Who should be occupying retail vacancies in Montclair Village? Do you want more food, apparel, gifts or specialized services? We made some fantasy picks a few years ago, and several ideas came true! Now it’s your time to dream and speak up.
While Montclair Village retailers closed for different reasons, some spots have been vacant for a long time. We believe that Score Education Center, the Movie Express and Argento Jeweler have been shuttered for well over a year. Currently, there are nine storefronts to be rented, in these exact locations.
Roger Vickery, Director of the Montclair Village Association, has asked everyone for their thoughts. You may leave them in the comments here, or email them to Vickery at montclairvillage@sbcglobal.net.
P.S. Maybe Simcity’s creator could weigh in. Will Wright lives in our hills, too.
Today in Montclair, 94611 
Bring back the Equinox restaurant. That brought people in from all over the Bay Area. The Metro could be that but its space is too small and uninviting. Lure a good Ace hardware, as on Grand Ave. The old hardware store was convenient, but let’s face it, it was not well run. The Village needs stores that attract people from a wider area. It’s nice to keep it simple and “village-like” but it is probably not a viable plan. We need more foot traffic. Banks and real estate offices obviously aren’t the answer. Good restaurants could be.
Needs to be some thing to draw people to the village. Maybe a brew pub. Right now, the village is bland. If I did not live here, would I visit?
We’d like a hardware store, a butcher, and a fish shop, pretty much in that order. But there’s so much else we’d like as well. Anything but more banks . . . brokerages . . . realtors.
Charlie Stephen
I hate going all the way down to Whole Foods or Rockridge for quality meats & produce. Would absolutely love to see a high quality (even if very small) grocery store – or at the very least meat and produce mart.