On March 2, 2026, Bill Nigro stood up during the public portion of the Old Tappan Mayor and Council meeting. He owns Bi-State Shipping Store, and he told the council that the week before, the Postal Service had notified him it was canceling his contract. If that held, Bi-State Plaza would lose its postal unit. He said he had been at the plaza for more than 30 years. He asked the council for its support, and Mayor Gallagher said he would send a letter explaining how the business serves residents.
By the April 29 meeting, the mayor reported that he and several other local officials had written to the Postal Service. They asked that the facility stay open because losing it "would create a hardship for our residents."
A small mail counter getting that much attention from borough hall says something about how Old Tappan Road works right now. The corridor has added storefronts over the past two years. It is still missing the one tenant that, for decades, gave people a reason to stop there every week. Whether that tenant comes back now depends mostly on one property sale, under zoning the borough adopted this year.
Park & Arbor filled in around breakfast, sushi and fitness
The newer of the two plazas sits on the former Pearson campus. Hornrock Properties built it as Park & Arbor, a mixed-use project with about 21,000 square feet of retail. The developer lists it as completed in 2025. Real Estate NJ reported apartment leasing underway at 18 Park Avenue back in September 2024, which means the homes came first and the storefronts filled in over the following year and a half.
Two openings are confirmed in 2026 reporting:
- Turning Point was reported open at The Shops at Park & Arbor on March 9, 2026. It is the breakfast-and-lunch chain founded in Little Silver in 1998.
- Shiro Sushi & Roll opened in June 2026 at 200 Old Tappan Road. It serves sushi, sashimi, rolls, donburi bowls and teriyaki. It also appears on the Old Tappan school district's 2026–27 approved lunch-vendor list, posted September 25, 2026.
COREFIRE Pilates takes bookings for an Old Tappan studio at the same 200 Old Tappan Road address. The center's retail leasing listing also names Dunkin, Work'd Up and Top One Nail & Spa as tenants. The listing carries a 2018 date, earlier than the retail building itself, so it shows who signed leases, not necessarily who is open today. It also lists a 4,531-square-foot endcap as available, with no tenant named, and that space may have been leased since.
Put together, Park & Arbor offers a morning meal, a sushi dinner, a workout and a nail appointment. Those are useful additions, but they are things you stop for now and then, not every week.
Bi-State Plaza is fuller than its empty anchor makes it look
Walk next door and the older center still holds a long list of businesses. A directory of Old Tappan businesses, reviewed in September 2026, lists CVS, Massoyan Jewelers, Old Tappan Cleaners, Valley Paint & Decorating Center, Old Tappan Flower Garden, John Anthony Salon, Charming Spa & Nails and Bi-State Shipping Store 'N More at the plaza. The same site's dining guide adds Ever Green Chinese Food, Butterworths Bagel Bakery, Alex's Italian Deli & Catering, Hoshitori Sushi & Ramen, La Bona Pizza, MOOYAH, bb.q Chicken, Gong Cha, Starbucks, Dairy Queen and Ramen Factory. The school district's vendor list separately confirms Butterworth's Bagels at 50 Bi-State Plaza and Ever Green Chinese Food at 28 Bi-State Plaza.
Side by side, the two centers look like this:
Bi-State Plaza | The Shops at Park & Arbor | |
|---|---|---|
Address | Anchor space at 216 Old Tappan Road | 200 Old Tappan Road, next to 18 Park Avenue |
What it holds | Pharmacy, dry cleaning, paint, florist, jeweler, salons, mail and shipping, more than ten places to eat | Breakfast and lunch, sushi, Pilates, nails, coffee |
Status | Mayor said in June 2026 it was "in contract, if not sold" | Developer lists it as completed in 2025 |
Open space | The former supermarket anchor | A 4,531 sq ft endcap listed for lease |
The tenants differ in a useful way. Bi-State has the errand stops, like the dry cleaner, the paint store and the shipping counter. Park & Arbor has newer places to eat and work out. What neither one has is groceries.
Seven years without a grocer
The supermarket space at 216 Old Tappan Road has been through two operators. Foodtown took it over from A&P in 2015. In July 2019, the Press Group reported that the store was expected to close around July 18 of that year. As of this October, no source names a replacement for that space, which has now been empty for more than seven years.
Park & Arbor opened its first apartments and storefronts during that stretch. None of its tenants is a grocer.
The zoning written in March, and the owner who has read it
On March 16, 2026, the Mayor and Council adopted Ordinance 1291-26. It creates a Town Center Overlay with two districts, one for mixed use and one for professional offices. Under the borough's Fourth Round affordable housing settlement, the overlay covers the B-1 and B-2 business zones. The mixed-use district takes in Block 1606, Lots 5 and 6, which sit next to the former Pearson parcel at Block 1606, Lot 7.
The ordinance text is direct about the kind of place it has in mind. It aims to "promote neighborhood scale mixed use development," and it says large-scale, single-user commercial development "is to be discouraged." It allows shops on the ground floor with apartments above, caps density at 15 units per acre, and bars any project from going forward without a comprehensive development plan covering both the commercial and residential parts. The settlement counts on the overlay for 130 proposed homes, with 20 percent set aside as affordable.
Eleven weeks after that vote, at the June 1 council meeting, Mayor Gallagher gave an update on Bi-State Plaza. He said it was "in contract, if not sold by this point," and that he had met the new owner once, with a follow-up planned. He said the owner "is well aware of what our 4th round affordable housing settlement says." He also told the owner that "a new supermarket should be a priority."
The mayor put those two things side by side himself. Whoever ends up owning the plaza has a zoning code that encourages neighborhood-scale buildings mixing shops and homes, and a borough government that has said out loud it wants a grocery store. Any comprehensive plan for the property would have to show how a supermarket fits within the ordinance's limits on large single-user commercial space.
Where things stand this October
The public record has been quiet since June. The borough's online index of 2026 council minutes currently runs only through June 15. The mayor's July, August and September updates say nothing about a buyer, a sale price or a grocer. The postal question is also unresolved. Bi-State Shipping Store still posts regular weekday and Saturday hours, but no public source confirms whether the Postal Service kept or ended the contract unit.
Here is what will answer the open questions, roughly in the order they are likely to come up:
- A named owner and a recorded sale. The June minutes refer to a "new owner" but stop short of confirming a closing.
- A comprehensive development plan. The ordinance requires one before anything is built in the overlay, and it would have to go through the Planning Board, where the public can see it.
- A grocer's name attached to the anchor space. Until that happens, the supermarket is only a priority the mayor has stated.
- Word from the Postal Service on the Bi-State counter. The borough and other local officials have put their position in writing.
Meanwhile, the endcap listed for lease at Park & Arbor and the empty anchor at Bi-State are the two spaces worth keeping an eye on along this stretch of Old Tappan Road.
If you own a home near Old Tappan Road and want to understand how the Bi-State Plaza sale or the Town Center Overlay could affect your own plans, Lana Henriques follows these planning decisions closely and is glad to talk them through with you. Contact Lana.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
