Our mission is to promote economic vitality in Plainfield's Special Improvement District

Plainfield's beginnings can be traced to its downtown. The Quaker Meeting House, built in 1788, is one of the oldest buildings in Plainfield and continues to be used by the Union County Quaker community. The little city quickly became a bustling suburb of Newark and the greater New York metropolitan area once the railroad arrived. Cemented in its history, success, and quick growth is the Central Railroad of New Jersey that runs through the center of Downtown and serves the surrounding communities. The railway allowed for Plainfield to ship goods and commuters to other regional economic centers including the shipping docks in Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark, Jersey City and New York. Plainfield was a strong industrial player in the region, and the growth of its factories and grand residential corridors contributed to the success of its vibrant downtown.

Downtown Plainfield positioned itself as the shopping mecca of Central New Jersey. The surrounding towns and people from Union-Somerset-Middlesex counties would come to line Plainfield's picturesque streets downtown and shop in its high-end stores. By the early 20th-century, Plainfield sported major department stores including one of the first Sears showrooms in the nation, Tepper's, Bamberger's (which later became Macy's), Montgomery Wards, Woolworth's, Steinbach's and Rosenbaum's. Other notable employers downtown during its heyday was Lazaar's, Thule Automotive, The Surprise Store, A&P, the Courier-News, and Plainfield Amusement Academy which at one point had the oldest skating rink in the nation. Hundreds of small businesses also contributed to the success of Downtown during this time. Downtown Plainfield's environment was famous for it's wide streets and accessible trolley system. Plainfield also had many movie theaters, such as the Strand, Liberty Theater, Oxford Theater, and Paramount Theater.

By the 1970s, like most urban downtowns in the nation, Plainfield's Central Business District began to lose its appeal to newer shopping malls being constructed nearby. These malls advertised themselves as a new shopping option that was indoor and therefore less dependent on weather and offered free parking. Highways were built under the Federal Highway Act of 1956 to service the popular new suburbs surrounding Plainfield, such as Edison, Piscataway and Warren, and contributed to an automobile dominated culture. This in turn aided in the exodus of capital from our Downtown. Urban Decay began to set in during the late 1970s-1990s. At that time we lost all of our department stores as they merged with their mall counterparts. We also lost the Paramount Theater along with the rest of the surrounding block to the Park-Madison Urban Renewal Project. To make matters worse, a decrease in municipal investment in downtown, the covering of historic facades, the rise of code violations and petty crime became normal. The rise of steel gates and doors in front of storefronts spread rapidly as insurance and mortgage underwriters required them in certain urban areas, effectively changing the perception of safety downtown.

In 2013, Downtown began to change for the better. Plainfield attracted the attention of local developers with its Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) ambitions. A TOD is a mixed-use development or area that has a host of diverse uses that promote walkability, high density, and commerce within a half-mile of quality transportation. Plainfield applied to the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) for TOD status Downtown, which opened up grant opportunities and technical assistance from numerous state organizations, including NJ Transit and NJDOT.  TOD implementation is a key task by state planning advocates, and Plainfield's walkable fabric and NJ transit train station and bus routes make us a development "hotspot". Plainfield changed the zoning for Downtown as a part of their TOD application, effectively increasing density and permitting six-story heights in most of the downtown for the first time in history. The state granted Plainfield TOD status in Spring of 2014. Also in 2014, NJ Transit announced the first one-seat ride to New York on the Raritan Valley Line in history with the implementation of duel locomotives, cutting travel times to New York by as much as 20 minutes, and is estimated to have raised property values by 7% within one year of implementation. Previously, Plainfield customers had to transfer trains in Newark to complete their trip to New York. Since 2013, Downtown has had 9 completed projects with 16 more under construction, passed the Planning Board, or planned by the municipality. Plainfield has attracted new developers and have completed the rehab of the Courier-News Building and numerous buildings around the train station. In the winter of 2014, Plainfield applied for and was granted Main Street NJ member status by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) as an Associate Tier member. 

At the center of Downtown is the venerable North Avenue Historic District. This two-block historic district includes many landmarks on the local, state and national Registers of Historic Places, including the Quaker Meeting House, Courier-News Building, the Plainfield Post Office, the Plainfield Train Station, the Marsh Building, and the Plainfield National Bank Trust Building, amongst other properties. The Civic Historic District consists of quite possibly the most dominant historic structure in town, City Hall; along with its annex; the World War I monument and the YMCA building. Other notable historic buildings that are not on the register include the Rosembaum's Department store property at 169 East Front Street, the old Elks Club at 114 Watchung Avenue, the Plainfield Masonic Lodge at 105 East Seventh Street, Grace Episcopal Church at 600 Cleveland Avenue, the Plainfield YWCA at 232 East Front Street, and the Plainfield National Bank at 111 East Front Street. 

Courtesy of Downtown Plainfield Alliance

DOWNTOWN - The downtown shopping district is dominated by small businesses, including restaurants and bakeries, many catering to the city’s large Latin-American population. Queen City Coffee Roasters is a relatively new addition to downtown, offering fresh roasted coffee in a cafe with exposed brick and artwork by local artists.

THE VIBE - Plainfield’s arts scene has roots that reach back a century or more. The 102-year-old Plainfield Symphony is New Jersey’s longest-running community symphony orchestra. The duCret School of the Arts, which is 95 years old, offers classes in ceramics, painting, graphic design and jewelry design. The Shakespeare Garden in Cedar Brook Park, created in 1915, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

HOUSING  - Demand for Plainfield homes has come not just from New Yorkers, but also from empty nesters from nearby areas who sell their suburban homes and buy larger places with historic charm in Plainfield, said John DeMarco, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker in Westfield, N.J., and a resident of the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood. In the 12 months ending Feb. 1, 341 single-family homes sold in Plainfield at a median price of $365,000, compared with 393 single-family homes at a median price of $309,000 during the preceding 12 months, according to the Garden State Multiple Listing Service. Ms. McWilliams said the reduction in sales reflects a lack of inventory. A recent check of the multiple listing service found 36 homes on the market, from a one-bedroom condominium in a garden complex, listed for $159,950, to a 10-bedroom historic house, listed for $1.575 million.

SCHOOLS - The Plainfield Public School District serves about 9,700 students in 13 schools, including nine elementary schools, two middle schools, Plainfield High School, and Plainfield Academy for the Arts & Advanced Studies, which serves students in grades seven through 12. Three-quarters of the district’s students are economically disadvantaged, according to the New Jersey Department of Education. The average SAT scores at Plainfield High School in 2019-20 were 451 in reading and writing and 435 in math, compared with statewide averages of 536 in each. At the arts academy, the average scores were 481 in reading and writing, and 456 in math.

THE COMMUTE  = The trip to New York City takes about an hour via New Jersey Transit express bus; the fare is $10.75 one way or $267 monthly. By train, on the New Jersey Transit Raritan Valley Line, the trip takes a little over an hour; the fare is $11.75 one way or $336 monthly.

Driving to New York City can take an hour or more, depending on traffic.