Tice's Corner Changed Hands in Days. The Stores Will Change on a Lease Calendar.

The sale of Tice's Corner happened quickly. "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," Cushman & Wakefield's Joanna Manfro told Real Estate NJ. Manfro represented the buyer, WS Development, which paid $109.5 million for the open-air center at Chestnut Ridge Road and Tice Boulevard.

The storefronts will change much more slowly. A center that is almost full can't turn over its tenant list in one season. The new owner's plans will mostly show up as individual leases expire, plus in the open space between the stores, which no lease controls.

A full center, bought at a full price

NJBIZ reported that the roughly 120,000-square-foot center at 441 Chestnut Ridge Road was 96% leased when it sold, according to a spokesperson. Daily Voice put the price at about $912 per square foot.

WS Development has bought a similar property before. In 2021 it acquired Montgomery Village in Santa Rosa, California, a center one family had owned for more than 70 years. CoStar reported the details. Side by side, the two deals look like this:

Per square foot, WS paid nearly three times as much in Woodcliff Lake as it did in Santa Rosa, for a center less than half the size. Montgomery Village needed new roofs and fresh paint. Tice's Corner sold as a working, nearly fully leased center. That difference shapes what can realistically change here, and how soon.

The timetable runs through the leases

The buyer's side explained the timing directly. In NJBIZ's account of the sale, Manfro said WS understood both the scarcity of the asset and its "embedded upside," and that lease rollovers over the next several years create room to bring rents up to market and to evolve the tenant mix. Real Estate NJ reported the same point in Cushman & Wakefield's own words:

"Tice's Corner offers meaningful embedded growth as leases roll over in the coming years, creating opportunities to mark rents to market, thoughtfully evolve the tenant mix and further enhance the center's positioning."

WS's stated plan matches that pace. According to NJ.com, the center will keep its current tenant mix while adding retailers and local businesses. Real Estate NJ names the categories WS is targeting: retail, beauty, wellness and dining.

The point for regular shoppers is simple. At 96% leased, there is little empty space for new arrivals. New names will mostly appear when a current lease ends and the space comes back to the landlord.

What four years looked like in Santa Rosa

Montgomery Village shows how this kind of change builds up over time. The CoStar report, published in November 2025, about four years after the purchase, lists what WS had done by then:

• New roofs, fresh paint, and drought-resistant, native landscaping
• Added security patrols
• A covered passageway linking the north and south ends of the center
• 2,800 square feet of new community space with upgraded turf, fire pits, string lighting and olive trees

New tenants came in alongside those upgrades. CoStar named Anthropologie, Sephora, Vuori, Mendocino Farms, Sweetgreen and Salt & Straw among the national brands that had arrived. It also listed Face Foundrie, Beach by Everything But Water, Club Pilates and Blue Bottle as announced for the following year.

The center also kept its old role in town. "At its core, Montgomery Village remains what it's always been: a beloved gathering place for the Santa Rosa community," general manager Kris Miller told CoStar. Its events calendar for the first week of November 2026 listed a Copperfield's Books author event, a Made Local holiday-gift workshop and a Vuori and COR Yoga session.

Some old features did go. CoStar opens its story with the covered wagon that stood at the Santa Rosa entrance for half a century, a local landmark people used for directions. The wagon is now gone.

The open space doesn't wait for a lease

Most of those Santa Rosa projects happened outside any tenant's store: roofs, landscaping, a passageway, a gathering area. A landlord can do that work on its own schedule, without waiting for a lease to end.

WS has run that kind of space before. At Derby Street Shops in Hingham, Massachusetts, WS opened a green space between REI and Kohl's. In 2019, WS described a summer schedule there that included stroller fitness, a lululemon Run Club, Cardio Sport classes, children's story time, a local musician and a South Shore Conservatory music series.

WS's plan for Tice's Corner includes "art displays, events, outdoor gathering spaces and other activations and enhancements," as Real Estate NJ reported. Those are the parts of the plan that can move faster than the lease calendar.

The site has hosted community gatherings before. The center sits on the former Tice's Farms, which dates to 1808 and was known across Bergen County for its apples, cider, pumpkins and autumn traditions. The farm became a retail center in 2001. Eric Smookler, WS Development's vice chairman and co-chief investment officer, mentioned that history when the deal was announced: "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."

The directory as it stands

Since the stores themselves will change gradually, the current lineup is the starting point. The Tice's Corner directory describes 28 stores across fashion, home furnishings, technology and food. Names reported across the sale coverage and the directory include:

Several of those names also arrived at Montgomery Village under WS ownership. Anthropologie is on both lists, and Vuori, which CoStar describes as Free People's activewear brand, is in the Santa Rosa group. That overlap supports the stated plan to keep Tice's existing mix in place. The directory also lists Injxcellence Medical Spa under a "Coming Fall 2026" label, a wellness-category business.

WS's portfolio shows the kind of centers Tice's is joining. Real Estate NJ lists MarketStreet in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, Hyde Park Village in Tampa and Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany among them, out of more than 100 properties.

The season's dates around town

The borough's own calendar has several events coming up:

1. Town Shredding Day, Saturday, Nov. 21, 8 to 11 a.m., or until the truck fills, at the Woodcliff Lake Ecology Center on Old Mill Road behind Old Mill Pool. Open to borough residents only. Details on the borough site.
2. The Moondogs at Hillsdale Free Public Library, Monday, Nov. 23, 7 p.m. A free concert with no registration required, per the library's listing.
3. Christmas in the Park tree lighting, Thursday, Dec. 3, 5 p.m., at Woodcliff Park, organized by Christ Lutheran Church and Our Lady Mother of the Church, with hot chocolate, snacks and holiday music. Event listing.

If you're wondering how a gradually updated Tice's Corner might affect your own plans in Woodcliff Lake, whether that's timing a sale or knowing what buyers will see on a drive down Chestnut Ridge Road, the Stacy Esser Group follows these changes closely and can talk them through with you. Schedule a Meeting Today.