Freehold Raceway Mall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Freehold Raceway Mall is a super-regional mall in Freehold, New Jersey located in a space between Route 33, Business Route 33, CR 537, and Route 9, (Route 33 does not have an entrance to the mall, as it is a major highway, but the other three routes do.) making it a major shopping destination. The mall is anchored by Macy's, J.C. Penney, Sears, Lord & Taylor and Nordstrom. The mall is managed by The Macerich Company and has 1,594,888 square feet of gross leasable area.^[1]^[2]

1 History
2 Expansion
3 Anchors & Majors
4 Major Retail Outlets
5 Stores and restaurants
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

The Freehold Raceway Mall was built across the street from the Freehold Raceway on land used for stables. The stables are still there, connected by a small bridge over Route 9, but they can only be accessed via mall entrance road.

The fully-enclosed mall originally opened in 1990 with two anchors: Sears and Lord & Taylor, with construction already underway on JCPenney (originally planned to be a Hahne's, but the company went out of business), which later opened in 1991 and Nordstrom, which later opened in 1992. A fifth anchor, Macy's, was added in 1998.

The Freehold Raceway Mall is blamed for the demise of the Manalapan Mall a few miles north on Route 9, which was closed and torn down in 1998, then replaced by The Epicentre, a big box center. Now, the mall is being threatened by a planned multi-use center, The Village at Manalapan, in close-by Manalapan Township. But, as this new center is criticized due to traffic and such, this is highly unlikely.

It is the fourth largest shopping mall in the state of New Jersey. The interior is fitted with a harness racing motif, with lots of green and gold, and the signature latticework on the ceiling.

Freehold Raceway Mall offers a Kid’s Breakfast Club where the entire family can have fun together. The first Saturday of each month of the year at the mall is scheduled with different activities that are unique on its own.

The main mall is surrounded by many big box stores, including Dick's Sporting Goods, Bob's, AMC Theaters, The Home Depot (formerly Builder's Square), CompUSA (formerly Computer City), Toys "R" Us, Kids "R" Us, Marshalls and Linens 'n Things.

Shopping hours at the Freehold Raceway Mall are from ten in the morning to nine- thirty in the evening on Mondays till Saturdays. Sunday hours are from eleven in the morning to seven in the evening.

[edit] Expansion

There are two expansion projects that are proposed for the mall.

The first proposed expansion would include a 250,000-square-foot addition for a sixth anchor store located between Macy's and Nordstrom with a new multilevel parking deck, a 1,000 room hotel with two proposed restaurants and an office building located on a parcel of land between Winners Circle and Business Route 33.^[3]

The second proposal would be an open-air addition "lifestyle center" that will be added on the east portion of the mall. The area would include many restaurants, a major bookstore, and up to 15 spots for retail tenants. The mall is looking for stores that aren't typical to a mall. There will be a pedestrian-only promenade along the East entrances from Sears to JCPenney. The architecture will be brick and stone with steel and metal accents to complement the current mall's white-and-green harness racing-style exterior.^[4]

Two new parking lots will be built on site to replace those that will be lost.

An interior renovation could be possible, but it's not that certain if it actually take place.

Construction on the expansion is expected for January 2007.

[edit] Anchors & Majors

Abercrombie & Fitch (12,792 sq. ft. total, Abercrombie & Fitch - 9,052 sq. ft., abercrombie - 3,740 sq. ft.)
Express/Express Men (10,676 sq. ft.)
The Gap (11,876 sq. ft.)
J.C. Penney (148,000 sq. ft.)
Lord & Taylor (120,635 sq. ft.)
Macy's (225,000 sq. ft.)
Nordstrom (163,354 sq. ft.)
Old Navy (15,195 sq. ft.)
Sears (134,635 sq. ft.)
UNIQLO (10,151 sq. ft.)