Quimby Street's Temporary Season Ends This Month. The Permanent Version Is Built to Work as a Street Most Days

"When an event is going to come in, the bollards can be pushed down or brought up," James Robato of the design firm Arterial told the Westfield Town Council in August, as Patch reported. "And then, when the event is finished, the bollards can be put back in place so that it's acting like a street with parking and all those things."

Westfield calls it a permanent pedestrian plaza, and the renderings look like one. Read the design closely, though, and the Quimby Street arriving in 2027 is a street that can become a plaza on short notice and then go back to being a street once the event ends. That is a different kind of place from the Open Quimby setup residents have used for the past few seasons, and this October is the last time that version will run.

The final weeks of Open Quimby

In its April 21, 2026 minutes, the town put it plainly. Public Works set up Open Quimby again this spring, with a one-way traffic pattern, parklets for participating restaurants, expanded outdoor dining and retail space, and full closures to cars on Tuesday nights in July and August for the Sweet Sounds Downtown Music Festival. The same report said "this will be the last year of the temporary Open Quimby configuration."

TAPinto describes the temporary closure as running from May through October. The town hasn't announced a last day. On the calendar, though, this weekend falls at the very end of the season the configuration was built for.

The street has already hosted its last big event of the season. AddamsFest's Addams Family Fun Day closed Quimby to cars on Sunday, Oct. 18, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Wicked Windows of Westfield, the Halloween window art that Downtown Westfield Corporation set up for AddamsFest, stays on display downtown through the end of October, which takes it right up to Halloween on Saturday.

Who is moving onto the block right now

The timing is what makes this fall interesting. As the temporary street winds down, Quimby accounts for three of the food businesses in TAPinto's Oct. 6 roundup of downtown openings.

TAPinto covered Le Bistrot's opening in September. The Town's Sept. 25 business update also listed Vina and The Scoop N Scootery as opening soon. Neither has announced an opening date yet. When they do open, the street outside will be in its winter layout, ahead of a construction season and then the plaza.

So three storefronts within about a dozen addresses of each other will see Quimby in three different forms over roughly a year. Le Bistrot got the tail end of the parklet season. The two newcomers will probably open after it ends.

What Arterial actually drew

The design Arterial presented to the Town Council on Aug. 11 covers Quimby from Central Avenue to Elm Street. The town posted the full Quimby Street presentation on its website. According to Patch's account of the meeting, these are its main parts:

• A flush, curbless roadway. Street and sidewalk sit at one level, so the whole block can work as a single surface when it's closed.
• One-way traffic with parallel parking. The direction residents know from Open Quimby becomes permanent.
• Movable and semi-automated bollards. This is the feature that lets the street switch between modes.
• Wider sidewalks, raised intersections and added crosswalks.

All four parts serve the bollards. A curbless street is what lets a closure feel like a plaza and not a parking lane with folding tables in it. Parallel parking along a one-way lane is what lets the block go back to ordinary use the morning after an event. Under the previous administration, then-Mayor Shelley Brindle described the same goal in her 2025 state of the town address, as TAPinto reported: a street that "will allow the street to be opened/closed easily with electronic bollards, create an expanded brick paved pedestrian experience and fully restore on-street parking in between events."

The project has also been kept to a defined area. Robato said Snickle Way will be handled later, and an alley connection to North Avenue is outside the current scope because property ownership questions are still unresolved.

The parking math, block versus district

Parking took up most of the council discussion. On Quimby itself the numbers go down, and across the surrounding area they go up.

These are Arterial's figures from the August presentation. Quimby loses 10 spaces, and the wider footprint gains roughly nine by adding spaces on Central Avenue and at nearby intersections. Anyone who now parks directly in front of a Quimby storefront will probably end up a short walk away on Central. The district as a whole comes out slightly ahead.

The timeline, and how it has moved

The schedule has slipped once already, which matters for anyone planning around it.

1. August 2025. The Town Council awards Arterial the design contract, at a fee not to exceed $179,250. The town administrator hoped construction could start in the first quarter of 2026.
2. April 2026. Mayor Jeremy Berman's administration confirms 2026 as Open Quimby's final temporary season. The plan is to share a final concept with businesses and tenants, then hold a public presentation and take community input, with completion slated before the start of summer 2027.
3. August 2026. Arterial presents updated concepts to the council. The Mayor's Aug. 14 message sets the goal of finalizing plans and going out to bid for construction by year-end, with completion "during the summer of 2027."

The Q1 2026 start didn't happen, and the target has moved from before summer 2027 to during it. The steering committee guiding the plans includes Mayor Berman, Councilmembers Saunders and Venkataraman, Planning Board Chair Mike Ash and Downtown Westfield Corporation Executive Director Dan Taugher. If the year-end bid goal holds, construction would fall somewhere between the turn of the year and next summer, which means Quimby's 2027 spring season may look different from any recent one.

Why the rest of downtown is part of this story

In his August message, the Mayor gave the reasoning in one line: "A pedestrian-driven plaza generates more foot traffic, more events, more reasons to come downtown and stay longer." The plaza is meant to serve the whole downtown, and the downtown it will serve is changing too.

TAPinto's Oct. 6 roundup lists Kome Omakase, which celebrated its grand opening at 407 South Ave. West, and Bagel Cafe NJ, now serving breakfast, lunch, smoothies and coffee at 272 North Ave. East. On Elm Street, Glowbar opened at 118 and Bonded Lash Bar at 57, and Straight Up Indian is coming soon to 9 Elm St. On East Broad, Framebridge opened at 220, Gamify U at 219, and Modern & Classic Rugs returned to town at 11 after years in Summit. Perch & Parlor, a specialty coffee bar serving brunch and dinner with counter service, is coming to 102 E. Broad St.

Three of those addresses sit on Elm Street, one of the two cross streets at either end of the redesign. When Quimby closes for an event in 2027, Elm's newest storefronts will be right at the edge of the plaza.

For the winter, the town calendar lists a Hanukkah menorah lighting on Friday, Dec. 4, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Other holiday dates for 2026 haven't been posted yet.

The plaza will change how downtown Westfield looks in photos and how close you can park to dinner. If you live within walking distance of Quimby and want to talk through how the coming changes fit your home's story, whether you're preparing to sell next year or just planning ahead, Best in Showing can walk you through it over a coffee on Elm. Get Your Free Home Valuation.