July/August 2005—As many residents of Fair Lawn and beyond have witnessed, the River Road District is seeing a lot of private investment being directed to this area.  Several projects throughout the District have been completed in the past few years and several more are in various stages of construction.  Most recently Commerce Bank opened its River Road branch doors to the residents of Fair Lawn in 2004, showcasing a large landscaped street frontage area that incorporated the District’s lamppost and sidewalk theme with brick pavers and a pedestrian friendly sidewalk.  Also in 2004, improvements to the existing Columbia Bank branch were completed with the addition of a new drive-through facility and the reconfiguration of the existing parking lot to improve traffic flow.

 

Now in 2005 the District is beginning to see three major mixed-use developments take shape.  A three-story mixed-use structure is underway at the corner of River Road and Hopper Avenue, across from another fairly recent addition to the District, the Community Bank of Bergen County.  The steel frame is nearing completion on this residential and retail building that will be bringing four (4) duplex apartments, ranging in size from 1,400 to 2,000 square feet, and a large corner retail unit of 3,500 square feet to the District.This project is estimated to be completed by the end of this year.  The retail portion of this project is leased; for those interested in the availability of the duplex apartments, contact Mike Yalovitser at (201) 794-1699.

 

At the location formerly known as Lamring Dairy, the steel and masonry framing is nearly completed on this residential and retail building to be named Lamring Commons. This project will contain eight (8) one and two bedroom apartments ranging in size from 825 to 1,328 square feet and will introduce a total of 2,387 square feet of new street level retail space , divided into three units, in this area of River Road. This mixed-use project will be incorporating the River Road Streetscape Theme, extending the pedestrian friendly concept south of the Shop Rite/Walgreen’s Shopping Center closer to the District’s main intersection of River Road and Fair Lawn Avenue. Lamring Commons is expected to be completed by the end of this year. For leasing opportunities for either the apartments or retail units, interested parties should contact Mr. Gus Patel at 201-945-9434. 

 

Demolition is close to completion at the location of the Old Library Theater building.  The new building to be constructed at this site is a three story mixed-use development containing ten apartments averaging approximately 1,000 square feet in size.  The retail street level component of this building is approximately 4,000 square feet and may be subdivided as needed by potential tenants.  This project is estimated to be completed within a year.  For leasing opportunities for either the apartments or retail units, interested parties should contact Daniella Sapino at (201) 523-2099 or Roman Sapino at 212-695-0601.

 

As this site was also once home to one of Fair Lawn’s original Fire Departments, a commemorative plaque is to be installed on the building honoring this location as an early home to those brave volunteers that served and continue to serve our community.

 

Fair Lawn as a whole is an area of vitality and growth; the strengths of our community are clearly evidenced by the investment and development activity seen throughout the River Road Special Improvement District.