Pulis Avenue Gave Franklin Lakes a Weekday Address This Fall

At 6 AM on a Tuesday, the lights come on at 1 Vichiconti Way. That is the Franklin Lakes Community Center, which sits at Pulis Avenue Field next to the Pulis Avenue recreation complex. The gym inside opens at that hour every weekday and stays open until 8 PM. Two hours later, a café on the first floor starts serving coffee. Out back, the new Jake's Law All-Inclusive Playground has been open since late summer.

For a borough whose public calendar has long been built around weekends, that matters. The October 3 ribbon cutting made it official. The bigger story is the schedule. Pulis Avenue, together with a new recording studio at the library on DeKorte Drive, gives Franklin Lakes its first civic spaces built for Tuesday morning.

The Fall Calendar Still Runs on Saturdays

Here is how the borough's public fall looks when you list it by date:

Every major item is on a Saturday. Most of them sit along the McBride and Franklin Avenue corridor. Midweek, the calendar is close to empty. The library's online "Whispers in the Pines: Lure and Legends from New Jersey" talk on Thursday, October 29, from 6 to 7 PM, is one of the few exceptions. November 11 appears on the borough calendar as "Veterans Day - Borough Closed."

That is the gap the Pulis Avenue corner fills.

What Changed at 1 Vichiconti Way

The building isn't new. REED Autism Services describes the center as a reimagining of a long-standing community gathering place. REED took over operations on April 1, 2026, through a partnership with the borough. Under that partnership, the borough said REED would use most of the second floor for its own programming and a first-floor room for the café. Borough recreation programs continue alongside.

The center now has four main uses:

• THE GYM. Cardio and strength-training equipment, sold by public membership. It's open 6 AM to 8 PM on weekdays and 6 AM to 1 PM on weekends.
• Beans Do Good Cafe. Coffee, refreshments and grab-and-go food, Tuesday through Thursday, 8 AM to 4 PM.
• Small-group athletic training and borough recreation programming.
• Nonprofit meetings, social-skills groups and teen volunteer opportunities. REED listed these among the center's activities in its March announcement.

The gym soft-opened on September 1. The borough's August 31 newsletter says anyone who joins by October 31 gets the first month free. It also says a schedule and rates for instructor-led fitness classes would follow "in or around October." As of today, the newsletter's details on the free month and the coming classes are the most recent public information. REED's gym page has current hours.

Why the Playground Landed at Pulis Avenue and Not McBride

The playground is the reason this corner draws families on a weekday afternoon, and it almost went somewhere else.

At the borough's public hearing on the Jake's Law playground, the presentation said McBride Field was considered first. Pulis Avenue won out for two reasons: its existing playground needed replacing, and residents had raised concerns about putting a new one at McBride. That choice is the reason the new playground and the community center share one site. It also keeps a weekday gathering spot away from the corridor that already hosts Oktoberfest, the market and summer movies.

The funding came with a deadline. The same presentation called 2025 "the last opportunity" for Jake's Law pilot funding through the Green Acres program. It described a 75 percent matching grant of up to $750,000, with the borough contributing $250,000. The borough later announced that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Garden State Preservation Trust had approved the full $750,000. That covers 75 percent of the cost of a playground that "will replace the existing playground at the Pulis Avenue field."

Jake's Law grants pay for playgrounds designed for children and adults with and without disabilities. The borough describes the finished playground as a welcoming, accessible play environment with inclusive equipment for children of all abilities. Playground rules are posted on the borough site.

A Café With Tuesday-Through-Thursday Hours

Inclusion is part of how the building runs, too. The borough's newsletter says both the café and the gym provide hands-on job training and jobs for teens and adults with autism. It cites an estimate that 80 to 85 percent of autistic adults are unemployed or underemployed.

That shapes the café's hours. Beans Do Good Cafe is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8 AM to 4 PM, according to REED's café page, last updated October 6, 2026. It's closed on Saturday, when the rest of Franklin Lakes' public calendar happens. It runs on the days the borough has had the least going on. Check the café page before making a trip, since a café in its first season may adjust its hours.

The Other Weekday Room in Town: Decker Studio

The second piece of the weekday shift is across town at the Franklin Lakes Public Library, 470 DeKorte Drive. NorthJersey.com introduced the Edward Decker Recording Studio in July. The studio is named for local jazz musician Eddie Decker. It's meant for recording music, podcasts and oral histories by students, teachers and residents. It's part of the Library Foundation's completed Phase 2 Renewal Project.

The library's Decker Studio page gives October 13 as the "firm launch" date. When we checked, booking was listed as "currently unavailable." Once booking opens, the library's page and FAQ set these rules:

1. Library card. You need an unexpired BCCLS library card with less than $10 in fines. You must be 14 or older, and high school students need a high school ID.
2. Session length. Sessions run up to three hours, with one session per week.
3. Booking. Patrons book through the library's booking service. The library may suggest a different time so you're paired with an engineer who has the right skills for your session.
4. Paperwork. Every user and guest signs a User Agreement. Guests under 18 need a parent or guardian's signature, and each session can include up to four guests.
5. Fee. A session costs $40, paid at the Circulation Desk. Franklin Lakes residents, borough employees, and students and staff at Ramapo and Indian Hills high schools don't pay it.

The equipment list includes a Mac Studio Pro, Fender Pro Studio 8 recording software, Behringer P16 headphone mixers and a Universal Audio Volt 876 interface. There's also a RODECaster Pro II for podcasts, a Roland FA-07 keyboard, a Yamaha DTX electronic drum kit, a guitar, a bass, and Shure and Aston microphones. The studio supports podcasts, music rehearsal, original recordings and voice-over work. The Library Foundation's page calls the studio "free to patrons and local students." The library's own studio page has the fee and exemption rules above.

After November 21

The Farmers & Artisan Market closes its season at Veterans Plaza on Saturday, November 21. After that, the Saturday calendar thins out until the next season of outdoor events. Pulis Avenue and DeKorte Drive don't follow that season. Here's a typical late-fall week once the market is done, using the posted hours:

The playground is open whenever the posted rules allow. A Tuesday morning visit can now include a workout, coffee at Beans Do Good and an hour at a playground the borough rebuilt with a state grant. Five weeks ago, none of those options existed.

The Pulis Avenue corner is one of the Franklin Lakes details we follow closely at The Taylor Lucyk Group, because a borough's daily routine tells you a lot about the place. If you're thinking about what your Franklin Lakes home is worth this season, Request Your Luxury Home Valuation and we'll walk you through the numbers along with what's changing around you.