A developer is scheduled to appear before Montclair’s Historic Preservation Commission tonight with plans to restore the façade of what used to be The Olympic Shop at 622 Valley Road.
Michael Pavel, whose home address was not written on the documents filed with municipal officials, but who is listed as having a physical therapy office on Claremont Avenue, submitted plans last week for the former clothing store, said Assistant Planner Patrick Franco.
Reached by phone, Pavel, who also owns 596 Valley Road, at the corner of Bellevue Avenue, told The Times he could not release any information about his intentions for the vacant Olympic Shop structure.
He did not confirm whether he had purchased the building, either. But back in June, real-estate broker Andree Bertsche of Stanton Company Realtors said she expected the closing on the sale of the shop would take place in July, barring any complications.
The elevations filed with the Planning Department call for "the opening up of window spaces" and the installation of windows on the front side of the second floor, Franco said.
Since the HPC generally doesn’t delve into the use of a building or the appearance of its interior, the plans, prepared by Sionas Architecture, only indicate vaguely that the site will continue to be utilized as retail space.
After the architects handed in the paperwork, HPC officials dug into their own files searching for old photographs of the structure, which dates to around 1920. They came up empty-handed, but later learned that the architectural firm had old drawings of the building, and those documents are expected to be presented to the commission tonight. Pavel’s plans hark back to the edifice’s almost 90-year-old, original styling.
Franco said that what the developer is proposing "looks like a completely different building."
At some unknown time, the façade was "completely bricked over" and The Olympic Shop’s signature small, round first-floor windows were installed, Franco said.
They "look like little submarine windows," he said, adding that officials always expected that whoever purchased the property would overhaul the structure, since its present design is less than ideal for marketing.
"I don’t know why they closed it up," Franco said. As is, "you can’t see into the store. There’s no display space. It’s pretty much a blank wall."
