” the Township of West Orange said in a social media announcement.
Target has locations in Clifton and Fairfield.
No worries Lackawanna Plz. The State of NJ excludes Target stores in setting Food Desert designations. So, our Food Desert status will still be intact next year.
Of course, I do wonder why half of its 220,000 sf is allocated to non-selling space.
Let’s say the 105,000sf of selling space has, just spitballing, $25MM of merchandise on display. Let’s also assume the lower level stock area has more efficient storage, and has $40MM of inventory. I would say this Target has no reason to ever be out of stock, ever. And that will likely still be true even if they build out expansive, state-of-the-art employee lounges and training rooms.
And just 1,200 parking spaces! For Target & Whole Foods and every other planned use. Wow. Impressive.