The basics:
The sun wasn’t the only thing shining when Audible debuted its experiential retail hub in Newark in October. The energy at the late morning event was clear from the gaggle gathered, the smiling faces and the enthusiastic response from the crowd at The Pillars.
Revealed in September, the ribbon cutting for the renovated 15,000-square-foot ground-floor space at 33 Washington St. drew speakers including Mayor Ras Baraka, Audible CEO Bob Carrigan, and Newark local Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz, D-29th District, along with owners of businesses that fill three of the four retail spots at The Pillars.
The transformation aims to establish an anchor in the neighborhood to help draw local businesses, visitors and the community. According to Carrigan, The Pillars marks Audible’s most ambitious investment yet in Newark’s future — and the largest philanthropic contribution in the company’s history.
It’s also the first major investment in the city he’s greenlit in his nearly six years as CEO. Carrigan succeeded Audible founder and prior CEO Don Katz in 2019.
“When we invest in Newark’s success, we create a more vibrant environment that attracts talent, enriches our company culture, inspires innovation. So, it’s about building a stronger city that benefits everyone,” Carrigan said, speaking just outside the open doors to the physical manifestation of that mindset.
Floor-to-ceiling glass panes front The Pillars. The main entrance leads to a wide central court with modular walls that reveal hidden shelving, open doorways to its three retail outlets and freely accessible Audible listening booths.
Like Audible, the retail space sits within Newark’s Arts & Education District. Established in 2022, the company says the area attracts more than 70,000 visitors each month.
In Invest Newark’s citywide retail demand report released this past August, the Arts & Education District is characterized as “the cultural heartbeat of the city.” In addition to the storytelling giant, other local anchors include Prudential Financial, New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Project for Empty Space.
Overall, the paper says residents have a $312 million demand for goods & services in the Arts & Education District. Meanwhile, existing businesses supply $1.1 billion in those areas.
Despite that $820 million retail surplus, the report notes the area still has unmet demands:
- $4.6 million – Electronics & Appliances
- $3.4 million – Department Stores
- $2.8 million – Bar/Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages)
- $1.3 million – Sporting Goods, Hobby & Musical Instrument Stores
- $1.2 million – Office Supplies, Stationary & Gift Stores
Shops at The Pillars could be characterized as fulfilling some of that need.
When it came to what caused the most “leakage” into surrounding areas and beyond for shoppers, the top categories included shopping centers, grocery stores, super stores, and fast food & QSR (quick service restaurants).
Throughout the entire city, the report, developed with financial support from The Prudential Foundation, found $2 billion in untapped retail demand.
It also provides detailed demographic and psychographic data on each district, as well as consumer habits of residents across the city’s five wards. Beyond showing what’s missing, the study also highlights what’s working and where. Key trends in “leaked visits” – or where Newark loses dollars to other areas – coincide with areas of opportunity for the city.
And according to remarks at the time from Invest Newark Chief Business Development Officer and Director of Marketing Emily Manz, “The opportunity to grow local businesses and attract targeted retail to capture that demand is now.”
Leaning in
The Pillars, then, makes its debut at what may be the perfect time.
As lawmaker Ruiz put it during her remarks, “The only thing that Audible has done is continue to lean in.”
Speaking to themes from that late summer report, she highlighted the importance and impact that comes from creating connections across the city.
Another note on the Arts & Education district from the Invest Newark paper — it offers public transit options, including both Newark Penn Station and Newark Broad Street Station.
“What these spaces do is it begins to create our walkable neighborhoods,” Ruiz said. “And really reaches out to all of the wards, so that we can have this kind of route: My daughter and I can come sit down, we can start at the library, walk all the way through, get down to the Nike store, stop at Whole Foods.”
Opening his remarks, Baraka gave a shout out to Nancy Cantor, “who made all these institutions understand what being an anchor is about.”
The current president of Hunter College and former chancellor at Rutgers University-Newark, Cantor joined NJBIZ in 2020 along with New Jersey Performing Arts Center President and CEO John Shreiber at NJPAC to speak about just that.
She explained how organizations serve not just as geographic, but also community anchors with the foundations they lay – and the ways they collaborate.
“Thinking about all the ways in which equitable growth can really be anchored by the institutions that are here for the long haul,” Cantor told NJBIZ at the time.
