Pathmark gone, but Toms River's Indian Head Plaza has multiple new stores

Since it was purchased last year, Indian Head Plaza on Route 9 has added new tenants one after the other.

The most recent, Ollie's Bargain Outlet, has leased the plaza's vacant Pathmark store and is expected to open in about three months. Ollie's, a national discount chain with a slogan that touts "Good Stuff Cheap," has three stores in New Jersey. The store is 30,000 square feet.

JJ Operating Real Estate Investments purchased Indian Head Plaza in Toms River less than a year ago from a bank out of foreclosure. At the time, the center was only 20 percent filled. The Home Depot store was not a part of the deal.

"There are basically all new tenants now in Indian Head Plaza," a spokesman for JJ Operating Real Estate Investments told What's Going There.

In the past six months, HobbyTown, Dollar Tree, Whistle Punk Hatchet Den, a children's basketball training center called See the Rim Academy, and Train Nation, a personal training facility, have signed leases. Force Fitness opened recently too.

The new tenants have filled a variety of store sizes from 4,000 to 11,000 square feet.

Toms River Mayor Thomas Kelaher said Indiian Head Plaza was hit hard after Pathmark closed in 2015. "That was a ghost town over there." he said. "Once Pathmark left, it really went down hill."

In July 2015, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc. filed for bankruptcy. It decided to sell 120 stores and close 25 more in a bid to pay creditors and save thousands of jobs. In Monmouth and Ocean counties, eight A&P and Pathmark locations closed, while five reopened as Acme supermarkets.

Kelaher said he was glad the shopping plaza has new tenants. "It has been idle for a long time," he said. "It does provide a very convenient location, especially for seniors who live in the Gardens at Pleasant Plains."

Indian Head Plaza is attracting interest from other food, health and medical stores and services, JJ Operating said.

Have you seen a construction project in Monmouth or Ocean counties and wanted to know what was going there? Contact business writer David P. Willis dwillis@gannettnj.com, and we will look into it for a future column. Meanwhile, join the What's Going There group on Facebook and stay in touch with the latest developments.

David P. Willis: 732-643-4039; dwillis@gannettnj.com.