Montclair Momentum

Montclair Officials Celebrate Downtown Rebound On Small Business Saturday

A decade after Montclair officials designated parts of downtown as areas in need of redevelopment and created a master plan for changing the face of Bloomfield Avenue, the 3.25-acre, $135 million Wellmont Arts complex, the final phase of that plan, is complete.

The historic Wellmont Theater, now a concert venue, is the centerpiece of the development. The brick facade of the theater and the Pharmacie Bar building on the corner of Bloomfield Avenue is matched in the new construction next door, at 1 Seymour St. The seven-story building, with its top two floors dedicated to Summit Health, has a 200-spot parking garage underneath for public and medical center use that will also serve patients, accessible from the municipal lot on South Fullerton. Across the plaza from the Wellmont, on the former site of the Social Security building and an STS tire shop, is another new brick building. It contains a 200-apartment luxury rental building, Two South Willow; the climbing and fitness gym Gravity Vault; and One River School, an Englewood-based art school with studio space. The rest of the building is reserved for artists and arts organizations. According to the developer, Ironstate of Hoboken, the apartments at Two South Willow, completed in March, are 90% rented.