Garden State Exhibit Center Closing, 6th Ave. Electronics Plans To Move In

The Garden State Exhibit Center on Atrium Drive may soon become a 6th Avenue Electronics warehouse.

The Garden State Exhibit and Convention Center on Atrium Drive will soon close its doors, but the building will not be vacant for long.

The online retail store 6th Avenue Electronics will purchase the building and plans to move its Schoolhouse Road warehouse into the 72,000-square-foot space, according to an application filed with the township’s planning department.

The retailer will need a use permit, said Vincent Dominach, the township’s chief zoning officer. Warehouses are not allowed in the Corporate Business zone, in which the building is located.

Dominach said 6th Avenue Electronics will appear before the Zoning Board of Adjustment at its March 16 meeting.

The exhibit’s center closing was simply a matter of economics, said Joseph Cascio, its general manager.

“It is a truly unfortunate situation that the Garden State Convention Center will be closing its doors after a successful 27-year stint in Franklin Township,” Cascio said in an email. “Due to issues out of our control, the property landlord received an offer to purchase much higher than we could afford to run our business therefore we are regrettably closing.”

“Fortunately we own and operate the New Jersey Convention Center in Edison where most of the business has been placed and we have also received interest from several towns that we are looking into to perhaps for the future,” he wrote.

Cascio said they are “still working out” when the center would close.

A representative of 6th Avenue Electronics did not respond to requests for comment.

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