Business Activity at Route 18 Mall

Alex Leroy is taking a chance.

About six weeks ago he opened Bravo Mediterranean in the Route 18 Mall. The restaurant serves a variety of Mediterranean food, including kabobs, falafel and gyros, as well as pizzas with a Mediterranean spin.

While business has been OK, he’s worried about the future. With few stores in the mall to draw traffic and little to no signage advertising the mall, he said he faces an uphill climb.

“Every customer that finds me online, and I get a lot of customers calling to ask, asks ‘where is this place?’ ” he said.

While Leroy has decided to give it a go in the mall, other businesses have taken the opposite approach. In the past year and a half, , and have relocated (Satori is now in the Target shopping center in Milltown) and the farmer’s market have all closed. In addition, other large stores, including Office Depot, and the Gap, as well as Hollywood Tan remain vacant.

Judi Reich, owner of , one of the few stores still in the center, compared the area with the equally vacant Movie City 5 mall located at the opposite end of Route 18.

“It’s two dead bookends, both were really nice malls at one point,” she said.

Reich said the mall needs an anchor school such as a supermarket or a shoe store similar to DSW. But with new construction occurring elsewhere on Route 18, including the and the nearly completed , she isn't hopeful.

 “They’re opening brand new malls, and they can’t even fill the old ones,” she said.

Fortunately, there may be some hope. While some businesses have left, the mall is still home to Pearle Vision, Everything .50 Cents, Carvel, Voi Salon and Spa, Hope & Dawn and Bravo, as well as a soon to open bagel store.

More importantly, Larry Pinilis, of Pinilis Storebrokers, says he has seen an increase in the number of retailers contacting him about space and he even has had a few people interested in the Route 18 mall.

“I’ve had a fair amount of activity on going in there,” said Pinilis. “All of a sudden, out of the clear blue sky, there’s activity there and elsewhere. In Raritan I have a retail store that opened the other day that took up a whole bunch of space.”

Pinilis said that despite the activity, he could not name any retailers until leases were signed. However, he said there was definite interest in the old farmer’s market space.

“In East Brunswick I have somebody for the 15,000-square-foot food market. I have a deal cooking with some kids places,” he said.

When reached for comment, the realtor in charge of the Office Depot site said they have no one lined up for the building yet.

But until the stores come in, people like Leroy and Reich will continue doing their best to survive in an economy that is struggling and in a shopping center that is struggling even more.

“I’m working hard to bring some life back here,” said Leroy.