Far Hills Village Is Filling In, One Old Building at a Time

"Each project built on the last, and the downtown is stronger for it." That is how Mayor Kevin Welsh described the past decade in Far Hills village to the Bernardsville News this fall. He also said the progress "has been slow and steady," not "fast and fragile."

That second phrase describes the village well. Far Hills has no master-planned town center or large mixed-use project. Change in the few blocks around Dumont Road, Peapack Road and Route 202 happens one building at a time. When a long-running business closes, someone with ties to the area moves in, and the building stays. The biggest of these projects is a 105-year-old firehouse that is about to start serving breakfast.

The village, address by address

Most of the recent changes fit into five buildings. Here is what each one was and what it is turning into.

Read from top to bottom, the table runs in order. The early projects changed what was possible for the later ones.

Where it started: a showroom and a struggling retail building

Welsh traces the growth to 2015 and 2016. That was when his family's dealership at 36 Dumont Road bought a neighboring building on Route 202 and replaced it with a two-story showroom.

The second project was the Far Hills Center at 27 Route 202, rebuilt and repurposed in 2019 and 2020. It is one of three retail complexes in the village. The others are The Mall at Far Hills at 35 Route 202 and Ludlow Square farther east at 49 Route 202. The Far Hills Center had been in decline for years. Its new owner, Melillo Equities, took down two wings and renovated the rest.

"Those two projects set the tone for everything that will and has followed," Welsh, who became mayor in January 2023, told the Bernardsville News.

Neither project added a new kind of business to the village. Both put money back into buildings that were already there. Every project since has worked the same way.

Two long runs that ended, and the buildings they left behind

The newest openings depend on two closings.

D'Apolito & Son ran its men's clothing shop at 16 Peapack Road from 1950 until it closed in 2023. According to the Bernardsville News, in June 2026 the Planning Board approved a variance and site plan that let the building stay in retail use. The approval required the property owner to end all outdoor storage, remove a metal shed and dead landscaping, and repaint the building.

On Route 202, Butlers of Far Hills closed its interior design studio at 53 Route 202 on Oct. 30, 2024, after more than 40 years in business. That left a three-story building on the village's main road without its longtime occupant.

What moved in

Far Hills Collective moved into the old D'Apolito building in early September. It is a boutique owned by four women, and it sells furniture, paintings and accessories from France and England, along with porcelain and glassware. "We like to call Far Hills Utopia, and we are thrilled to be here," co-owner Elisa Miranda told the Bernardsville News. She added that the owners want "to be good neighbors."

The Butlers building is getting a tenant from down the street. As the Bernardsville News reported, Hans Holdings, which owns Hans Clothier two doors away at 49 Route 202, received Planning Board approval in October 2025 to renovate 53 Route 202. The plans call for cosmetic updates to the facade, including a new bay window, and for removing a 2.5-bay garage to make room for eight parking spaces. Hans Clothier is a family-owned menswear shop that opened in Far Hills on Sept. 16, 2022. Its owners told the board the business was doing well and needed more space.

Morgan Colwell runs the shop with her sister, Rachel Campbell. Both grew up in Basking Ridge. "It's really nice for us to have more space, and we're really happy for everything that's happening in Far Hills," Colwell told the Bernardsville News, adding that no move date has been announced but the sisters are aiming for February 2027.

That makes two shops now. The menswear store is the clearest example of the pattern. It started in a small space, did well, and is moving two doors up Route 202 into a building another local business left behind.

The firehouse at 39 Dumont Road

The Bernardsville News called it "arguably the borough's most anticipated business change." The Union Hook & Ladder firehouse at 39 Dumont Road was built in 1921 and housed fire trucks until 1983. That year, a lack of space sent the fire department's main headquarters and vehicles to the Bedminster Public Works building on Miller Lane. After that, the old firehouse was used only for administration until it was emptied.

In August 2024, Melillo Equities, the same company behind the Far Hills Center rebuild, had bought the building from the borough. That month it won Planning Board approval to turn it into a bakery and ice cream shop, to be run by Bernardsville natives Eric Colwell and Patrick Ramsey. The approval allows up to 140 seats, split evenly with 70 indoors and 70 outdoors. Colwell has since bought the property from Melillo.

Speaking with the Bernardsville News on Sept. 25, Eric Colwell said the renovation was "moving along very well" and that most of the major construction was finished. "We're reluctant to put an exact date on it until everything is completed and approved, but our hope is to have FireHaus Bakery opening this fall, and the adjoining IceHaus Creamery early next year," he said.

The two halves will keep different hours. The bakery will serve breakfast and lunch. The creamery will be open in the afternoons and evenings.

Colwell's goal reaches back into the building's history. "Our hope is that it becomes a genuine gathering place for Far Hills and the surrounding communities, as it was historically," he told the paper. He also described the aim as giving people more reasons to come to the village, meet neighbors and visit other local businesses "while still protecting everything that makes Far Hills feel like Far Hills."

With a bakery serving breakfast and lunch and a creamery open into the evening, the approved 140 seats would make the firehouse the one building in this run of projects built around people sitting down and staying.

Where to spend October in the village

Until the bakery opens, the village already has a working daytime routine, and the last two weekends of the month bring community events.

1. Breakfast or lunch at Butler's Pantry Trackside. Butler's Pantry Trackside serves breakfast Monday through Saturday from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Lunch runs 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. A weeknight dinner menu runs 4:30 to 7 p.m., and the restaurant is closed Saturday evenings.
2. Sandwiches or catering from Perrotti's. Perrotti's Far Hills takes sandwich and catering orders through its website.
3. Trunk or Treat at the Far Hills Fairgrounds, Saturday, Oct. 24, at 4 p.m. The Far Hills Recreation Committee is hosting it, with a rain date of Sunday, Oct. 25, at 4 p.m. The borough's notice asks participants to decorate their cars, come in costume and bring enough wrapped candy for 50 children.
4. Peapack-Gladstone's Halloween Parade, Sunday, Oct. 25, 3 to 4 p.m. It is on the borough calendar and makes an easy second stop the next day. If rain pushes Far Hills' event to Sunday, the two overlap, since the parade ends at 4 p.m., the same time the rain-date Trunk or Treat begins.
5. A browse through Far Hills Collective at 16 Peapack Road. It is the newest storefront in the village, and its stock of French and English furniture, paintings, porcelain and glassware is unlike anything else on these blocks.

For equestrian fans, the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation in nearby Gladstone has the USEF Dressage Training Series on its schedule for Oct. 16 through 18 and the STAAR equine rehabilitation symposium for Oct. 28 through 30.

When the bakery does open, it will be at 39 Dumont Road, on the same street as the dealership at 36 Dumont Road where Welsh says this decade of change began, in a 1921 firehouse that will be open to the public again.

The West Oak Team follows Somerset Hills village centers address by address. If you live in or near Far Hills and want to know how one of these blocks fits into your plans, schedule a complimentary local market consultation with us.