Lackawanna Plaza was never meant to be what it is right now. When BDP Holdings opened the former train terminal to a holiday pop-up in late 2024, the site had been sitting mostly vacant for nine years. The company described the opening as a way to use the property while the larger redevelopment worked through approvals and lawsuits. Two years later, the space now branded Lackawanna Station runs toddler classes, robotics sessions, art nights, a monthly breakfast lecture, a coworking happy hour, and an indoor flea market. That is a denser weekly calendar than most of Montclair, and all of it sits on land approved for something else.
The current setup at 1 Lackawanna Plaza came with an expected life span, and the plaza is now partway through it.
A pop-up that came with an end date
In November 2024, BDP Holdings Vice President of Community Development Jason Gleason walked Montclair Local through roughly 100,000 square feet of space. He described the plan this way:
"We're dubbing this as a 'pop up incubator.' We want to do something with the property in-between this time now and when we are afforded the opportunity to do redevelopment here."
He also gave it a time frame. "We believe this pop-up will last for three to five years," Gleason told Montclair Local. The first phase was a holiday flea market in the former Pathmark space, run with the Montclair Flea.
By March 2026, The Montclair Pod was calling the plaza "a kind of interim village," a temporary preview of what could eventually rise on the site. The word "interim" explains the programming. Much of what fills the calendar here is short-term by nature: drop-in classes, monthly markets, short-lease storefronts. Those are the uses that fit a building with a planned expiration.
A week at 1 Lackawanna Plaza, as the October calendar lays it out
The plaza's event calendar shows a weekly rhythm that repeats more reliably than most downtown programming. Using the October 2026 listings, a typical week looks like this:
- Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m.: Toddler Time, with stories, songs, sensory play and hands-on art for toddlers and their grown-ups.
- First Tuesday of the month: 2-for-1 TWOsdays at RecRoom, where two people get in on one coworking day pass.
- Wednesdays, 9 a.m.: The Wednesday Schmear at RecRoom, with free bagels and coffee for members and anyone coworking that day.
- Fridays, 4:30 to 6 p.m.: RecRoom's Happy Hour (& a Half!).
- Saturdays: Kinetic Bots at 11 a.m., where kids design and program robots, and Freestyle Studio at noon, a drop-in art session at Keep Creating in Suite 2. Children must come with an adult.
Keep Creating Art Wellness Center also runs dated sessions through the month. October's listings included Keep Learning: 55, art classes for people 55 and over, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, and Art Night Fridays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 2 and Oct. 16. The Oct. 16 theme was "Ugly Art (On Purpose)."
The one-off events add to that base. In October alone, the calendar listed Montclair Pride, hosted by Out Montclair at Lackawanna Station with more than 100 vendors and food trucks. It also listed a free NJ Card Market on Oct. 17 and 18, a monthly Collage Extravaganza Sunday workshop, and a CreativeMornings breakfast lecture on Oct. 16. The plaza's site calls that series the first and only CreativeMornings chapter in New Jersey.
Halloween week has more coming. Friday, Oct. 30, brings a SEW Spooky bag charm workshop from 4:30 to 8 p.m., where you can make a felt jack-o'-lantern, ghost or bat. That evening RecRoom hosts Happy HourWeen from 5 to 7 p.m., with a costume contest.
The anchors that keep the lights on between events
The calendar works because a set of everyday tenants keeps the building occupied on days with nothing scheduled. The Lackawanna Station directory lists Burgers Donuts Potatoes, Woman to Women, Popeyes, The Big Room, IMC Littles, Designs by Karen, Keep Creating Art Wellness Center, Montclair Flowers & Gifts, The Player Agency, The Trucks, RecRoom, Montclair Flea, Ceaser Jewelers, Ironbound Farm Market, The Little Shops, Montclair Pickleball, Bagel Supreme, Yellow Rose Bakery and DanceHaus.
The landlord markets The Little Shops as move-in-ready retail on short-term leases with utilities included. These spaces are aimed at brands that want to test a storefront without paying for a full build-out. That arrangement fits a building with a stated horizon, because a shop can open on a short lease without betting on a location that may change.
