While the search for a supermarket and exterior renovations are ongoing, Plainsboro Plaza will see increased occupancy with the signing of three new tenants: a bank, a gym, and a daycare.
The Indus American Bank opened in early November, while Planet Fitness will fully open in time for those with New Year’s resolutions. Lightbridge Academy, a franchise daycare center, is due to open in March.
The pre-sales office at Planet Fitness is open and enrolling members, replacing the Powerhouse Gym that previously occupied the plaza. Planet Fitness will be the second 24/7 gym in the area, with Snap Fitness located across the road in Plainsboro Village.
“We wanted to give Plainsboro residents an area to work out at a low cost,” says district manager Liza Harper.
Formerly known as Rainbow Academy before rebranding to Lightbridge last October, the Lightbridge Academy franchise coming to Plainsboro is owned by Ketul and Krupa Parikh, who live in Monroe with their two children.
“We’re extremely excited and we will be engaging more and more in Plainsboro, whether it’s with the library, school system, and sponsoring summer and community activities,” says Ketul Parikh, who worked in management and IT consulting for 25 years and now owns several technology, medical, retail, and hotel businesses. His wife, Krupa, who is a classical musician and private tutor, will be involved with the daily operations.
“My wife has been working with Lightbridge, working at a different center getting acclimated to the system and their way of doing things. We like their approach to education. In a way they are an old-fashioned value-based organization and at the same time they have technologies.”
The technology includes electronic white boards, electronic access for parents to view the classroom, and software for teachers to send daily E-mail reports and pictures.
According to Parikh a September opening was originally planned, but external renovations by Onyx Equities, the owners of Plainsboro Plaza, as well as his own remodeling for the center, have delayed the opening until March. (Onyx has begun a $2 million renovation of the center.)
Indus American Bank (IAB), the third new tenant, may have a hand in bringing in future tenants to the plaza.
Based in Iselin, New Jersey, IAB is a full-service bank founded by a group of Indian-Americans in 2005. The bank’s target market is entrepeneurial first-generation South Asian immigrants and it is headed by Chairman Anil Bansal, CEO Jasbir Chopra, and senior vice president Dinesh Goswami.
“We’re basically an ethnic bank. We move where the South Asian community is,” says Goswami, who noted the growing South Asian population in the area. “Plainsboro Plaza is a good location, easy to get to, and we got a good deal. We’re the only Indian bank in the tri-state area, 80 percent of our shareholders are Indian.”
The new Plainsboro branch is the fifth overall, and the first one to open in five years. The staff can speak 11 languages, and they believe sharing a language and community creates a relatability and comfort for clients.
“The idea is you have the community, we understand how the community does business. We take deposits from the community, lend it back, and make it stronger. Our community has a lot of start-up businesses,” Goswami says. “The founders saw the need for a bank, and understood the needs of South Asians, which is more retail in nature.”
Goswami describes the shared experience of many first generation South Asian immigrants, those who initially arrive in America and have a high education level and a high professional income.
“The only way first generation immigrants could come to America is if they had technical knowledge. They take the professional income, slowly grow it, then invest. And as the community grows, needs for the community grow, you have entrepreneurs to fill in the need,” says Goswami. “It is very typical for a guy working in an IT company, with a high six-figure salary, they save that for four to five years and invest in a gas station, real estate, grocery, restaurant.”
Goswami himself is an aeronautical engineer by training, and he says he has owned retail businesses as well.
When asked why many South Asian immigrants tend to go retail, Goswami explains such endeavors do not require technical skills, and newly arrived family members can slot in and work the long hours that retail demands. He gives an example right across the plaza: the liquor store is owned by an Indian-American pharmacist, and it is run by his brother who is not a pharmacist.
In addition to business savvy, what makes this blueprint possible is hard work. “When you come to this country, we’re willing to work 15, 18, 20 hour days. Finding good help from other family members” is critical because “it is hard to find good workers,” Goswami says. “We don’t take this country for granted, we know what it means to be poor.”
Compared to countries in South Asia, according to Goswami, it is easier to start a business in the U.S. Moreover, he cites America’s judicial system, intellectual property protection, and lower interest rates as other favorable environmental factors.
“You can do so many things in America. I can open a business online in 24 hours, in India that’s not possible,” says Goswami. “The bottom line is immigrants come here to make money. With your own business, the destiny is in your own hands.”
As a community bank, IAB’s strategy is to enter the picture and assist aspiring immigrant entrepreneurs.
“A traditional bank would ignore someone who wants to open a Subway for the first time, or the engineer who wants to open up a restaurant. We sit down with the person, work as a financial expert, advise them on how to start their own business, their requirements and needs. No big bank will do that for you.” Goswami says.
When he was working for other banks, Goswami says he saw how small business owners were disadvantaged by the electronically driven credit evaluation process. “You won’t have a credit history if you are new to the country, a parent giving a son $200,000 to open a business, this is very common for South Asians. We understand that part, we put emphasis on people.”
