I sense a message here: Teaneck is becoming toxic for business. How many businesses have moved into Teaneck? How many have moved out? How do those numbers compare to the adjacent towns like Hackensack, Bogota, New Milford, Bergenfield, Englewood? If our numbers are worse than our neighbors we have to ask why? Are our fees higher? Are our resident poorer? Is our township government responsive or resistive, argeeable or arrogant? Can it be reached 5 days a week? No need to guess. All this information is available between municipalities. Our Manager or the Council can be proactive and find out. Real estate agents probably know too. Maybe the Council knows already? I don't think that Teaneck has enough business activity. If we can't keep our existing commerical property occupied as the rest of the nation goes thru a recovery, we better find out why - and fast.
Council, Manager: Is Teaneck sending the wrong message to business? What do we need to improve? Don't wait. Find out fast and make the changes indicated. Empty stores mean lower tax revenues and lower property values - and it is happening on your watch. It just seems odd so many businesses are leaving and it worries me.

Well said! I too struggle with these same questions... Un-frickin believable!

The rents are too high!

Pose the question to Elie Katz. He will happily refer you to someone else.

Not for nothing, that store was disappointing. And with a dollar store in close proximity, it really served no purpose bc many of the items overlapped with the dollar store winning the battle. It wasn't the right fit.

The closing of this store should be the least surprising news in Teaneck.

You know what would be good there? A Walgreens.

It seems the ratio of businesses leaving to businesses coming to Teaneck is currently about 5 to 1. Maybe Teaneck will return to being a farming community? (Oh, am I going to pay for my satire!) If only Teaneck had a major college campus, a major hospital, was located at the intersection of two major interstate highways, had a diverse, well-educated multi-ethnic population and was only 5 miles from Manhattan, I am sure we would be doing much better. Oh, what's that? We have all those features! OK, then it must be something else. Could it be our municipal leadership? Poor decisions, antiquated planning policies, municipal service hours not optimized for newcomers? What do others think it is?
As far as contacting Elie, I will. He is free, like other Council members, to respond in the Patch. He doesn't. Aside from submitting a press release or two, our Council members don't voice their opinions in public, for the record. Some don't even do it at Council meetings. They are content to keep us guessing. Maybe that is part of the problem too?

Could it have something to do with the armed robbery in the same mall?

Teaneck is indeed business unfriendly.... we do not allow or welcome successful businesses in the town and than complain when some fringe business shuts down. The time for mama papa stores have come and gone.... it is time to allow well established big box stores to come in the town and that means we should be flexible and rezone areas to comply with the needs of these businesses....

The town offices are open only 4 days a week..... that alone should tell everyone that we are not ready for the demands of era we live in.

I visited the town offices a few days ago and was shocked at the level of service I received. The workers left me standing there while they continued discussing their weekend plans on the phone. There was no bell at the front desk (the building permit department is an exception) and one has to just wait while the workers finish their 20 minute discussion. Other workers were busy doing their nails and talking to other workers while you just stay there looking at them. No smiles... no hellos.... nothing....

These people actually get paid by us and they should know how to service us while they are there 4 days a week.....

@Esther, why stop with the hospital and the college. How about all the houses of worship?

I'm not a fan of many of the council's members. But, for those of you who look to the council for "blame," how many of you actually patronized that store?

i bet a starbuck will run just fine...

Again, some interesting comments above. I don't want to believe that Zizi's comments are accurate. Does anyone else have a similar story?
Esther's comment about the non-taxable property is sometimes offset by the increased value of surrounding property. You know, living close to a desired house of worship, place of employment and such.
Regarding John's first comment about business activity elsewhere is a common opinion. I am asking our municipal government to go beyond opinion and get facts. If Teaneck is doing worse than our neighbor towns, we should know why.

I've never had to wait except for the person in front of me to finish and the clerks respond right away.

@Revolution: I think Dee Are was being facetious. At least I hope so.

I believe I posted on previous topics related to businesses in town that we appear to not be able to get out of our own way. I think we need outside, fresh, unbiased eyes to take a look at our commercial base and see what can be done. What are the aspects of the business climate here that makes it so difficult to start or bring a business here? Is it different in other towns? If so, why? We certainly meet the "location, location, location" rule so why do so many drive thru or by without stopping? business type? Business size? lack of town marketing campaign for its own businesses? A strong partnership between the business community and the town government seems to be lacking, or at least not working very well.

Sorry to burst your bubbles but what we have now IS the result of a Special Improvement District. It was called the CLSID and it came and went. We also had the TEDC - the Teaneck Economic Development Corporation. Then there was a study in 2006 that said both the CLSID and TEDC were screwed up, that the impression among residents was that prior efforts were ineffective. And who paid for all this wasted effort? We did!! And where are some of the participants in this brouhaha? Why on the current Council, of course!! Two of them are. And why did things go so poorly? Maybe because they were considering giving swimming lessons in our new Police Station and the Council was dealing with millions in law suits because members of our town staff apparently behaved improperly. Very improperly. The high dollar judgments were a signal to change our leadership, I think. Instead, we "doubled-down".

So Art, in terms of a tool that the town can use regardless of leadership whats there? If no tool available then it doesn't matter who is elected. I want to hear about solutions and not political rhetoric. Anyone have any ideas?

Jim: What about merging the Teaneck township with Englewood. This will solve many problems......

@Michael J. Klatsky:

I think Teaneck is a failed town so all the staff from Teaneck should be laid off and that should be a good incentive for Englewood to accept us with the baggage we carry.