Photo of the Day 11/27/21

This vintage sign continues to stand at one of the many entrances to Irvington, calling the township a "community of opportunity."

Photo of the Day 5/24/21

Irvington's welcome signs include the name of the mayor.

Photo of the Day 4/4/19

This vintage sign greeting drivers entering Irvington from Maplewood still stands along Clinton Avenue.

Photos of the Day 10/27/17

The Dairyland milk bottle has been towering over Irvington for decades.

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After Years of Delays, First Store at Irvington's Valley Mall Plaza Finally Opens

IRVINGTON, N.J.: Opening day has finally come for part of an Essex County shopping mall that has been 'coming soon' for many years.

A 25,000 square foot Value Zone Department Store opened its doors within the Valley Mall Plaza in Irvington on Saturday morning, welcoming hundreds of area residents. The store is Value Zone's sixth Essex County location, according to a post on the company's Facebook page. There are other stores in Bloomfield. East Orange, Newark, and on Springfield Avenue in Irvington. Now, the lights are on and this location will be open for business seven days per week.

What makes this unique is that it is the first sign of commerce at this shopping complex on Chancellor Avenue near Route 78 in the township in close to a decade. The building that is now known as Valley Mall Plaza was once home to a location of Valley Fair, a chain of 'super discount centers' throughout Northern New Jersey. The sign for Valley Fair may remain in front, but after the store closed and the building was rehabilitated into Valley Mall Plaza several years ago, no businesses opened inside.

Why one of the first new shopping malls to open in Northern New Jersey in decades remained closed for so many years was a mystery. 

In 2013, the developer claimed that 25 stores planned to open inside, and that the mall could open in the early fall of that year, according to NJBIZ. However, 2013 and 2014 came and went without any businesses opening at Valley Mall Plaza. Then, in October 2015, representatives from Weichert Commercial Brokerage, which represented the property, told Essex County Place that the 230,000 square foot complex was slated to open the following month with 'typical mall hours'. Despite this, no shoppers were allowed to enter Essex County's third indoor mall until last weekend.

If completed, several additional stores and a food court would be located inside the building.

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Photo of the Day 10/17/17

Valley Fair in Irvington may be long closed, but this sign remains.

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Photo of the Day 8/14/17

The Park Place development is rising at the site of the former Irvington General Hospital.

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Photo of the Day 8/2/17

The Valley Mall Plaza in Irvington has still not opened. In 2015, a real estate agent for the development told Essex County Place that the complex was set to open in November of that year, but it remains empty.

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Irvington SuperFresh Seeks to Sell Alcohol

Irvington, New Jersey: A supermarket that recently opened in Essex County is now seeking to sell alcohol. 

According to a legal notice from the Irvington Township Zoning Board of Adjustment, Lyons Meat and Produce, Inc., which is registered out of the SuperFresh at 471-479 Lyons Avenue in Irvington, has applied to the board for permission to sell wine and beer within the supermarket at Lyons Plaza near the border of Newark's South Ward. SuperFresh, which is owned by Key Food, opened in the summer of 2016 in the plaza, in the space previously occupied by Pathmark. 

The board will hold a public hearing regarding the proposal on Tuesday, February 7th at 8:00pm in the Municipal Building's council chambers.

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New Wireless Store to Open in Irvington

Irvington, New Jersey: Another new cellphone retailer is coming to Irvington.

Cricket Wireless will open a location in the Irvington Center Business District at 1057-1065 Springfield Avenue, between Lincoln Place and New Street, according to a flyer from Ripco. A home decor store previously occupied by space. 

Cricket, which is owned by AT&T, opened a new location earlier this year in the Weber and Heilbroner Building in Downtown Newark. There is also a location in the City of East Orange.

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Photo of the Day 6/24/16

This photo shows the view of Newark, Irvington, and New York from South Mountain Reservation in Maplewood. Valley Fair and the Dairyland Milk Bottle in Irvington can be seen in the foreground, and apartment buildings in Coney Island, Brooklyn can be seen in the distance.

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Photo of the Day 5/27/16

This decades-old sign along Clinton Avenue welcomes visitors from Maplewood to Irvington.

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Family Fun Day in Irvington Park This Weekend

Irvington, New Jersey: A local park will be filled with activities this weekend.

The Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs has announced that the First Annual Family Fun Day will be held at Irvington Park this Saturday, May 14th, from 11:00am to 4:00pm. According to Essex County, the event will feature arts and crafts, a petting farm, a fishing derby, a DJ, live music, raffles, health screenings, a martial arts demonstration, a performance by Irvington students, and other activities. Admission is free, and in case of rain, the event will be moved to Saturday, May 21st.

Irvington Park is located along Lyons Avenue between Grove Street and Augusta Street. Transportation is available using NJ Transit Bus 37 from Maplewood and Newark and Bus 107 from South Orange, Maplewood, Newark, and New York.

Click here to learn more.

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Just Fish Closes in Maplewood, Opens in Irvington

Irvington, New Jersey: An area restaurant chain has closed its Maplewood location and opened a new location down the street.

Just Fish's location at 1546 Springfield Avenue, at the corner of Boyden Avenue, closed in January. The restaurant, which operated in the space previously occupied by The Grill Shack and Chris & Cathy's Coney Island Grill, was only open for 13 months.

However, a new Just Fish location opened last month at 1282 Springfield Avenue in Irvington, between Elmwood Terrace and Sanford Avenue. The space had been occupied by several bakeries over the past 10 years, including Las Perlas Bakery and Restaurant, Irvington Bakery, Roro's Bakery, and C.M. Italian Bakery. 