“You got to have eds and meds. You got to have all these organizations and institutions that aren’t just going to up and leave. They’re going to be there,” she continued. “And they’re going to both create new jobs. And new institutions, and new ways of being.”
At The Pillars, Baraka spoke about and showcased the success born from that kind of buy-in.
“You look at what’s happening here. You take a look at what’s happening next door at the Newark Museum; you see all of the development happening at the museum. You see that the art institutions, the corporations that have bought into what we are trying to do in the city of Newark. Have decided to work collaboratively to lift our city up economically, socially, mentally, spiritually,” he said.
The why
At Newark Museum, a phased $94 million development is underway to create new public art and green space, an outdoor sculpture garden, and Museum Parc. That adjacent mixed-use project from LMXD, MSquare and MCI Collective will deliver 250 apartments and more than 2,300 square feet of ground-level retail space to the area. Delivery is anticipated by 2027.
Another arts institution, NJPAC broke ground on a $336 million project in fall 2024. Also set for 2027, the work will bring a 350-unit mixed-use, mixed-income residential complex; a new education and community center; a redesigned Chambers Plaza and more to the District.
Audible moved its headquarters to Newark in 2007.
Speaking with NJBIZ after the ribbon cutting, Audible Global Head of Urban Innovation Aisha Glover said the company arrived in the city with an express interest toward getting involved.
“It’s why we even came to Newark,” she explained “How can we be a part of the city’s revitalization?
“We have office space here, but this is not that,” she continued, referencing The Pillars. “This is really created with the intention of symbolizing and exemplifying why Audible is in Newark.
“This is the reason why: To be open, to be community oriented, to be investing in creators and entrepreneurs, to be telling our story … This really kind of exemplifies our history here and our intentions on what we want to be seeing in our future,” Glover said.
‘The beauty of diversity’
Baraka recognized that commitment in his remarks.
“I want to thank, again, Audible for having courage in a time when so many people are afraid. For continuing to push the idea that we need to work together and create diversity; for holding the line,” Baraka continued.
“And it is not lost on me that everybody who came to speak [today] or opening up their business looks like me. That’s incredibly, incredibly important. It’s incredibly important not just for the fabric of this town and for people who live here, to come by and see folks that look like them in business.
“It’s incredibly important at a time when we have autocracy in DC,” he said, noting the remarks as his own opinions. “So it is important for us to show people what humanity looks like, what democracy looks like, and what the beauty of diversity can do to cities that are growing.”
Audible will also provide direct support to tenants at The Pillars through its Business Attraction Program. Launched in 2023, that economic development initiative offers support via funding, mentorship, networking, and more for startups and retail operators looking to expand or locate in Newark.
During his remarks, Carrigan said the program has so far attracted more than 25 businesses.
The first retail business to benefit from the program launched earlier this year. Sweet Jeans Kitchen & Espresso Bar, from Chopped contestant and Brick City native Michele Vaccari Harriott and her business partner Victor Soldano, at 494 Broad St. also holds distinction as one of the first recipients of the City of Newark and Invest Newark’s Retail Reactivation Initiative, underscoring the city’s supportive ecosystem.
“And we’re just getting started,” Carrigan continued.
That’s the goal, he said, “To champion local businesses, create spaces that serve our community and work hand in hand with city leadership to build an equitable future. The Pillars will be a cornerstone, a fiscal pillar of this work.”
“These businesses offer more than just a retail destination,” Carrgian added later. “They create a space that embodies the entrepreneurial spirit that makes Newark special.”
Shopping list
Leading off at The Pillars are:
- Tansy — a woman-owned home goods and plant store with a unique vision of socially conscious home décor. Featuring products from local artists, charitable organizations and global sources, Tansy also offers regular classes in plant care, terrarium building and creative arts, connecting with community and sharing education.
- Pooka Pure & Simple — moving back home to Newark with its award-winning bath and body products, the business will also unveil The Bloom Bar. The innovative perfume blending bar lets guests learn to craft a signature scent. The new space will also offer weekly DIY workshops.
- HealHaus — a community-focused wellness destination that prioritizes mental, physical and spiritual health. The business offers daily yoga, meditation and breathwork classes, as well as specialty workshops on weekends. It also features a wellness café serving chef-curated smoothies, teas, elixirs, and select grab-and-go food items.
Founders Shawna Christian, Dawn Fitch and Darian Hall, respectively, also spoke during the ceremony, expressing their excitement as well as thanks to Audible.
