Montvale, NJ

Setting the Civic Compass to the Future

How a small New Jersey town replaced Fortune 500 headquarters with urgent care centers, steakhouses, and a $5 million farm, and why it’s working.

In northern Bergen County, where corporate campuses once dominated the landscape, Montvale is quietly reinventing itself as one of New Jersey’s most sought-after suburban communities. The borough of nearly 10,000 residents has experienced remarkable growth, with its population increasing 18% since 2020 and a median household income of $183,664 that ranks among the state’s highest. “Being very close to New York City and having direct access to the city by train and bus, having new businesses that have just moved into town, medical businesses and retail businesses,” Mayor Mike Ghassali explains the town’s magnetic pull for newcomers.

The statistics tell a compelling story of suburban success. One-third of Montvale’s residents have arrived within the past five years, drawn by top-rated schools, pristine neighborhoods where 84% of residents own their homes, and seamless connectivity to Manhattan via the Pascack Valley rail line. “We currently have very low available housing inventory for sale,” Mayor Ghassali notes, with new construction commanding $2 million before completion and homes averaging $688,500.

What makes Montvale particularly intriguing is its corporate heritage. The town previously housed major headquarters including Mercedes-Benz USA, and A&P Supermarkets, establishing its credentials as a business-friendly environment. While the era of massive corporate campuses may be waning, Montvale has successfully attracted a new generation of companies, from urgent care facilities to automotive innovators. This evolution from corporate giant magnet to diversified business hub positions Montvale as a model for suburban economic adaptation.

Balancing Growth with Smart Development

The challenge facing Montvale mirrors that of many affluent suburban communities: how to encourage economic growth while preserving the character that makes the town desirable. Administrator Joseph Voytus approaches this balancing act with measured pragmatism, recognizing that the old model of massive corporate headquarters no longer fits today’s business landscape.

“We’re seeing a lot of businesses come in. A lot of that is on the retail end or smaller professional offices, dentists, orthodontists, and then that supportive retail for some of the housing in the area,” Voytus explains. “You’re not seeing as much in terms of the old school corporate campus that’s sort of going by the wayside.” The shift represents a broader departure from sprawling headquarters complexes that defined suburban development for decades.

The town’s strategic focus centers on the Chestnut Ridge Road corridor rather than the traditional downtown Kinderkamack area. Here, mixed-use developments have arisen, though not without consequences. “We did see a big increase in housing units seven to eight years ago with some of the mixed-use developments, and that does have a direct impact on services and traffic,” Voytus acknowledges. Learning from this experience, municipal leaders now consult with Colliers Engineering for planning expertise and coordinate with police and fire departments to assess capacity limits.

“What we’ve had in the past may not necessarily be what we’re going to approve moving forward,” Voytus emphasizes. “We’re looking at individual sites, groups of sites and seeing what may make sense in terms of a change in zoning.” This careful site-by-site evaluation is a departure from blanket zoning policies, allowing for more nuanced development decisions.

New Business Success Stories

Montvale’s business recruitment strategy operates on a deeply personal level, with Mayor Ghassali serving as the town’s chief ambassador to prospective tenants. The approach has yielded impressive results, transforming the community’s commercial landscape with a mix of medical facilities, restaurants, and innovative companies that serve residents and the broader region.

“A few years ago, we put out a survey to see what the current businesses and residents were looking for as we started to reimagine the town,” Mayor Ghassali recalls. “Many of their requests were for more amenities, more restaurants, more options for food, whether it’s fast or sit-down fancy restaurants, there were requests for more services.” His hands-on approach includes weekly meetings with potential tenants seeking information about the town’s financial outlook and available support services.

The results speak for themselves. Fleming’s Steakhouse opened last month across from Wegmans on Pier Drive, joining three or four restaurants that have launched within the past year. The medical sector has particularly flourished, with urgent care facilities, dental practices, and ancillary businesses creating a healthcare cluster that serves the surrounding area. “When a landlord is looking at a potential tenant and the tenant says, ‘I want to know more about the town’s security, traffic,’ they normally call us,” Mayor Ghassali explains his recruitment process.

Perhaps the most significant arrival is INEOS Automotive, which established its U.S. headquarters and showroom in Montvale, taking approximately 10,000 square feet in what is one of the largest commercial leases in recent years. “For most of the corporations, it’s almost like satellite offices anywhere between 2,000 to 3,000 square feet,” Mayor Ghassali notes, highlighting how modern businesses favor smaller, more flexible spaces over the massive corporate campuses that once defined the area.

Infrastructure Challenges and Solutions

Beneath Montvale’s polished suburban exterior lies aging infrastructure struggling to keep pace with the community’s popularity. “The main issue we have on our main road, which is Grand Avenue, the Pascack Valley train comes to town 32 times every day from 5:00 AM to 1:00 AM and stops an average of three to four minutes, so almost two hours a day that intersection is shut down,” Mayor Ghassali explains. “All the traffic going to the east side of town takes forever and I get complaints if not daily, maybe every other day about the traffic.” The 31-mile rail line that connects Spring Valley, New York to Hoboken Terminal is both a major asset for commuters and a daily source of congestion.

