Longtime Owner Argues For Office Space Downtown

"I love this town and I can prove it, I've been owning property in Cranford's downtown for over 30 years."

Tony Mack, owner of several properties in the downtown district, asked the Township Committee and Downtown District Management Corporation to allow property owners to lease street level stores as office space at a late April meeting.

"There's nothing more that I would like than to to get a good retailer in my stores. But they're empty today. I'm losing $3,500 per month right now."

It isn't a new request. From a landlord's perspective business use is cleaner, and in some cases, more prosperous.

"The first time the Township acted in a similar response was in the early 1990s, when the economic climate was also not very good," DMC Director Kathleen Prunty said. "But once you give up that space to business use, you're not going to get it back for retail."

"They're paying taxes, why shouldn't they switch over to a business, a doctor's office or a lawyer's, to increase rateables?" said former mayor Robert Puhak. "But there's a lot more to it. We spend a tremendous amount of time on the master plan, ok, lets switch over to professional office space and we see an increase in rentals, increase in tax revenue, but we'll see more restaurant space lost and other retail."

Mack said a big reason he hasn't been able to find retail interest in his empty stores is because "the small retailer is finished."

"You can't afford to be in business as a small retailer, because you can't buy right," he said. "For example, a supermarket will buy a bulk box of potatoes for $5 bucks, the retailer will have to spend $7 bucks."

He hasn't had any luck with allowing restaurants in his properties.

"When that store had a food type of thing, she left owing me three months rent. There were holes that they put into my roofs. The damage they caused I spent thousands of dollars on," Mack said. "There must have been 10,000 roaches in that building. I will never put food in one of my buildings."

Those against prominent office space in the downtown say it's a matter of sitting back and looking at the big picture.

"What is our downtown? What do we want it to be?" said Puhak. "Businesses will stay businesses and encroach on the downtown, so then we'll have a cute little business park. We have to keep in mind the type of downtown we want. How will that ultimately effect tax rateables across the board? Will our town be desirable to live in? Part of our property values are linked to our education system and our downtown."

"The downtown should have multiple uses, that's how they grow," said Prunty. "Once you give up that space you're not going to get it back for retail. Retail wants to be near other restaurants. They don't see it as competition, they see it as grouping. 'Hey, you might bring someone to my store,' and so on."

But fitting into that bigger picture is proving difficult for some.

"I have to have some kind of relief," Mack said. "I can't just keep going like this. Look at my buildings, grade them, I take good care of them. I think my family and I have some of the best looking buildings in my town but I can't keep going this way, it's impossible."