‘Mega’ problem for Marshalls store
By maura dowgin
Staff Writer

JERRY WOLKOWITZ The Marshalls department store in Holmdel Towne Center, Route 35 and Laurel Avenue, will soon be expanding and may or may not be changing its name to Marshalls Megastore.

HOLMDEL — The township Planning Board is looking to block a local retailer from changing its name.

The board spent about an hour considering a request by Marshalls department store, located in the Towne Center on Route 35, to change its name to Marshalls Megastore at its Feb. 11 meeting.

Store expansion is the reason for the name change request, said Dan Marshall, a representative of Marshalls’ parent company, TJX Co.’s, which is headquartered in Framingham, Mass. Dan Marshall has no family ties to the Marshalls chain.

The TJX Co.’s also owns T.J. Maxx, Home Goods and A.J. Wright stores.

Marshall said the store will sell Home Goods items after expanding into the store next door, which was left vacant when the Michaels Arts and Crafts store recently moved across Route 35 to the Holmdel Commons.

"Half the store is going to be Home Goods products," said Dan Marshall.

Because the store will be larger, and offer more merchandise, the company wants to add "Megastore" to the end of the name, Marshall explained.

"The name creates an image we were trying to oppose," said board member Richard Mausner.

This is the first time any board has requested a name change, Marshall said. He is not authorized to make such a change but will bring it up with the company to see if an agreement with the board can be reached, he said.

The board has made great efforts to prevent Holmdel from having big box stores, Mausner said.

While members of the board are not opposed to the store’s expansion, they are opposed to the name change, Mausner said.

"One of the goals in the areas along the highway is to make the visual clutter minimal," said Mayor Larry Fink, who is also a member of the board. "Minimizing the number of words helps."

The addition of the words "Megastore" may make people think of stores like Wal-Mart, which is not the image the board wants to create in Holmdel, Mausner said.

The company should make it clear through its print advertisements that the Holmdel store is bigger than a normal Marshalls store, Fink said.

Advertising for expanded Marshalls stores include the name Marshalls Megastore, Marshall said.

Marshalls has a wide customer base in Holmdel, board member Heng Chin said.

The addition of the words would not change community interest in the store, but could bring more people from other areas to shop in the store, Chin said.

The board fears the name Marshalls Megastore will attract additional shoppers from outside the township to the Towne Center, and that the situation could attract shoppers similar to those at the Great Adventure Outlet Mall in Jackson, Chin said.

The new Marshalls store will be approximately 49,000 square feet, about 19,000 square feet bigger than the present store.

The store will not be closed during the construction of the new store, said Joseph Denis, vice president of construction at Kimco Realty Corporation, New Hyde Park, N.Y. Kimco Realty owns the Towne Center.

The new store is expected to open in the spring, Denis said.