What kind of question is that? "what should go there"?????? Just ask someone to pay the asking price for you and put up something, anything huh? What should go there? is this a poll or should YOU be looking for a buyer to put up whatever the poll says...What should go there huh??? How about Patch buy it and move its location there? geeezzzz

the building was sold in the later part of 2011, so maybe ask the new owner...why ask the public ?

If I'm not mistaken didn't they want to put in a small shopping mail with apartment on top?

Silly question!

How about a wonderful company offering lots of jobs that would be nice!

Not a silly question...I'd like to see a nice strip mall with stores/shops other than dollar stores. Thanks for asking!!

How about a tax paying ratable. Wayne has too many State, County buildings and other entities that are exempt from paying taxes. We need ratable to bring some tax relief to Wayne's residents.

Something ratable? LOL everyone will just vote against it like they do with everything else!

How about adding all the other empty buildings in town to the list. Cost cutters, Friendly's, the deserted car dealership/old milk barn. I'm glad someone mentioned Wayne hills mall, that place is pathetic and the town should just seize the property from the guy who owns it and let businesses in so we can finally get some tax relief. And please stop talking about adding apartments/condos or anything. Our town is already got enough problems without adding more people, and kids to the school system too. It can't even repave the bad roads.

Vacant/Unoccupied Buildings:
Totowa Road Commercial Buildings
Restaurant across from Preakness Chevrolet
Old State Farm Complex
Old MVA Building
Old Firestone building next to CVS in Preakness Mall
Etc, Etc
Eminent Domain is a very slippery slope.
There are also many Non-Profits that do not pay property taxes.
Schools, churches, etc.
Someone sent me a tax document evidencing a home in Wayne (48 Brandon Ave) that is owned by William Paterson University, housing the University President and paying no property taxes because of the school status. This translates to an additional $12,000 (plus or minus a couple of hundred dollars) in property taxes that is re-distributed to the remaining taxpayers.
I do agree that there should be more ratables but also a re-look at the non-profits and their current exempt status which may be abused at the current time.

What I don't understand is why is it so hard for Wayne to attract businesses in these open areas? I understand some of the spaces are big and maybe unusual but there are plenty of others that are not. Is it really the council that is not being effective here or something else? Wayne is a big town with no center business district, not sure if that is one of the reasons.

Big Box stores are not the only answer in the never-ending quest for ratables. High-end office space is far more lucrative and less invasive to the community. The minimum requirements for big box stores can barely be me on the Wayne stretch of Rt. 23. The lot sizes are not nearly large enough and the ingress/egress undersized for the size of these stores. We can blame a lot of the town's shortcomings on administrations current and past, but the recent demonization on these forums of our town government borders on the ludicrous. For a town of such size and with so many issues, Wayne would probably be best served to have a full-time mayor at this point. As bad as taxes are, a few big box stores would have made a negligible difference in tax ratables, but increased the need for police, both for traffic and criminal activity, and would have turned Rt. 23 into the parking lot that is Rt. 17 in Bergen. Wayne has underutilized office space on Rt. 23 as well as Valley Rd. extension, and should be enticing companies large and small to get into these places. It will help local commerce, increase ratables, and keep the character of the town from completely exploding into a city.

Maybe no one wants to occupy the Valley Road Ext. building because the roads are so terrible to drive on? Silly me to think that the taxes I pay should go for paving the roads when they deteriorate.

I drive Rt 23 every day. The Riverdale big box stores are drawing mainly from up north and the I-287 corridor. Sure, there is some traffic from Wayne but the traffic is primarily confined to north and west of the Riverdale circle at the foot of Breakneck hill. The Target in Fairfield and Home Depot in Totowa tend to draw from Rt. 46 and points east and south, sparing Wayne much of the traffic. You are familiar with the zoning in this town and know that the typical big box store would have needed a signficant variance to fit in the old State Farm space. Parking would be undersized, the Ratzer Rd. ramp rendered virtually undriveable and the domino-effect would stretch Rt. 23 northbound traffic all the way down to Rt. 80 on weekends. The Riverdale space was the old Sun Tan Lake area and had far more acreage and set back than any property on Route 23 in Wayne. I applaud the town for NOT giving in to the big box stores. As for the WH Mall property, I would love to know what the owner is holding out for. The Record reported awhile back that he was hoping to attract a big box, but the guidelines for those stores is to pretty much only set up on highways, just like car dealerships. The rationale that the dead mall is a write-off against income producing properties doesn't seem right. Why use something as a tax write-off of sorts (still paying R.E. taxes) when it could be an income-producing asset? Rob, do you know the owners? Any insight on the mall?

Last I heard the owner of WHM was purposefully raising the rent to prevent possible stores from coming in. Then when he shows that there is no business he can appeal to the town for a reduction in the taxes he pays which hurts everyone. He was hoping to eventually push out the remaining tenants and build a condo complex which we all know is a terrible idea.

Perhaps you are not aware of the hue and cry that went up among the residents in the neighborhood behind the site of the former State Farm complex when the town was entertaining a proposal from Lowes to build there. That effectively killed the proposal. I know there are some who would like to believe that Scott Rumana, or somebody who once passed him in rush hour traffic, diabolically undid the deal for his own purposes, but I think it was the NIMBY mentality that prevailed.

The town is at a stand still then. Not enough space for large companies, too much for small companies, and people vetoing any possible solutions. At this rate we should just level all the empty buildings and go back to farmland. :)

I will say this. At least Wayne was able to attract Toys R us to that very nice site. That entire area on berdan ave as you head North towards Oakland appears to be very attractive with those townhouse developements on each side. Too bad other wayne areas can't experience something similar

I work at the wayne solar center office building at 1655 valley road. (UPS leases 3 of 4 floors..top floor is still vacant) the valley road extention by our building is riddled wit hpotholes and was terrible in the 2010-2011 winter....usually one lane was passable in the snow. I recently read that wayne recieved a state grant for road paving and it said that valley road would be getting paved once thet recieve quotes for the job. The wayne solar center recently completed the solar panel car ports at our building. I can only hope that valley road recieves a much needed improvement this year!!!