Washington Street's Morning Shift: How Hoboken's Main Drag Traded Scoops for Croissants This Year

"A crazy number of frozen dessert places have opened," Jon Snyder told Patch in July, after his Il Laboratorio del Gelato closed its shop at Fifth and Washington streets on July 7. "Even though we consider ourselves a class unto ourselves, it just wasn't sustainable." Snyder opened that shop in 2022. By September, a bakery serving breads and pastries from Kazakhstan was operating in the same space.

That handoff is a small version of what happened up and down Washington Street this year. Most of the storefronts that changed hands since July went to businesses built for a quick daytime stop: a croissant and coffee, a grab-and-go order, a class before work. The businesses that left were mostly sweet-shop concepts in a crowded category, plus one legacy retailer that no longer gets enough walk-in traffic.

The Corner at Fifth Street Turned Over in Two Months

The 500 block shows the pattern most clearly. Il Laboratorio del Gelato faced heavy competition close by, and Snyder named Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, which opened across the street last year. Snyder is still expanding elsewhere and recently opened a shop on Manhattan's Upper East Side, so the Hoboken closure looks like a problem with this particular block, not with his business overall.

Dän Bakery + Cafe was open at 500 Washington St. by September 8. The Patch report on the opening lists raspberry and chocolate croissants, cinnamon rolls, muffins, and ham and spinach croissants alongside coffee, all in what it calls a spacious room. Hoboken Girl's September 28 roundup also lists ĀTMĀ Yoga Collective as open at 500 Washington.

A few doors north, Springbone Kitchen soft-opened at 506 Washington St. on July 7, the same day the gelato shop closed. It took over the former Bon Banh space. Cuban Pete's is building out at 518, and The Kati Roll Company filed signage plans for 514. Once those open, one stretch of the 500 block will have changed almost completely within a single year.

Downtown, the Same Swap Is Happening Across the Street

At the south end, the 100 block is going through the same change. Chip City Cookies closed its shop at 113 Washington St. at the end of business on October 1, when the New York-based chain shut all 22 of its remaining stores. The Hoboken store had opened in 2023. In an email to employees, the company wrote that "consumers are spending less and their preferences are evolving," and said it no longer had the funding to keep operating.

Directly across the street, construction has started at 110 Washington St. on Maman, a café inspired by southern France that began in SoHo in 2014. Maman will take the whole ground floor, which used to be a Shaka Bowl before that brand, now Shaka Kitchen, consolidated in Hoboken at 720 Monroe St. Hoboken's Historic Preservation Board recently approved the café's signage. The menu is built around breakfast: pastries, croissants, a daily quiche, a make-your-own omelet, and weekend brunch dishes like eggs ratatouille.

Maman is no stranger to Hudson County. Its first New Jersey location opened in Jersey City in 2022, a Princeton café at Palmer Square followed, and Hoboken will be its third in the state. Jersey Digs reported on September 21 that no opening date has been announced.

Stan's Explains the Retail Side of the Shift

Food is only part of the change. Stan's Sport Center has been a sporting goods store on Washington Street since 1946, and it announced it will close its 1,500-square-foot storefront at 528 Washington St. The business is staying in operation. It has 30 employees and an 18,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Boonton, and it does screen printing and embroidery for schools, teams, and companies.

Owner Danny A. DeCongelio laid out the reason in his announcement: "The city has changed. The sporting goods industry has changed. The way people shop has changed." Alexis DeCongelio, director of sales and online stores, told nj.com that customers used to stop in to get skates sharpened and basketballs inflated, and now "we don't see people coming much in anymore." As of nj.com's September 3 report, the store was still open with no closing date set, and the family invited customers to come by and say goodbye.

The newest arrivals on the street are designed for short visits. Sober Shot opened at 1200 Washington St. on August 28 in a former dry cleaner, and Patch reported it has no indoor seating. Further uptown, Uncorked Wines held its grand opening at 1450 Washington St. on Saturday, September 12.

The Street, South to North, as of Early October

Still Behind the Paper

The table has a lot of "coming soon" entries, and few of them have dates. Cuban Pete's has the firmest timeline. The owner's August 13 update named a fall opening, and Hoboken Girl's September 28 roundup reported that work was still underway at the former Charrito's. Greens, Goods + Grill at the former Giovanni's and The Baked Bear at 730 were both still listed as coming soon at the end of September. Joe & The Juice had branded construction wrap on 216 Washington as early as March, but it still has no public opening date.

Dessert isn't leaving Hoboken. Oddfellows Ice Cream is now open at 53 First St., one block off Washington, and The Baked Bear is on the way. The category is thinning out after the run of openings Snyder described. Meanwhile, the empty storefronts on the main corridor have mostly gone to cafés, a bakery, a juice bar in the pipeline, and a yoga studio.

At the Bottom of the Street, a Plaza Opened in June

Walk south past Maman's construction and Washington Street ends at the new Hudson Place Plaza. Officials cut the ribbon on June 16, and LCOR described it as a "living street" in the Hoboken Connect redevelopment around Hoboken Terminal. "It's a welcoming space for commuters coming through the terminal, residents going about their day, and visitors discovering our city for the first time," Mayor Emily Jabbour said in a statement.

Work nearby isn't finished. The city's construction updates page says the roadway section of Hudson Place between Hudson Street and River Street is anticipated to fully reopen in mid-fall 2026. The city calls that schedule tentative and subject to weather. Charlie, a 27-story tower on Observer Highway, is under construction with 386 rental residences and ground-floor retail, and completion is anticipated in 2027. Once it opens, the 100 block will have a new building full of neighbors one short walk away.

For now, the plaza has art. Light Lane, an interactive public installation, is on display at Hudson Place Plaza through October 18.

Art Month Brings Events Into the Storefronts

Hoboken Art Month runs October 1 through November 8. It's a free, citywide series that the city and the Hoboken Business Alliance are holding in businesses and public spaces. These are the dates closest to the corridor:

1. Tuesdays, October 6, 13, 20, and 27, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. A free business-workshop series.
2. Saturday, October 10, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The "150 Years of Hoboken" mural refresh by the Little League Field near Fourth Street and Sinatra Drive.
3. October 14, 21, and 28. Stoopfest live music sets at sidewalk cafés and bars around town.
4. October 25 at 6 p.m. Movies Under the Stars at Resiliency Park Lawn.
5. November 7 and 8. The artist studio tour, with stops including Studio & Story at 629 Washington St.

The Stoopfest sets play at sidewalk cafés, a format that fits the businesses opening on Washington Street right now.

If you own a home a few blocks from Washington Street, what opens on the ground floor near you can be part of how buyers picture your block. At The Meena Patel Group, we follow these storefront changes block by block as part of our local market work. Get your free home valuation and personalized market plan, and we'll go over what's changing near your address.