Forget Beverly Hills, Paramus is the place to shop

Real Estate Weekly, Sept 14, 2005 by Chuck Lanyard

If you are a celebrity, you want to call Beverly Hills, California, 90210 home. If you are a retailer, whether you are a big name chain or franchise, or a local mom-and-pop shop, Paramus, New Jersey, 07652 is where you want to be.

Paramus annually records the largest dollar volume in retail sales--more than $5 billion--than any other zip code in the United/States. Paramus attains this astounding figure even with its Blue Laws, which require most business's to shut their doors on Sundays. For over the past three decades, Paramus has remained one of the most sought-after addresses for retailers in the country.

Weighing in with a population of over 600,000 in just a five-mile radius, Paramus' desirability lies in its extraordinary resident buying power which exceeds $15 million annually. Paramus' demographics are highly desirable and so is its location. Situated just 10 miles west of the George Washington Bridge, Paramus easily taps into New York City consumers who do not mind making the 30-minute trip to enjoy New Jersey's zero percent sales tax on clothing and shoes and just six percent on other goods.

With five major enclosed shopping malls (Garden State Plaza, Riverside Square, Paramus Park Mall, Bergen Mall and Fashion Mall), and the abundance of traffic on the Route 4 and 17 corridors, if you are not doing business in Paramus, you are "missing the boat." On average, the traffic on Paramus' retail corridors moves slower due to the high volume of vehicles.

While annoying to commuters, retailers reap the rewards. The drivers and passengers in the slow moving cars have the opportunity to look at the stores they are passing, rather than just whizzing down the street in a race to get to their destination.

Paramus boasts over seven million square feet of retail space, almost all of which is occupied, and also commands some of the highest tents for retail space in the country. Furthermore, Paramus is home to a virtual who's who of retailers and there are more than 25 retailers who occupy more than one store in Paramus. Within the last year alone, Paramus has become home to such retailers as Crate & Barrel, Storehouse Furniture, AC Moore, Norwalk Furniture, Thomasville Furniture, Citibank, Countrywide Financial, Golfsmith, Bigs Furniture and Five Below lust to name a few.

If you are a national retailer, having a presence in Paramus is almost a prerequisite.

It is a sure way to establish your name in one of the top demographic markets in the world. Paramus' location at the crossroads of several New Jersey highways, as well as the commuter traffic to and from Manhattan, and its high household incomes, are just some of the reasons why you could say Paramus is "the retail crossroad of the Northeast."

CHUCK LANYARD, DIRECTOR BROKERAGE SERVICES, THE GOLDSTEIN GROUP