Former discount shopping hotspot Playtog's Plaza to be reinvented

A crumbling shopping plaza – that was once a mecca for Orange County bargain shoppers – is about to get a huge makeover.

Business owners who have stuck it out at the plaza for years hoping for a revamp, are now dreaming big.

There is history in the plaza, which straddles the Middletown/Wallkill border on Dolson Avenue.

From 1959 well into the mid-1990s, people flocked to the plaza for deals at Playtogs and surrounding stores.

Playtogs and other local stores began shuttering as online shopping gained popularity and corporate retailers expanded.

"It was a pretty rundown plaza," Orlando Lallave, co-owner of Fusion Eyewear said, adding that about four years ago, it began to change.

Lallave said he relocated across the plaza two years ago to make room for a warehouse.

"I had the option to move out of the plaza at that point," he said, "but I had a feeling that things were going to change here."

Plaza owner Eric Jacobov said he recently secured agreements with Planet FItness to open a gym on one side of the plaza and another retailer he cannot publicly name yet on the other side, with more tenants to come.

Planet Fitness could begin its buildout as soon as next week, Jacobov said.

"I look forward to it," said JoAnne Walz, who works at the plaza and used to shop at the plaza during its heyday. "We had Carol's and we had Playtogs, and it's kind of where everybody was, but now that it's being revamped it'll be much, much nicer."

Work appears nearly finished on a speculative warehouse that is replacing the old building that housed the original Playtog's store.

Middletown officials said the warehouse developers are looking for tenants.