In Far Hills Village, the New Businesses Are Moving Into the Oldest Buildings

On the evening of Thursday, July 30, a Far Hills police sergeant on patrol saw water seeping out of the old Union Hook & Ladder firehouse at 39 Dumont Road. He called it in, and Mayor Kevin Welsh texted the building's owner, Eric Colwell, who was in Hoboken at his daughter's birthday party. By the time Colwell got back, members of the Far Hills-Bedminster Fire Department had stopped the leak. New Jersey Hills reported that a failed water line was shut off about 15 minutes after the first report.

The leak started in a utility closet between two rooms that don't have customers yet: a future bakery and a future ice cream shop. Six to eight inches of water collected at the bottom of the ramp between them. In a letter to the editor, Colwell wrote that if the water had run all night unnoticed, the damage to a building that has stood since 1921 "could have been catastrophic."

That near miss shows how change is happening in Far Hills village. New businesses are moving into the village's own older buildings, one at a time, and the firehouse is the one with the most riding on it.

A 1921 Firehouse Getting Its Old Job Back

The fire department started out as the Union Hook & Ladder Co., and the firehouse on Dumont Road replaced its original wooden building in 1921. Fire trucks were parked there until 1983. That year a lack of space pushed headquarters and the vehicles out to a metal structure attached to the Bedminster Public Works building on Miller Lane. After that, the old firehouse held only administrative offices. A new $2.1 million firehouse on Miller Lane had its ribbon-cutting in October 2008, and the Dumont Road building was then left empty.

Melillo Equities bought the property from the borough. In August 2024 the Planning Board approved turning it into a bakery and ice cream shop, to be run by Bernardsville natives Eric Colwell and Patrick Ramsey. The approved plan allows up to 140 seats, with 70 indoors and 70 outdoors. Colwell has since bought the property from Melillo. FireHaus Bakery will serve breakfast and lunch. IceHaus Creamery, next door, will open in the afternoons and evenings.

When New Jersey Hills checked in with Colwell on Friday, Sept. 25, he said most of the major construction was finished and the crew was working on finishing details and installing equipment. He would not give an exact date until everything was complete and approved. His goal was to open FireHaus this fall and IceHaus early next year.

He also told the paper what he hopes the place will be for the village:

"We really want this to be more than just a place to buy a cup of coffee, a sandwich, a loaf of bread or a homemade ice cream cone. Our hope is that it becomes a genuine gathering place for Far Hills and the surrounding communities, as it was historically."

Colwell describes the building going back to a role it had for most of a century. In the same interview he said the village "has never needed to become overly commercial to be vibrant," and that the aim was to create "something that feels as though it belongs here."

The Same Pattern, a Few Doors Apart

Look at the other recent changes in the village and they follow the firehouse's pattern. Each new business is taking over a building that already has a long history in Far Hills.

At 16 Peapack Road, a men's clothier did business for 73 years. After D'Apolito & Son closed in 2023, the building needed a variance and site plan approval to stay in retail use, and the Planning Board granted both in June 2026, according to New Jersey Hills. As part of the approval, the owner agreed to end all outdoor storage, take down a metal shed, clear out dead landscaping and repaint the building.

Far Hills Collective moved in early in September. It's owned by four women, and it sells furniture, paintings and accessories from France and England, along with porcelain and glassware. Co-owner Elisa Miranda told New Jersey Hills, "We like to call Far Hills Utopia, and we are thrilled to be here."

On Route 202, Hans Clothier is moving just two doors. The family-owned menswear shop opened at 49 Route 202 on Sept. 16, 2022. In October 2025, Hans Holdings got Planning Board approval to renovate the three-story building at 53 Route 202, which had been empty since Butlers of Far Hills closed. The approved plans call for a new bay window on the facade and for removing a 2.5-bay garage to make room for eight parking spaces. Co-owners Morgan Colwell and Rachel Campbell, sisters who grew up in Basking Ridge, said no move date has been announced, but they are aiming for February 2027. "It's really nice for us to have more space," Colwell told New Jersey Hills.

All three projects reuse buildings that went through the borough's planning process. None of them is a new building on empty land. The village is getting more retail space, but the number of buildings isn't changing.

Why It Has Taken a Decade

Mayor Welsh dates the change to 2015-16. That's when Team Welsh Jeep Chrysler, which his family has owned at 36 Dumont Road since 1909, bought the building next door on Route 202 and replaced it with a modern two-story showroom.

The second step came in 2019-20 at Far Hills Center, 27 Route 202. It's one of the village's three main retail complexes, along with The Mall at Far Hills at 35 Route 202 and Ludlow Square at 49 Route 202, and it had been declining for years. Melillo Equities, the new owner, took down two wings and renovated what was left. The center got smaller and better at the same time.

"Those two projects set the tone for everything that will and has followed," Welsh told New Jersey Hills. He described the progress as "slow and steady (organic) rather than fast and fragile," with "each project built on the last."

The sequence shows that in practice. Melillo Equities rebuilt Far Hills Center, then bought the firehouse from the borough and got its conversion approved before Colwell took it over. Hans Clothier did well enough at Ludlow Square to need the bigger building two doors away. Each step made the next one more likely. The order also explains the pace. A 105-year-old building has to be renovated before it can open, and the summer leak showed that even a nearly finished renovation can be set back overnight.

What the Next Few Weeks Hold

Most of the dates coming up are tied to these same buildings and streets:

1. Wednesday, Nov. 4, 10 a.m. Bids are due on the borough's reconstruction of Far Hills Avenue and Schley Road. The work includes about 173 linear feet of storm drainage, asphalt milling and 952 tons of new asphalt paving. The bid notice on the borough's website doesn't include a construction schedule yet.
2. Friday, Nov. 6, 5:30 to 7 p.m. Leonard J. Buck Garden at 11 Layton Road holds "Thankful Lights." Participants make lanterns and float them on the lower pond. The fee is $20 and you have to preregister through Somerset County Parks.
3. This fall, date to be announced. FireHaus Bakery's opening at 39 Dumont Road. Colwell has said he won't set a date until the work is complete and approved.
4. Early 2027. IceHaus Creamery is expected to open next door to the bakery, followed by Hans Clothier's targeted move to 53 Route 202 in February.

If those dates hold, three buildings on Dumont Road, Peapack Road and Route 202 will each have a new business open by spring 2027, and the oldest of them, the 1921 firehouse, will have outdoor seating for 70 people.

If you own one of the village's older homes and wonder how a block's changes show up in what your home is worth, Megan can walk you through it. Megan Bonanno follows these Far Hills changes one building at a time, and she can look at your home the same way, without pressure. Request Your Free Home Valuation.