By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
This summer jaZams will have a new face on Palmer Square, and owner Joanne Farrugia will again be a familiar face at the downtown Princeton toy store.
Since the birth of her son, Felix, 13 months ago, Ms. Farrugia said she has had to work mostly out of jaZams’ Pennington store because her space at 14 Hulfish St. doesn’t have a place for Felix to hang out with her. That will soon change when jaZams moves across the street, to a larger space at 25 Palmer Square East.
On Wednesday morning, while Felix did some exploration of the new space on all fours under the watchful eye of her partner Dean Smith, Ms. Farrugia gave a tour. From the sidewalk there is little hint of the expansive two-story space that opens up beyond the front doors. The area of the store was once the site of the Nassau Inn swimming pool, Ms. Farrugia said. “It’s an incredible space and that’s why we kind of captured it,” she said, as sunlight poured in through a large skylight on one side of the cathedral ceiling.
Ms. Farrugia founded and has run jaZams since 1996, at one time operating stores in Montgomery, Hillsborough, Princeton and Pennington before consolidating to the current Princeton and Pennington locations. Last August, Ms. Farrugia said she began to seriously consider the possibilities for the Palmer Square East space, knowing it would soon become available. “We were both thinking that would be a good toy store,” Mr. Smith said.
Palmer Square Management agreed to replace the leaking skylight, opened up a large display window next to the front door — “that was critical to me, I wanted more street visibility,” Ms. Farrugia said — and expanded several other display window cases for the store.
At 3,000 square feet there is plenty more space to work with than at jaZams’ current 2,200-square-foot site on Hulfish Street, Ms. Farrugia said. “This whole new space, there’ll be a lot more room for people to move,” said Mr. Smith. “Stroller space, we’ll have stroller space,” Ms. Farrugia added.
On one side, Ms. Farrugia said she intends to build a loft, where “we will have an office and storage and room for that little guy,” as Felix went his merry way underfoot.
The large window cases will give her the opportunity to mount ambitious, seasonal displays showcasing jaZams’ wares, according to Ms. Farrugia. “We’ll hopefully change them every month,” she said.
Ms. Farrugia said she plans to expand jaZams art supplies, seeing a void in the area left by the closing of Triangle Art in Lawrence, and expand the store’s book offerings and have special events like book signings, in keeping with her philosophy that “you can’t have too many books. You can have too many toys, I own a toy store and I say that, but you can’t have too many books.”
The move is planned for July. “We’re going to have a big pizza party,” said Ms. Farrugia. The plan is to close the Hulfish Street store on a Sunday afternoon and, with the help of friends and staff, move into the new space, going through the night if necessary, then opening the new store on Monday at noon, she said.
JaZams has an annual block party, usually scheduled around the Summer Solstice in June and with a Harry Potter theme, which it will postpone this year in favor of a grand opening party after the move, Ms. Farrugia said. The scheduled date for the party is now Sept. 5, she said.
About taking on the larger space, particularly in a slowing economy, Ms. Farrugia acknowledged “I’m a little nervous, but it’s absolutely the right thing.”
