Drive past Brick Plaza on Route 70 and it still looks like what it's always been: a long run of storefronts anchored by Trader Joe's, Barnes & Noble, and an AMC multiplex, the kind of shopping center you stop at because it's convenient, not because it's exciting. That reputation is about to be tested. Over the past year, a string of restaurant and retail chains have picked this specific plaza, not a newer development in a bigger market, to open their first location in the region. That's not something a strip mall usually earns, and it says more about how national chains are reading Brick right now than any single opening does on its own.
Start with the pad site at the back of the property, the one that's sat empty since Quaker Steak & Lube closed during the pandemic. Raising Cane's confirmed to NJBIZ that it plans to open there by late 2026, at 1036 Cedar Bridge Ave., pending local approval and permitting. The chain plans to tear down the existing 8,148-square-foot building and put up a smaller one, just over 3,300 square feet, with drive-thru lanes. What makes this more than a routine build-out is that it will be Raising Cane's first Jersey Shore location. The building has sat empty for years, well past the point most landlords would have settled for whatever tenant showed interest first. That a national chicken chain waited for this specific plaza to make its Shore debut says the site was worth the wait.
Gregorys Coffee is making a similar bet. The New York-based coffee company, founded in 2006 and now running more than 50 locations, is opening next to Cava with a drive-thru, an unusual format for a coffee brand that typically leans on walk-in counter service. It will be Gregorys' first Ocean County location. Pair that with Dae Gee Korean BBQ, a small chain that got its start in Colorado and has since opened in Texas, Massachusetts, and North Carolina. Brick Plaza is its first New Jersey location, and as of this spring it was already open and operating.
None of these chains needed Brick specifically. Gregorys could have picked a coffee-hungry commuter corridor closer to New York. Dae Gee could have followed the more predictable path north into Bergen or Hudson County, where Korean barbecue already has a built-in audience. Instead, both landed in a plaza that most people driving Route 70 would describe as familiar rather than trendy. That's the detail worth sitting with. A shopping center doesn't become a debut market by accident.
The space Rosalita's left behind
Not every new arrival is a chain making its first regional appearance. Cuzin's Seafood and Clam Bar, which already runs locations in Marlboro and New Brunswick, is opening its third New Jersey restaurant in the space that had been occupied by Tre and, before that, Rosalita's. A liquor license transfer for the new spot was recently approved, and the restaurant is known for its seafood towers, raw bar, and a livelier, later-night atmosphere than the plaza has typically hosted. It's a different kind of signal than the Cane's or Gregorys news: Cuzin's is opening in a space with a recent history of turnover.
That's worth remembering next time the plaza feels like it's always in some state of construction. Turnover in a retail space isn't automatically a bad sign. Sometimes it means a landlord is willing to keep swinging until the right tenant fits.
The retail side is leveling up too
The food news has understandably gotten the most attention, but Brick Plaza's retail mix is shifting as well. Gap Factory is now open next to Barnes & Noble, and J.Crew Factory is expected to open nearby in 2026. Jeffrey Fischer, VP of Leasing for Federal Realty, the plaza's owner, described the strategy directly: pairing "proven brands" like the two factory outlets with dining concepts meant to "strengthen the plaza's position as a family-friendly destination." That positioning could give people reasons to stay for a few hours rather than run in for one errand.
The plaza's existing tenant list backs that up. Trader Joe's, Burlington, Barnes & Noble, AMC Theatres, PetSmart, Michaels, Chipotle, Applebee's, Crumbl Cookies, and Ulta Beauty were already drawing steady traffic before any of this year's announcements. The new wave doesn't replace that base. It layers onto it, which is likely part of why chains making a first regional appearance are comfortable choosing this location over a newer, flashier development. The built-in foot traffic reduces the risk of being the first name on a block nobody visits yet.
It's not isolated to one parking lot
If Brick Plaza were the only place in town seeing this kind of investment, it might just be a Federal Realty story. It isn't. A couple miles away on Route 88, Icarus Brewing made its own version of this bet in 2024, leaving its original Lakewood taproom on Swarthmore Avenue for a much larger space built specifically for Brick. The new building holds more than 350 patrons between its taproom and beer garden, roughly triple the production capacity of the Lakewood original, and it was designed with private event space, including a barrel room and a mezzanine bar, that the smaller location never had room for.
Two years later, that expansion still functions as one of the more reliable weekend anchors in town, especially now that the beer garden's firepit season overlaps with the plaza's own retail push. Taken together, the brewery's move and the plaza's tenant wave point to the same underlying read on Brick: this is a town where a business willing to invest in a bigger footprint expects the crowd to show up to fill it.
Where each opening stands right now
For anyone trying to sort confirmed openings from things still under construction, here's where each stands as of this fall:
- Dae Gee Korean BBQ is open, marking its first New Jersey location.
- Gap Factory is open next to Barnes & Noble.
- Gregorys Coffee is coming next to Cava, with its drive-thru format still a rarity for the brand.
- Raising Cane's is targeted for late 2026 at 1036 Cedar Bridge Ave., pending final permitting.
- Cuzin's Seafood and Clam Bar has an approved liquor license transfer for the former Rosalita's space, with no confirmed opening date yet.
- J.Crew Factory is expected sometime in 2026.
That's six changes to one shopping center in a single year, which is a faster pace of turnover than Brick Plaza has seen in a long time. Whether that pace holds into 2027 is an open question. What's already clear is that this plaza stopped being a place chains settle for and became one they're choosing on purpose.
If you're curious about what this kind of investment tends to signal for a neighborhood's longer-term appeal, or you're weighing your own next move in Brick, Candace Golembeski has spent more than two decades reading exactly these kinds of local signals across Ocean County. Reach out anytime to talk through what you're seeing.
