With Jordan's opening, glitz, deals, and traffic concerns

READING -- Eliot Tatelman was standing Sunday just behind a green archway in the entrance of the newest Jordan's Furniture, watching thousands stream in.

''Know why I'm standing behind here?" asked Tatelman, who is better known as half of the Barry and Eliot team that symbolizes Jordan's Furniture. ''It's so I can watch people's faces. See where they look. Watch where their eyes go. See them smile."

Reading's newest store is bringing joy to shoppers, optimism to town officials, and dismay to neighbors, as all three groups live through the first week of a grand opening unlike any seen in these parts.

Eric Redard, minister of the First Congregational Church in Reading, said his congregation has been abuzz with news of the store's opening for weeks.

''Most of my congregation is pretty excited about Jordan's," he said Sunday. ''There's been a lot of talk about it."

There's no concise way to describe a furniture store that includes an IMAX theater, a restaurant, jelly bean sculptures, an ice cream shop, and perhaps most inexplicably, a trapeze contraption 30 feet high with a room-sized net beneath.

The place is a little bit Disney, a little bit schmaltz, and a lot of retail, located atop a 35-acre former landfill, in a town that has a minuscule commercial and industrial tax base.

It bears little resemblance to the other Jordan's stores in Nashua, Avon, and Natick, managed by brothers Eliot and Barry Tatelman, who last year sold their business to Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway, owned by investor Warren Buffett. The Tatelmans continue to run operations.

For all the hoopla, the attractions simply are meant to lure customers.

''Ultimately, it's about selling furniture," said Tatelman, as he watched visitors take in the scene.

To the right of the entranceway is the trapeze, staffed by flying artists from a professional trapeze school. To the left is a Johnny's Luncheonette. Beyond the trapeze station is a computer-generated water show on an oversized screen, and a 500-seat Comcast 3D IMAX Theater, made famous in the company's commercials.

The furniture is in showrooms that are located well behind the glitzy, eye-catching entrance, but the displays are varied and expansive.

''They're going to get our business because we saw furniture we liked," said Michelle Lavargne of Tewksbury, as she was leaving the store Sunday with her husband, son, and parents. ''We've been to the ones in Nashua and Avon, and this one is by far the best."

Spending for furniture and bedding is up 7.9 percent since August 2003, according to the US Department of Commerce. That's good news for Jordan's, and if the crowds that visited over the weekend are any indication, the store will be a roaring success.

To the Town of Reading, however, the store's profits are less significant than the fact that it was built on a potential environmental liability. A few years ago, when developer Mark Dickinson of Quincy-based Dickinson Development Corp. purchased the landfill on which Jordan's now sits for $3 million, he saved the town environmental cleanup costs that were expected to range between $6 million and $8 million, said finance director Elizabeth Klepeis.

According to Klepeis, Dickinson originally planned to build a hotel and office building on the land, thereby adding hotel/motel fees to the town's tax revenues. But when the commercial real estate market softened, he opted for retail stores, which add less to the town's tax revenues, but make use of a large area that otherwise might have remained empty.

In addition to saving on the environmental costs, Klepeis said the new development has increased the amount of taxes the town can raise under Proposition 2, a state law that limits a town's annual increase in property tax revenue to 2.5 percent, plus revenue from new construction.

''This year [fiscal 2005], we're projecting we're getting about $490,000" in revenue from new growth, she said. That compares to $250,000 in new growth for the previous fiscal year, she said.

''That means you can raise that much more in taxes," Klepeis added.

The development at the Jordan's site ''certainly increases the tax base," said town planner Christopher Reilly. ''Reading is primarily a suburban community. It has renewed interest in that area on the part of other developers who probably wouldn't have looked in that area before. Without Jordan's and Home Depot, there wouldn't have been a market."

Next to Jordan's is a Home Depot store that opened this summer, and there are an additional 75,000 square feet of retail space under construction. That area, which will include Linens 'n Things, Macaroni Grill, Office Max, and Starbucks, will be ready for occupancy next spring.

Jordan's ''will encourage more development and better redevelopment than what would have occurred there," said Reilly. ''There are impacts, but overall it provides a significant financial benefit for the town and shopping opportunities for local residents in the region."

Neighbors are feeling the impact of heavy traffic and bright lighting at night. Residents of Washington Street, John Street, and Village Street have voiced concern to town officials, and some say they've experienced increased traffic since Home Depot opened. With Jordan's opening, Paul Piraino of Washington Street is predicting greater congestion in his neighborhood.

''I can't see it as being anything but a disaster," he said. ''I've lived here since 1966. I've seen it go from a quiet family street to this."

The three residential streets bridge Route 28 in the town center to the Interstate 95 access by Jordan's. Traffic exiting from the west side of town travels those roads.

In August, Dickinson Development conducted a baseline traffic study for the town and will follow it with another study this spring, said Reilly. ''Then we'll know what the real impacts are," he added.

But Piraino's wife, Marie, already sees the effects.

''I like Jordan's," she said, as she stood on the sidewalk across from her home and watched cars whiz by. ''I'm glad it's here. But this neighborhood is suffering because of all the added traffic."

The Pirainos and Redard, who also lives in the neighborhood, noted that Saturday's traffic clogged the nearby highway exit, as customers flocked to the new store.

But Tatelman, who said he's been through store openings before, doesn't believe traffic will be a long-term problem, as the novelty of the new store fades.

''This is the opening," he said. ''It's not going to be like this all the time."

With that, he turned his attention to the trapeze overhead.

''The key is people are having a great time," he said. ''Look! People are flying on the trapeze. That's what it's all about."