Plainfield redevelopment reaches new frontier with apartments in old department store

Mike Deak, MyCentralJersey.com
·2 min read

PLAINFIELD – Downtown redevelopment has literally reached a new frontier.

Frontier Flats, a mixed-use development in the former Rosenbaum’s Department Store at 171 E. Front St., celebrated its grand opening earlier this week.

Paramount Assets completely gutted the interior of the 55,000-square-foot property and redeveloped the structure with 35 market-rate apartments with 26,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor.

Rosenbaum’s Department Store, one of the downtown's former department stores along with Bamberger's, Teppers, Sears, Montgomery Ward and Steinbeck's, opened on Jan. 1, 1927, and closed in the mid-1980s.

A unique feature of Frontier Flats is four duplex units. The mix of the apartments includes 12 studios, 18 one-bedroom units and five two-bedroom apartments. Units range in size from 502 to 1,357 square feet.

An apartment building named Frontier Flats has opened in a former department store in downtown Plainfield.
An apartment building named Frontier Flats has opened in a former department store in downtown Plainfield.

The project opened for occupancy in June and is now more than 60% leased. The studio apartments are fully rented, and the one- and two-bedroom unit rents start at $1,900 per month.

The first floor has approximately 26,000 square feet of retail space, in which 18,000 square feet is available and can be used by a single retailer or divided into smaller individual spaces.

Frontier Flats also includes numerous on-site amenities including a garden terrace, fitness center and tenant lounge.

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"Plainfield is in the midst of an incredible transformation, with new projects breathing life into our downtown district," said Mayor Adrian Mapp in a statement. "The opening of the Frontier Flats community marks yet another milestone in our collective pursuit of a dynamic, thriving downtown. Paramount Assets, our steadfast partner in this revitalization journey, has again demonstrated its commitment to our community."

Rosenbaum’s Department Store on East Front Street in Plainfield, shown in an undated photo.
Rosenbaum’s Department Store on East Front Street in Plainfield, shown in an undated photo.

"Frontier Flats is a perfect adaptive use project that benefits the city and the Central Business District of Plainfield,” said Richard Dunn, senior vice president of Paramount Assets, in a statement. “It promotes living downtown, which is essential in a city’s revitalization. When you add residential apartments above and along a shopping district, it causes an economic boom and benefit for the community."

Paramount Assets, based in Newark, has three other developments in Plainfield:

  • Netherwood Flats, a 70-unit, 128,000-square-foot apartment building at 829 South Ave. that includes 4,000 square feet of retail space and an 84-space parking deck.

  • A 2.5-acre site in the city's Transit-Oriented Development District, within the Cleveland Avenue Arts & Culture District between East 4th and East 5th streets and Cleveland Avenue.

  • Approximately 75,000 square feet of retail space at 154-224 East Front St. and Watchung Avenue, one block from the downtown train station.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Plainfield NJ apartments open in former Rosenbaum’s Department Store