FIELDSTONE SHOPPING CENTER
Decades of Neglect. Broken Promises. No Answers.
The Reality
Ringwood's Fieldstone Shopping Center has become so run down it served as a filming location for the teen horror movie Y2K. No CGI required.
Today more than half the storefronts are vacant. The roof leaks so badly a tenant recently launched a GoFundMe to cover the damage. The parking lot is full of potholes. The property frequently smells of septic. And the owner, the Azarian Group, has spent decades letting it decay while maintaining decent properties elsewhere in North Jersey.
Talks of renovation happen every election cycle. Nothing ever starts.
The Great Sign Heist
The Video MD sign had become the symbol of Ringwood's inability to accomplish even basic tasks. Shortly before the 2025 elections, Borough Manager Scott Heck hired a camera crew to film himself taking it down as proof of progress. There was one problem: the sign was contractually promised to a new tenant. Months later it was quietly returned.
Plenty of showmanship. No actual solutions.
How We Got Here
Who Is Running The Fix?
What Residents Deserve
A Plan That Ignores What Residents Asked For
In late 2025 residents were asked to weigh in on Fieldstone's future through an online survey. The results, released March 10, 2026, showed residents want a quaint mixed use development with retail on the ground floor and one floor of residential above.
Two days later the council unveiled a plan that appears to slap a new facade on the existing structure, add a restaurant in the parking lot, and install a clock tower. It looks remarkably similar to what is already there.
In 2025 the Borough established the Ringwood Downtown Special Improvement District to lead Fieldstone's revitalization. Among its board members serving as Treasurer is Scott Heck, the same Borough Manager who has overseen Fieldstone for 18 years.
The boards responsible for economic development and planning have been filled with political appointees rather than independent experts. The Ringwood Democratic Organization put forward candidates with relevant professional backgrounds. Not one received a call back.
This is not how you fix a failing shopping center. This is how you make sure nobody independent ever gets close enough to ask the right questions.
Fieldstone has been a problem for decades. It does not have to stay one. But fixing it requires a council willing to hold a powerful landlord accountable, demand transparency, and actually listen to residents.
That is not what Ringwood has had. It is what Ringwood deserves.
Sources: NorthJersey.com. Ringwood Borough SID board roster 2025. Borough Council meeting minutes. Survey results March 10, 2026.
For years the Azarian Group made clear that redevelopment was contingent on the borough delivering two things: an Area in Need of Redevelopment designation and a PILOT program reducing Azarian's tax burden. In other words, give us the tax breaks and remove the obstacles we want removed, and then maybe we will talk.
The borough accommodated those demands. Over a decade and an estimated million dollars in legal fees were spent pursuing high density housing on Skyline Drive, even as Highlands Act restrictions made it essentially impossible. An additional $1,050,000 was paid from borough reserve funds to buy out neighboring property owner Ron Pagano, who Azarian wanted out of the picture.
Azarian has already fallen behind his promised timeline and is still not fully cooperating.
Residents are entitled to ask: after everything the borough has done to accommodate this landlord, what exactly has changed?
For the full story of the Pagano purchase see our Pagano Property page.