A long-vacant dry-cleaning storefront at the Mountain Avenue shopping center in Springfield is getting a new tenant, and the whole plaza is getting a facelift to go with it. The township's Planning Board voted unanimously at a special meeting last Monday, October 26, to approve an application letting Kessler Rehabilitation move into the space while the center's owner carries out a broader exterior renovation.
Facade Work, New Signage And Landscaping Planned
The approval covers the property at 242-246 Mountain Ave., where 246 Mountain Avenue Investors LLC submitted the application that the board signed off on, according to TAPinto Springfield. The project includes facade improvements, updated signage and landscaping enhancements across the shopping center, and board members pushed for the plaza's dated signs to be swapped out for modern channel-letter signage, per the same outlet's report. Final sign details still need to be worked out administratively with township professionals before they're locked in.
Exterior materials became a point of discussion during the meeting, as the board weighed whether brick portions of the building should be painted or covered with stone veneer instead. David Barnett pushed back on painting the brick, and after the back-and-forth, Bruce Jeffrey agreed to install El Dorado stone veneer rather than go the paint route — a direction board members ultimately supported.
Kessler Rehabilitation Eyes Pediatric-To-Geriatric Care
The clinic itself will fill a storefront that previously housed a dry cleaner, giving the shopping center a healthcare tenant where there had been empty retail space. Property owner representatives told the board that Kessler Rehabilitation had been seeking a Springfield location and identified the Mountain Avenue site as a chance to better serve residents in the area, per the station's report.
Patricia Judd, Kessler Rehabilitation's vice president of clinical operations, said the new clinic will provide physical therapy services to patients ranging from pediatric to geriatric populations. She told the board the location is expected to operate with a lean staff of one therapist and one front-office employee, with hours tailored to community demand rather than a fixed schedule, the report notes.
Tree Protections And Dumpster Screening Attached To Approval
The board's approval came with conditions tied to the site's trees. Any trees at the property may be removed or disturbed only after the applicant consults with the township arborist, and the developer must work with that same arborist to figure out whether additional trees can be planted on the lot. If there isn't enough room for all the recommended plantings, the owner will contribute to the township's tree fund to make up the difference, according to the approval conditions described by the outlet.
Springfield's own landscaping code sets a baseline for commercial sites like this one: all areas of a commercial lot not covered by buildings, pavement or other required improvements must be landscaped, per the Township of Springfield code. That ordinance calls for at least one tree and two shrubs for every 250 square feet, or fraction thereof, where the landscaping requirement applies.
Separately, the applicant must also complete additional screening and upgrades around the center's dumpster enclosures before future tenants can receive occupancy approval. Those dumpster-related conditions will not hold up Kessler's own move-in, the board clarified, keeping the clinic's path to opening clear even as the broader screening work continues.
