BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer

MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Bennett Camhi, owner of The Costume Shop located in the Red Bank mini-mall at the corner of Broad and Monmouth streets, holds up a Roman soldier costume.

Crammed with costumes, fright masks, stage makeup and magicians’ paraphernalia, the quirky shop has been a fixture in Red Bank for 20 years. But with its lease up, The Costume Shop is, reluctantly, about to leave town.

"I’d rather stay in Red Bank, of course, but the rising rents in this town have made it impossible," explained Bennett Camhi, proprietor of the costume shop located in the Red Bank mini-mall at Broad and Monmouth.

According to Camhi, his shop is the largest source of costume rentals and sales, masks, theatrical makeup, magic and clown supplies in central New Jersey. Over 20 years, the shop has built a loyal customer base that includes many community theater troupes.

An impending rent increase propelled his move out of Red Bank, where his shop had been in three different locations over two decades.

"I had a five-year lease and it was up, and the landlord wasn’t going to renew," he explained. "He wanted $3,000 a month and I’d been paying $1,250. My lease expires April 30, and the realty company sent me a letter saying my lease wouldn’t be renewed."

Ensconced in the Red Bank mini-mall for the past seven years, this weekend Camhi will move his shop to the Bayshore town of Keyport, where commercial rents are lower and parking is free.

"I made an effort to stay in Red Bank," Camhi said last week. "I called up all the Realtors and checked out all the available spaces in town. Every time someone went out, I checked, and they wanted $4,000, $5,000, $7,000.

"Who can afford to pay $6,000-$7000 a month?" he asked. "That’s $84,000 a year — and that’s just rent, not advertising, staff, utilities. And, that’s triple net.

"There was nothing available. Nobody wanted to work with me unless I was willing to pay a high rent," he complained. "I needed to have at least 1,800 square feet. I needed high ceilings. We need every inch for merchandise. There were a few places, but I couldn’t afford them.

"Rents got so high and landlords got so greedy that people are searching for cheaper rents elsewhere because they can’t afford to be here anymore. They’re being priced out of the market."

When he turned to other towns, Camhi found soaring rents aren’t limited to the borough.

"I’ve been looking for a year. The bottom line is $3,000 triple net for 1,500-2,000 square feet. I looked all through town and in Neptune, Long Branch, Asbury Park where they wanted $3,000 a month on Cookman Avenue. I found a place on Broadway in Long Branch across from the theater where they wanted $2,500 triple net to start.

"My business is seasonal. I can only afford so much."

In downtown Keyport, Camhi came across the space he was looking for and a landlord looking for a reasonable rent, he said.

"I found a wonderful warehouse being renovated at 41 Division St.," said Camhi, who will reopen the shop in the new, 1,800-square-foot space in mid-May.

"The difference is this is what I can afford," he explained. "This landlord is giving me the rent I can afford with a 10-year lease. The landlord is willing to work with me."

Moving the shop’s extensive inventory is an effort that has been under way for several weeks.

"We’ll move more than 3,000 costumes, accessories, masks," he said. The shop’s phone number will remain the same and the party-oriented business will expand into balloon decorations at the new location.

According to the north Long Branch resident, rising rent wasn’t the only problem his business faced in Red Bank.

Interior renovations at the mini-mall cut into business, big time.

"I was hidden in a hole back here," explained Camhi. "It was like I was forgotten. Once they closed the front of the building off, it became the worst location in the world."

Structural changes that blocked the costume shop from view "had a big impact on my business," he said. "People thought I went out of business and there was no signage. It cut my business by 50 percent."

And, there was parking.

"My customers’ biggest problem was not being able to find parking," he said. "When they did, they had to pay for parking and when they came out, they had gotten a ticket. It does affect business."

Camhi began his costume/entertainment business during lunch breaks from a factory job when he would arrange bookings from a telephone booth. He portrayed cartoon characters and superheroes at children’s parties and street fairs, delivered balloon-o-grams, even played a gorilla.

For years, Camhi portrayed Santa at holiday time in the West End of Long Branch, meeting and greeting customers in the business district and spreading goodwill for the merchants’ association. Then he graduated to playing clowns and comic characters for big events in town.

"I’d do more than portray the character," he said. "I’d put together an event. I once scaled a three-story building as an action character during the town’s sidewalk sales. I would always do something wacky."

When the factory closed, he went to work full time at the costume shop he had purchased in 1984 at 15 Linden St. in Red Bank.

When that building was torn down for development of the Merrill Lynch offices, Camhi moved the costume shop to 141 Broad St. and, when the rent escalated after five years, he moved into the mini-mall.

As an adjunct to The Red Bank Costume Shop, Camhi runs Mr. B’s Entertainment, which supplies live entertainment for occasions ranging from a child’s birthday party to a charity ball to a corporate function — supplying pony rides, clowns, mimes, magicians, cartoon characters, look-a-likes. magicians, balloon-a-grams and singing telegrams.

According to Camhi, the shop’s most popular masks continue to be the likenesses of political figures, particularly former presidents Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton. In costumes, the shop handles everything from Star Wars to a two-headed horse.

His costume shop is a vestige of another era in a town that appears to have moved on, Camhi observed.

"We were the last mom-and-pop; the last people to see this town change so drastically. They’re calling it progress, and that’s fine," he said, "but when you get greedy landlords who overprice themselves, somebody’s got to pay for it. Those that can’t are out."