Menlo Park Mall
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| Facts and statistics | |
|---|---|
| Location | Edison, New Jersey, United States |
| Coordinates | 40°32′18″N 74°22′43″W / 40.53833°N 74.37861°WCoordinates: 40°32′18″N 74°22′43″W / 40.53833°N 74.37861°W |
| Opening date | 1956, September 1991 (renovated/expanded) |
| Owner | Simon Property Group |
| No. of stores and services | 175 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4: Macy's, Nordstrom, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, and The Cheesecake Factory |
| Total retail floor area | 1,232,000 ft²[1] |
| Parking | 2 parking decks and lighted surface lots |
| No. of floors | 2 (department stores have 3) |
| Website | Menlo Park Mall |
Menlo Park Mall is a two-level super regional shopping mall, located on U.S. Route 1 and Parsonage Road in Edison, New Jersey, United States. The mall has a gross leasable area of 1,232,000 ft² (114,000 m²).[1] Menlo Park Mall is currently owned by the Simon Property Group.
Contents |
[edit] History
The mall opened in the mid 1950s and eventually became the first enclosed mall in Central Jersey. It is named after the Menlo Park area of Edison, where Thomas Edison had his famous laboratory, the site of which is about two miles (3 km) from the mall. From the 1950s to 1990, Menlo Park Mall was anchored by Bamberger's (changed to Macy's in 1987), Alexander's, a small J. C. Penney (closed in 1981 after the move to Woodbridge Center, 3 miles (4.8 km) up Route 1) and a two-level Woolworth. The mall was one level and as a result of the lack of skylights (only shaded windows along the sides of the ceiling) and low lighting was quite dark. The flooring was quite unique in that there were patterns of orange, black, yellow and white throughout the mall. When Alexander's went out of business, the mall was able to secure the 2nd Nordstrom in the state of New Jersey, but changes had to be made to prepare for the opening. Most of the mall was closed from 1990-1991, when it underwent a significant renovation and expansion that converted it from a single-story structure into its current two-story form. In expanding and fitting into the space, the new Menlo Park Mall was built on an angle with the vertex occurring at center court. The new Menlo Park Mall was also changed to have galleria style skylights, domed fountain courts, marble flooring, dramatic lighting, sculptures and a large, skylit food court. Two parking decks were also added, as was a 12 Screen Cineplex Odeon movie theatre, which replaced the smaller Menlo Park Cinema on Route 1 (which was later replaced by Romano's Macaroni Grill). Macy's was the only store to remain open during the primary expansion.
[edit] In the media
While not featured, the mall's name was mentioned in Kevin Smith's films Mallrats and Chasing Amy, both of which take place in Central Jersey areas. An episode of Comedy Central's Upright Citizen's Brigade was filmed in the Menlo Park Mall. The Scott and Todd Big Show on radio station WPLJ sponsored a contest in April 2007, in which five contestants had to live in a makeshift prison in the mall for five days with the winner receiving a $5,000 shopping spree and a vacation to Aruba.[2]
Following the shooting of employee Maliha Janjua on September 7, 2007, the Gymboree store temporarily closed, but reopened shortly thereafter.[3]
[edit] Anchors & majors
- Macy's (337,591 ft2)
- Nordstrom (190,000 ft2)
- Barnes & Noble Booksellers
- The Cheesecake Factory
[edit] Tenants
The mall's original anchor store was Bamberger's, now Macy's (occupying 337,591 sq ft) and a more recent addition to the mall is Nordstrom (occupying 190,000 sq ft.). Over the years, Menlo Park Mall has sought tenants that market to upscale shoppers like Club Monaco, Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic, Kenneth Cole, Lucky Brand Jeans, Swarovski, Zara, Guess, Armani Exchange, H&M, and Hollister. Menlo Park has also brought in various entertainment and dining options to keep the mall populated after regular hours such as Barnes & Noble Booksellers, The Cheesecake Factory, the Rainforest Cafe, a 12-screen AMC Theatres, Fox & Hound, Romano's Macaroni Grill and Benihana.
[edit] Expansion and renovation
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2009) |
The mall has been extensively expanded and renovated starting in 1999, when a new wing was remerchandised, the lower level west wing (now known as the Steve & Barry's wing). The wing had previously contained a Linens 'N Things and Herman's World of Sporting Goods. Both had eventually closed and as a result of the remerchandising, Rainforest Cafe opened at the end of the wing and is one of the mall's largest and most successful restaurants. After the closure of a furniture store in the former Linens 'N Things, Steve & Barry's opened in 2006. Additional stores located in this wing consist of Radio Shack a pretzel shop, a unisex hair salon, and a sports collectors shop.
In 2002, construction began on the entrance near Nordstrom facing Parsonage Road. This entrance was temporarily closed for the construction of Barnes & Noble and Cheesecake Factory, both of which opened in early 2003. The front parking lot was also expanded.
Between 2002 and 2004, many stores were opened and closed in the mall. Popular stores Zany Brainy and Nobody Beats the Wiz closed in 2003. In 2003 and 2004, several eateries in the food court were closed and replaced, including Burger King (which is now Wendy's), Arby's (now a sushi eatery), and a specialty Mexican eatery (now Taco Bell). The Animal Shop was also replaced with Cold Stone Creamery, My Favorite Muffin was replaced with a Smoothie stand, and Compact Disc World was replaced with Jos. A Bank. Build-A-Bear Workshop also opened in 2002 and is now one of the mall's most popular attractions. FAO Schwartz, a popular toy store, was closed and replaced with various stores, including Bailey Banks and Biddle. In early 2004. Apple opened its first mall store in New Jersey, and Sharper Image also opened that year. Sony Style then opened its second mall store in New Jersey in 2005.
In 2007, the mall began to go in the direction of fewer but larger stores, as opposed to its previous "numerous small stores" image. Because of this, several small, specialty stores were closed and popular stores such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria's Secret, Express, The Gap, and New York and Company were expanded in their places in the spring and summer of 2007, and Sephora was opened in early spring 2007. In the fall of 2007, large stores of H&M and Hollister were added to the mall. The new, extended stores are extremely large, in particular the Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch stores, which take up large sections of the Macy's wing.
The mall continued to revamp itself, such as the food court dining area being expanded in the fall of 2005, an interactive floor game was added in the spring of 2006 and the fountain in the Nordstrom midcourt was removed in 2006 and replaced with a carpeted soft seating area. The mall also revamped its decor in 2005 and 2006, along with adding soft, carpeted seating areas, and revamped several of its stores in 2006 and 2007, including Payless ShoeSource and The Gap. The mall currently has no plans for further renovation.
Barami is coming in 2009, as is a BCBG Maxazria.
[edit] New stores
[edit] Coming soon
- BCBG Maxazria
- Barami
[edit] References
- ^ a b Menlo Park Mall, International Council of Shopping Centers. Accessed September 21, 2006.
- ^ Contest turns Menlo Park mall into 'prison', Edison-Metuchen Sentinel, Apr. 18, 2007
- ^ Authorities: Man shoots woman, kills himself in shopping mall, Associated Press, September 8, 2007