Click here to learn more.

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New Development to Rise in Irvington

Irvington, New Jersey: A new mixed use residential and retail development will rise in the Township of Irvington. 

The building will be located at 722 Chancellor Avenue, at the corner of Union Avenue. Construction on the project is expected to begin this spring, and the development will include 40 apartments, first floor retail space, and a parking garage for residents. The 0.47 acre lot has sat vacant for decades.

"Irvington is a community that needs investors and developers to settle for nothing less than excellence and that’s what we’re bringing", said developer Adenah Bayoh. Bayoh also owns the Irvington IHOP restaurant and will own the new Cornbread restaurant in Maplewood.

The township's population has dropped significantly in recent years, from over 60,000 in 2000 to under 54,000 in 2010. However, this development and the project to redevelop Irvington General Hospital into housing and stores could start to change that.

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A&P-Owned Stores Close Across Essex County

Irvington, New Jersey: The recent bankruptcy of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) is having a major impact in municipalities across Essex County. 

While some supermarkets previously owned by the company, like the A&P Fresh in Upper Montclair and the Pathmark supermarkets in Newark's East Ward and South Orange, have been sold to other supermarket companies like ACME and Stop & Shop, many supermarkets owned by A&P have closed their doors for the last time. These supermarkets include the Pathmark locations in Newark's Central Ward, Irvington, and Montclair, and the A&P in Bloomfield. 

The Irvington Pathmark, located on Lyons Avenue in the Township's South Ward, was the largest supermarket in this municipality of over 50,000 residents.

Irvington's Director of Health, Dr. Stephanie R. Bush-Baskette, told Essex County Place that "the Township is concerned with the closing of Pathmark as it impacts jobs and accessibility to healthy food for our residents", and that it "is our hope that another supermarket of the same caliber will take its place".

In Montclair, the closure of the Pathmark has left the eastern end of the Township without a grocery store. The Township of Montclair began a free shuttle service this week from the plaza to the Brookdale ShopRite is Bloomfield, so that residents have access to a supermarket. The service operates on Saturdays and Tuesdays.

Click here to learn more.

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AT&T Store Opens in Irvington Center

Irvington, New Jersey: An AT&T Authorized Retailer store location has opened to customers in the Irvington Center Business District. The store opened earlier this fall at 1031 Springfield Avenue, at the corner of New Street. It is one of nine AT&T retailers in Essex County. The space now occupied by the AT&T Authorized Retailer, which is located next to Rainbow, has been occupied by several cellphone franchises before. Most recently, there was a RadioShack location in the space, which closed following the company's bankruptcy. Previously, there was a Sprint Store in the space.

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Walgreens Acquiring Essex County Rite Aid Locations

Newark, New Jersey: Walgreens will soon own more drugstore locations in Essex County than any other pharmacy.

The drugstore's parent company, Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens Boots Alliance, announced on Tuesday that it will acquire East Pennsboro, Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid Corporation. 

All of the Rite Aid locations in Greater Newark are located in the eastern half of Essex County, while Walgreens locations are spread throughout the county. There are 13 Rite Aid locations in Bloomfield, Irvington, Newark, Nutley, South Orange, and West Orange. Walgreens currently has 11 Essex County locations. 

The other drugstore chain with a large Essex County presence, CVS/pharmacy, has 14 locations in the county.

In recent years, Walgreens has expanded its Greater Newark presence by acquiring Duane Reade locations in Newark and Irvington and the Drug Fair location in Fairfield. The company closed the Duane Reade drugstores and converted the Fairfield Drug Fair into a Walgreens location. 

Rite Aid expanded its presence in Essex County in 2006 by acquiring Eckerd Pharmacy, which had operated several locations in the area.

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Irvington's Valley Mall Plaza Plans to Open in November

UPDATE (NOVEMBER 2017): Valley Mall Plaza has opened its doors.

Irvington, New Jersey: After several years of construction, a new mall is preparing to open in Irvington.

The 230,000 square foot Valley Mall Plaza in Irvington's South Ward is now aiming to open to shoppers in November, according to Jennifer Corrao of Weichert Commercial Brokerage. The mall was originally slated to open in 2013.

Valley Mall Plaza is located at 468-480 Chancellor Avenue in the Camptown neighborhood of Irvington, near the Newark border. It was built opposite Essex County's oldest ice cream store, Dairyland, at the site of the Valley Fair market. The Irvington Valley Fair was located within a former tank factory, according to The Record. The store closed in 2008, though the Valley Fair Super Discount Center sign, a common sight to drivers on Route 78, still remains on Chancellor Avenue. 

The mall will feature nearly 500 free parking spaces, and five NJ Transit bus lines already stop outside of the building.

Value Zone, a department store with locations in Irvington Center and Bloomfield, signed a lease for a 30,000 square foot space at Valley Mall Plaza in March, 2013. In addition, there will be a food court on the mezzanine level.

According to Barry Feldman of Weichert, it will have "typical mall hours", though there will be 24 hour security. 

This will be the third indoor mall in Essex County and the first new indoor mall in Northern New Jersey in decades. The Mall at Short Hills and the Livingston Mall both opened over 35 years ago.

A listing of the remaining tenants has not been available yet.

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Fall Festival to be Held in Irvington

Irvington, New Jersey: A Fall Family Festival will be held in Irvington. The event will take place at Civic Square Park on Thursday, October 29th, from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. There will be a variety of fun and interactive activities, according to the township, and free pajamas and books will be given to children. The festival will be sponsored by the Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey, the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, and the Irvington Family Development Center. Civic Square is located between Clinton and Springfield Avenues. Click here to learn more.

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