Tice's Corner has a new owner in the year it turns 25. WS Development, a Massachusetts company with more than 100 properties, bought the open-air center at Chestnut Ridge Road and Tice Boulevard in late October. Real Estate NJ reports the price, through the brokerage team, at $109.5 million. The plan the new owner described sounds less like a shopping center and more like the farm that stood there first. The current national stores stay. Local businesses, art, events and outdoor gathering spaces get added.
For most of the last century, people drove to this corner for apples, cider, doughnuts and pumpkins, and they stayed for the season. The store directory changed what the place was for. The new owner's plan aims to change it back while keeping the Apple Store.
The Corner Was a Gathering Place Long Before It Was a Mall
The Tice family's ancestors came from Holland in the late 18th century. They settled what was then Harrington Township and farmed first to feed themselves, then to sell the surplus, according to a Pascack Press retrospective. WS Development dates Tice's Farms to 1808 and calls it a landmark known across Bergen County for its autumn traditions.
| Period | What stood at Chestnut Ridge Road |
|---|---|
| 1950s, at its peak | Roy and Frank Tice ran a farm and market of roughly 300 acres |
| Each season | Apple and peach orchards produced about 12,000 bushels of apples for cider |
| Inside the market | Mabel Sheehan, a Tice sister, ran the bakery and made the doughnuts |
| 1990s | The farm closed |
| 2001 | A 120,900-square-foot retail marketplace by developer Starwood Heller was completed on the site |
| October 2026 | WS Development buys the center, now 25 years old |
Building the center took more than storefronts. Engineering firm McNally, Doolittle says the project needed permits, a major subdivision, and new road and signal work at the intersection. The traffic light at Tice Boulevard was part of turning a farm into a destination.
What the New Owner Bought, and Why It Moved Fast
The deal never went to a wide market. Joanna R. Manfro, who represented the buyer, described the sale to Real Estate NJ this way:
"Tice's Corner is a generational retail asset that had been held by the same legacy ownership for decades. When the opportunity for new ownership surfaced, it was a highly competitive process that came together within days, without the asset ever becoming broadly marketed."
She called it one of New Jersey's largest single-property retail sales of the past decade. The buyer's side also pointed to what makes the center worth more over time: leases roll over in the coming years, which gives the owner room to adjust rents and "thoughtfully evolve the tenant mix."
For shoppers, that line explains how change will probably arrive. A center held together by leases usually changes one storefront at a time, as each lease comes up. The art, events and gathering spaces in the announcement belong to a different category. They don't depend on any one tenant's lease, so they are the parts the owner controls directly.
Eric Smookler, WS Development's vice chairman and co-chief investment officer, presented the purchase as a continuation, according to the Pascack Valley Press: "Tice's Corner has been part of this community's story for well over two centuries, first as Tice's Farms and now as one of Bergen County's most beloved gathering places." Mayor Carlos Rendo announced the acquisition on Facebook, as The Ridgewood Blog reported.
The Directory WS Development Inherited
The company says it will keep the center's established mix, which it counts at 28 stores and restaurants. The Tice's Corner store directory groups roughly like this:
- Fashion: Anthropologie, J.Crew, Free People, Madewell, Athleta, Banana Republic, Gap, Aerie, Talbots, Chico's, White House Black Market, Johnny Was, Nic + Zoe, South Moon Under, F. Silverman
- Beauty and wellness: Bluemercury, Bath & Body Works, The Parlour, The Parlour Nail Salon, JETSET Modern Pilates, James Tracey Eye Care
- Home and gifts: Ethan Allen, Hallmark
- Technology: Apple
- Food: Panera, Bareburger
The directory also lists Injxcellence Medical Spa with the tag "Coming Fall 2026!" Food is the thinnest part of that list, with two restaurants among more than two dozen tenants. Dining is one of the four categories WS Development named for new businesses, along with retail, beauty and wellness.
What "Events and Gathering Spaces" Look Like at WS Development's Other Centers
The company's other centers show what art, events and gathering spaces mean in practice. Real Estate NJ named three of them as part of the same portfolio.
| WS Development center | Programming and mix on its own calendar or profile |
|---|---|
| Hyde Park Village, Tampa | Fresh Market on the first Sunday of each month, with more than 80 local vendors and live music in Village Circle |
| MarketStreet, Lynnfield, Massachusetts | Jazz Brunch, Monday Little Chefs at Davio's, and Barnes & Noble Storytime, all on its fall 2026 calendar |
| Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany | More than 60 shops and restaurants, with local names such as The Book House and Josie's Table next to national retailers |
The Hyde Park Village Fresh Market is the closest match to what Tice's Corner replaced. It is a recurring, vendor-driven market built around a central open space. A Chestnut Ridge Road version would bring the corner close to its farm-market roots. The MarketStreet calendar shows the other half of the model: small weekly programs, often run with tenants, that give families a reason to come back on a Monday morning.
The Albany example matters for the "local businesses" part of the promise. An independent bookstore and a neighborhood restaurant sharing a center with national chains is the mix WS Development already runs there.
December Already Has a Tradition to Build On
The center has run its own seasonal event for the last two years. The Tice's Corner Winter Festival was held December 12, 2024, with Santa, hot chocolate, carolers, kids' crafts, late shopping and treats, according to the Woodcliff Lake borough calendar. The 2025 festival, on Thursday, December 11 from 5 to 8 p.m., was organized by the marketplace with holiday shopping, cocoa, caroling and a Santa meet-and-greet. Both years fell on the second Thursday of December, so the event will be the first holiday test of the new ownership's take on "events."
A Second Retail Corner Is Rising on the Same Road
Tice's Corner won't be the only place to shop on Chestnut Ridge Road for long. On October 8, Russo Development and Woodmont Properties broke ground on Orchard House by Vermella at 300 Chestnut Ridge Road, the former BMW North America campus, NJBIZ reported. The 21-acre plan includes 297 apartments, 47 townhomes and 26 supportive housing units. It also calls for 9,000 square feet of retail, which the developers expect to fill with dining, services, medical and other businesses.
For neighbors who will never live there, the more relevant plans are outdoors. About half the campus is set to stay open space, with a new public park and a walking trail around the property's edge. The borough expects the project's 30-year PILOT, a payment in lieu of taxes, to bring in more than $106 million, NJBIZ reported, citing Pascack Press. "Orchard House reflects the kind of progress we want to see," Mayor Rendo said, as quoted by NJBIZ.
The two projects are separate, with different owners. Together they show the same direction for Chestnut Ridge Road: more public space next to the retail. That fits a town whose summer this year already gained a walkable center on Kinderkamack Road and its first municipally owned park. Through all of it, the corner at Chestnut Ridge Road and Tice Boulevard still carries the Tice family name it has had since the farm.
The Kolsky Team follows changes like this one along Chestnut Ridge Road and across Woodcliff Lake, because new stores, markets and parks shape daily life near home. If you'd like to talk about what the Tice's Corner sale and Orchard House could mean for your own street, The Kolsky Team is glad to share what we're seeing.