Some of the newer arrivals have been more permanent-feeling:
- Montclair Pickleball opened two courts inside the terminal in January 2026, according to Montclair Local.
- Bagel Supreme was open at Lackawanna Station as of July 2026. Yellow Rose Bakery + Cafe had announced plans for a second location there, with no opening date published.
- Ironbound Farm Market opened on June 28, 2025, according to Montclair Local.
- Popeyes lists daily hours of 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. RecRoom lists weekday hours of 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on its Lackawanna Station page.
The historic 1913 terminal building also has a new tenant in the works. Montclair Local reported in August that Industry Tavern had signed a lease for the former Pineapple Express space. David Placek, whose company BDP Holdings owns the plaza, confirmed the deal. The restaurant describes itself on Instagram as a "classic, warmly nostalgic tavern." As of that report, its owners, menu and opening date had not been announced. The room has been through this before. Pig & Prince restored the long-neglected terminal's architectural details years ago and gave the space the amber glow many longtime residents remember.
The holiday market is the season's main event
The Montclair Flea now runs its regular market monthly at Lackawanna Station. Its October market ran Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 24 and 25. In December the schedule gets much heavier. The Montclair Flea's Holiday Market opens on Small Business Saturday and runs every Saturday and Sunday through Dec. 20, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., indoors at 1 Lackawanna Plaza. The Flea describes curated vendors selling festive décor, handmade gifts, vintage pieces and cozy accessories.
Here are the eight market days on the 2026 calendar:
- Saturday, Nov. 28 and Sunday, Nov. 29
- Saturday, Dec. 5 and Sunday, Dec. 6
- Saturday, Dec. 12 and Sunday, Dec. 13
- Saturday, Dec. 19 and Sunday, Dec. 20
This will be the plaza's third holiday market. The first one, in 2024, is the event that restarted the property, with more than 175 rotating vendors and food trucks on weekends from Nov. 30 through Jan. 19. On market days, the rest of the building is open around the Flea. You can pick up a bagel at Bagel Supreme, play a game of pickleball, or stop at the Keep Creating drop-in studio on Saturday. That combination is why a weekend here can fill a whole afternoon.
Where the redevelopment clock stands
The interim village is still running because the permanent plan is still moving through approvals. In 2026 that process moved faster than it had in years.
- May 23, 2024: The township's redevelopment plan was adopted under R-24-135, according to the Township of Montclair.
- March 24, 2026: The Township Council voted 6–1 to approve a 30-year PILOT agreement, Montclair Local reported.
- March 30, 2026: Superior Court Judge Stephen Petrillo ruled the plan "validly adopted and enforceable." The plan calls for a $326.7 million project with a supermarket, 300 apartments and offices on an 8.2-acre site off Bloomfield Avenue, according to Montclair Local. NorthJersey.com also covered the ruling.
The next step is a site-plan application to the Planning Board. As of Montclair Local's April report, Placek said he expected to submit it "in the coming months." Earlier, in February 2026, Montclair Local reported three more details. The developer had a lease with a supermarket it did not name, and the grocery store must be built in the first construction phase. Officials also estimated six to eight years for full completion. The plan also keeps part of the site's rail history. A 2022 conceptual description showed the historic waiting room standing alongside new buildings and the old platform's steel stanchions reused as the centerpiece of a rail-themed public space.
Put the timelines side by side. Gleason's three-to-five-year estimate dates from November 2024, so its window runs from late 2027 into late 2029. The approvals that held up the redevelopment were settled this spring. The step still pending is a site-plan review with no published hearing date. The flea market, the drop-in studio, the Friday happy hour and the short-lease shops are all running in that gap. No closing date has been announced for any of them, and the developer has said from the start that the current setup will eventually give way to construction.
If you want help timing your own plans around what is changing at Lackawanna Plaza, Orsini Real Estate & Marketing Group follows these Montclair projects week to week and can show you how they fit your street. Request a free home valuation, and we will start with what is happening closest to you.
