What Juanitos Market Can Offer Westside

With recent zoning board approval, Juan Torres, owner of several successful Red Bank businesses, including and the detached , is clear to start work on his newest endeavor, one he said will greatly benefit what has long been an underserved Westside community.

His plan is to construct a new market at the site of a long-time Shrewsbury Avenue furniture and antique store. The market will offer fresh produce, as well as meat and cheese, and, more importantly, give residents on that side of town a viable shopping option without having to travel too far.

Torres purchased the building in June and immediately set about turning it into a market by developing plans and seeking variances, most specifically for the market’s extreme lack of parking, from the zoning board. Torres considered the location a prime one for his market, even despite the lack of available parking, and after three public meetings the zoning board did too.

Torres was able to successfully argue that nearly all of the Red Bank residents who will take advantage of the store will come from the Westside neighborhood and likely won’t drive there. As it stands now, he said, residents have one of two options: doing their grocery shopping at one of the small bodegas in the area or walking the more than a mile it takes to get to the borough’s only supermarket, Super Foodtown on Broad Street.

The new market, which has yet to be named, will also help revitalize a section of town that’s sometimes neglected, where empty storefronts, unlike Red Bank’s downtown, remain that way and contribute to a sense of blight. A market would not only be an asset to local residents, but to the neighborhood too, Torres and supporters of the project have argued.

With more than 5,000 square feet, the new market would not approach the size of your average supermarket but would provide plenty of space for all of the food and home goods a person would need, Torres said. In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables and meats, the market would also provide prepared foods, cleaning supplies and paper goods. It’s most of what you’d find at a bodega, just on a much larger scale.

No time table has been set for the market’s opening, though Torres has said he plans beginning work immediately.