Owners Have Big Dreams for Old Woolworth's, Foot Locker Site

Within the dark, musty, warm interior of the basement at 5 South St., property manager James Cavanaugh flips a switch.

A string of temporary lighting fixtures comes to life, their illumination casting subterranean scenes in stark relief to the big ideas Cavanaugh and his Cavanaugh Family Trust have for the two-story property they have owned for almost three years.

Where old concrete flooring used for storage for many years at the F.W. Woolworth Company was recently dug out for additional clearance, Cavanaugh sees the downstairs portion to a upper-class bar and restaurant. Where a brick wall separates the two sides, he sees a game room with old standbys like billiards and shuffleboard. Where another wall stands, part of the foundation of the building since it was erected sometime in the mid-to-late 1800s, Cavanaugh sees a piece of history. 

To the man whose family currently owns the property where TD Bank sits, and where his family has owned property dating back to the Wedgewood restaurant in 1980 (later known as Society Hill and, finally, Jimmy's), there is a great opportunity to not only add to the already robust dining and bar scene in Morristown, but do so while retaining and restoring some of the history the town has long been known for.

"These were two good-looking buildings," Cavanaugh said. "Certainly a lot better looking than they are now."

Once upon a time, the two floors of 5 South St. were four, with the top three likely apartments, Cavanaugh said. That changed when, in the 1950s, the then-mighty Woolworth's department store came to town and, in similar fashion to some chain stores today, had a set design it wished to keep in its Morristown location. The top two floors had to go.

Woolworth's closed up the top, turned the remaining second floor into employee offices and set to running its business until hard times and stiff competition forced the company to sell to Foot Locker, which subsequently took over the space until shutting down last year.

But, the property had long since fallen into disrepair. Tin, ornately designed tiles placed on the ceiling by Woolworth's had been covered up by Foot Locker, as had a wall simply been thrown up to cover the ubiquitous lunch counter the department store was known for.

That wall is gone exposing brick and indentations in the concrete floor where lunch counter stools would have sat, and Cavanaugh said the tiles that had been too damaged over time would be replaced, in the same design as the ones Woolworth's installed.

It's all part of what Cavanaugh, whose family also owns the property where the recently re-opened Zebu Forno operates, said is a roughly $500,000 renovation project to bring the property to a "plain vanilla" condition that will hopefully draw a lessee looking to get in the town's bar and restaurant scene.

The second floor, gutted and cleared recently of asbestos and brought up to code with things like sprinkler systems ("This place would have went right up," Cavanaugh said), could be office space, or anything to the right tenant, Cavanaugh said. 

But with a liquor license in his possession from the bar his family operated until then-Commerce Bank was built further down South Street, Cavanaugh said, most of the 9,000-square-feet on the ground floor would be perfect for a bar and restaurant.

Work continues on the property, with new frontage including similar insulated glass as on the front of Zebu Forno being installed before the end of August, Cavanaugh said. Still, he acknowledges that the real estate market continues to be slow in a sluggish economy, even for a property next to a new luxury rental, in front of a parking garage and across from the Green. But, that does not stop him from dreaming big. 

"When do I want someone to move in here? How about next week?" he said. "It depends on the economy. But, the location, you can't get any better."