Christian said “this is a huge representation of what this area is going to be; what it was going to be before COVID hit. This is the start of an economic boom. I am so excited to be a part of this.”
Fitch noted that her business is not new. “This opportunity; this grant is amazing,” she said. “As a small business, after 25 years to receive this type of support is just unfounded. And it wasn’t just financial … it has been a level of support that we have never seen …”
Hall said the opportunity from Audible came at a crucial time.
“To be able to bring the services we do at HealHaus to the City of Newark is something I’m so excited about. Because we need these services … for our community to really thrive. And for Audible to back that, is something that is really amazing. Let’s be honest, a lot of companies are not doing that,” he said praising the company, its leadership and the city.
Across the bridge in Brooklyn, “Sometimes you almost feel like the city’s working against” you, Hall said. “So for me to be here in this moment, to feel like I have the support … it’s something I’m extremely grateful for.”
Already open, Tansy and Pooka Pure & Simple welcomed shoppers following the Oct. 15 ceremony; HealHaus plans to open soon at the site.
Full circle
Speaking with NJBIZ, Glover described The Pillars’ debut as a kind of full circle moment for her professionally, as well as for Audible.
“It’s such a visual, physical representation of our work that is not occupied by us,” she said.
Architect Welton Becket originally designed 33 Washington St. To open it up, exterior updates – paradoxically perhaps – actually removed columns from the front of the building. The change updates the sightline to expose those floor-to-ceiling glass storefronts. That was intentional, Glove said.
“We did a major facade improvement and renovation where we literally opened these up. You used to be able to stand outside of the building and not even really see … inside.”
For The Pillars renovation, Studio Cooke John Architecture and Design served as the design architect, with Gregory Switzer Architecture as the architect of record.
During her remarks, Glover said Audible “set a really high bar to procuring locally.” She said they also engaged the community for feedback about the types of retail they wanted in the area.
“I think it really represents how we expect ourselves to be showing up in the city, how we’ve historically been showing up,” Glover said of the update.
She noted Nina Cooke John – of Studio Cooke – also created the Harriet Tubman monument in Harriet Tubman Square, which The Pillars faces. Once inside the Washington Street building, if you look up another Cooke creation helps illuminate the space.
“The lighting installation – some of you may be paying attention to the changing colors being me in the … lobby. It’s actually a suspended light beam that’s voice and sound activated,” Glover explained.
Amid the chatter of attendees exploring the stores and central court, colored lights danced overhead.
Engaging the sense of sound, listening booths in that area offer complimentary Audible content for visitors to explore. Glover said the titles are curated based upon some of the storyteller’s top titles, as well as original content – recorded nearby in Newark – and locally-themed content.
Secret sauce
The business attraction program isn’t the only Audible effort Glover has helped guide.
There’s also Newark Working Kitchens, which extended a lifeline to area businesses and residents during the pandemic. From 2020–2024 NWK delivered more than 1.6 million meals and generated over $16 million in economic activity. There’s also the Newark Artist Collaboration – which Carrigan referenced during his remarks at The Pillars. That initiative helped install dozens of public art pieces from local artists and art groups in the Brick City.
Before joining the storytelling giant, Glover served as CEO at Newark Alliance. She also took part in the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where she served as vice president of external affairs for the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp.
Glover says that this year alone, Audible has helped put on more than 100 local programs, ranging from farmers markets to tech meetups to events at the museum, the Newark Public Library and Equal Space’s 50,000-square-foot spot at 550 Broad St. across the park.
We have office space here, but [The Pillars] is not that. This is really created with the intention of symbolizing and exemplifying why Audible is in Newark.
– Audible Global Head of Urban Innovation Aisha Glover
“Sometimes we lead them, sometimes we bring in third parties that have their own following … So I think that combination has really been our secret sauce: How do we create and invent, and then how do we also identify others that are doing this work and really intentionally collaborate with them?” Glover explained.
Equal Space is also an Audible business attraction program participant.
“And that’s the intention, right? We’re recruiting businesses, we want them to actually also be invested in the city. … We’re doing a little pressure testing of, ‘Are you really going to be committed.’
“We want to make sure that for them, it’s not just a grant opportunity, but they see the promise of the City of Newark in the same way that we do and why we moved here,” Glover said.
Audible has not yet revealed The Pillars’ fourth tenant but has teased to stay tuned for more details in 2026.