More critically, the town’s 55 to 60-year-old sewer system faces capacity concerns that directly impact development decisions. “We don’t know how much more pressure we can put on that system until all the housing, until maybe a year or two from now where everyone is in and we’re using the system,” Mayor Ghassali acknowledges. These infrastructure limitations have prompted municipal leaders to avoid actively encouraging residential development despite strong market demand.

Voytus outlines the town’s response strategy, which includes pursuing funding for major sewer system upgrades. “We’re looking potentially to go to the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank, the iBank for some funding,” he explains. “We’re looking to probably go out for a larger scale funding source from the state to make the repairs that are necessary, even for just what we have for the residents that are here right now.”

Community Assets, from Farms to Recreation

“We bought about a $5 million, nine-acre farm and we’re taking that over in August,” Mayor Ghassali announces. “We will be having a town-wide celebration there. We’re keeping it as a farm. The October celebration will feature line dancing, hayrides, barbecues, music, tours, and educational classes on gardening and farming techniques.

The farm acquisition addresses broader recreational needs in a community where residents consistently request more open space and active amenities. “Residents always mention wanting more recreation and it’s hard when you’ve got a limited amount of space in a four-square mile town,” Voytus explains. The borough is exploring creative solutions, including developing multi-sport fields on existing municipal property and expanding walking trails that connect Borough Hall with the Wegmans Shopping Center.

Environmental assets also play a role in the town’s recreational strategy. Trails along the Pascack Brook and an environmental learning center next to Borough Hall provide nature-based activities, though Voytus notes these primarily serve residents. “It’s really more of an enhancement at the local level rather than attracting people from outside town to come in,” he explains. The approach points to Montvale’s focus on resident satisfaction over tourism revenue, with upcoming events including September’s Day in the Park featuring music, food, and fireworks.

Workforce Development and Housing Realities

The labor shortage affecting businesses nationwide has prompted Montvale to take an active role in connecting employers with potential workers, leveraging partnerships with regional organizations to address staffing challenges. The town’s approach combines direct intervention with market-driven solutions that benefit businesses and job seekers.

“We just had a job fair in combination with the Chamber of Commerce. We had about 150 people come and talk to companies. We had probably 30 companies exhibit,” Mayor Ghassali reports. The town works closely with Bergen County to match students seeking employment with major employers like KPMG and other large companies based in Montvale, though these connections happen on an as-needed basis rather than through formal programs.

Housing availability remains a more complex challenge that directly impacts workforce development. Despite strong demand, Mayor Ghassali deliberately avoids encouraging residential development due to infrastructure constraints. “We don’t go after developers and tell them to come and build housing only because I think we’re at the point now where we’re almost reaching the limit relative to the infrastructure,” he explains, intimating lessons learned from previous mixed-use developments that strained municipal services.

Market dynamics continue to favor sellers in Bergen County, where 72% of homes sell above asking price and inventory remains limited. In Montvale specifically, this translates to premium pricing that mirrors the community’s desirability. “We just have had eight houses being built. Each one is $2 million, and they were sold before they were even being built,” Mayor Ghassali notes. Throughout Bergen County, 72% of homes sell above asking price, with average values reaching $754,579 and properties typically going to pending status within 18 days of listing.

Looking Ahead to the Next 24 Months

“I think in the short term, it’s the time to be doing some self-assessment to look at what has developed in town over the past seven, eight years and recentering the town and our vision for the town moving forward,” Voytus explains. Rather than pursuing major new initiatives, the focus is on existing assets. “It’s enhancing what we have in terms of recreational spaces, making sure that sewers, roads and infrastructure are all in place.”

The infrastructure priorities highlight practical necessities that will determine Montvale’s capacity for future growth. Roads receive aggressive attention, with nearly every street in town having been repaved as part of a rolling 10-year plan putting Montvale ahead of many surrounding municipalities. However, the aging sewer system and persistent traffic issues require more substantial solutions. “A year and a half to two years from now, I’m hoping that we focus on the infrastructure and the traffic issues,” Mayor Ghassali emphasizes.

Service enhancements also feature prominently in the town’s near-term planning. Residents frequently request additional municipal services. “We’re looking to add more services in terms of leaf pickup or garbage pickup more often. We get a lot of that as a request,” Mayor Ghassali notes.

Montvale has found something many suburbs struggle with: how to grow without losing what makes people want to live there. The borough’s willingness to spend $5 million on farmland while refusing to chase developers shows a community that knows its priorities. As Mayor Ghassali continues making house calls and Voytus weighs each project carefully, Montvale proves that sometimes the best way forward is to move deliberately.

AT A GLANCE

Name: Borough of Montvale

What: Affluent suburban municipality experiencing strategic economic transformation and rapid population growth

Where: Northern Bergen County, New Jersey

Website: https://www.montvale.org/