On Tuesday the Shops on the Green welcomed their first Market Street tenant, a Powerflow Yoga franchise that offers high-energy workouts in 98-degree heat.
“It’s another great addition to our downtown,” Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty said at the ribbon-cutting, “and the greatest part of it is, it’s not a bar.”
“It’s a landmark day,” said Debra Tantleff of the Roseland Property Co., which has worked hard to find tenants for Shops on the Green. The economic downturn in 2008 killed expansion by big-box apparel chains that otherwise might have been prime candidates for retail space in the shadow of the historic Morristown Green.
Powerflow owner Jerry LePore said he looked all over Morristown for the right spot.
“What drew me here was that it was a raw, new space. We could design it from scratch,” he said. The 2,000-square-foot studio is the third shop in a chain that he opened in 2008. The other locations are Chatham and Livingston.
The studios specialize in Vinyasa, a style combining the mind-cleansing aspects of yoga with a hot, vigorous 75-minute workout that cleanses the pores, said Jerry, who traded a career in the pharmaceutical industry after discovering this type of yoga.
“It was high stress, a lot of travel, and I was burning out,” he said of his prior life.
Morristown resident Jessie Shapiro, 26, is one of a dozen instructors at the new studio. “By far this is my favorite” form of yoga, she said. “It’s a good challenge, both for the body and the mind.”
The Shops on the Green at 40 Market is on the ground level of the Metropolitan luxury apartments that opened last year (and now are fully leased, according to Debra Tantleff). The retail space comprises about 10,000 square feet; in all, 70,000 square feet of retail space came with the combined 40 Park luxury condos (only two unsold units) and Metropolitan apartments.
On the 40 Park side, fronting South Street, are Roots Steak House, Urban Table, Starbucks, Qdoba Mexican Grill and the AT&T Store. About 35,000 square feet of retail remains to be filled, said Debra Tantleff.
She said Powerflow is an extension of the healthy, sustainable lifestyle that 40 Park and the Metropolitan strive to promote.
The Mayor saw the grand opening as a sign that the economy is recovering, however slowly.
“I hope it will be a catalyst for other small businesses to come to town,” he said.
So will he be trying those 98-degree workouts?
“I’m still on the fence about that,” the Mayor said.
