Westfield Garden State Plaza

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Mall facts and statistics
Westfield Garden State dog

Location	Paramus, New Jersey, USA
Opening date	May 1957
Developer	R.H. Macy & Co.
Management	The Westfield Group
Owner	The Westfield Group
No. of stores and services	346^[1]
No. of anchor tenants	5^[2]
Total retail floor area	1,987,000 ft² (184,592m²)^[2]
Parking	9,994 parking spaces^[2]
No. of floors	3
Website	Westfield.com/GardenStatePlaza

Westfield Garden State Plaza is a large shopping mall in Paramus, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City. Broadly, it is located at the intersection of Route 4 and Route 17 near the Garden State Parkway in Bergen County, New Jersey. With 1,987,000 ft² (184,592m²) of lettable space^[2]^[3], it is the largest mall in New Jersey and, behind the Roosevelt Field Mall at 2,189,941 square feet (203,000 m²) gross, the second-largest mall in the New York City metropolitan area, neck-and-neck with Palisades Center in West Nyack, New York. Its department store anchors are J.C. Penney, Lord & Taylor, Macy's, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom^[2], and it is across Route 4 from an IKEA.

Westfield Garden State Plaza ranks among the largest shopping malls in the United States, having been ranked 17th largest in the United States by the American Studies department at Eastern Connecticut State University Shopping Mall Studies^[4]. The Westfield Garden State Plaza is the largest mall in the Westfield Groups' global portfolio in terms of letable area.^[5] This is significant given that Westfield is the largest retail property group globally.^[6]

The mall had sales of $578 per square foot in 2005, about 50% above the national average, according to the Directory of Major Malls. Garden State Plaza is one of the most profitable malls in the country.^[7]

1 History
2 Blue laws
3 Expansion
4 Public transportation
5 Anchors
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

Garden State Plaza was built in 1957 by the Muscarelle Construction Company for owner/developer R.H. Macy & Co. as an open-air shopping "plaza". Its groundbreaking design differed from today's "Big Box" shopping areas in that, rather than having its tenants strung around the periphery of one large parking lot, the stores, except for those more suited for out-parcels (e.g. automotive repair and retail), were clustered on a shopping island, encircled by a mote of parking lots, much like today. Connecting the stores were open-air sidewalks, complete with benches, plantered trees and other vegetation. This model approximated a "downtown" pedestrian mall, at the same time serving as a precursor of the latter-day enclosed and air-conditioned shopping malls. Eventually it would siphon most of the retail business from nearby downtown Paterson, whose Meyer Brothers and Quackenbush department stores (later Stern's-Quackenbush) would fall upon hard times and vanish into history.

Garden State Plaza drew much business from nearby New York towns and cities, whose shoppers wandered across state lines to take advantage of New Jersey's lower sales taxes and its policy that exempted clothing purchases from sales tax.

The original anchor was Bamberger's (owned by R.H. Macy since 1929). Gimbel's and J.C. Penney were added shortly thereafter in a second development phase.^[8] The mall was subsequently enclosed between 1981 and 1984 in response to competitive pressure from newer fully enclosed malls such as the Willowbrook Mall in nearby Wayne^[9].

Nordstrom opened its first New Jersey location in May 1990, building a $37 million, 272,000 sq. ft., three-level store on the former Gimbel's site.

In 1996, Garden State Plaza marked the completion of a $200 million expansion and remodeling project that added over 700,000 sq. ft. of retail space and two new multi-level parking structures. JCPenney grew by 62,000 sq. ft. to 150,000 sq. ft., and two new anchors were added, a 150,000 sq. ft. Neiman Marcus and a 130,000 sq. ft. Lord & Taylor, both targeted at the upscale fashion-conscious shopper^[9].

[edit] Blue laws

Due to highly restrictive blue laws in effect in Bergen County and more restrictive limitations in place in Paramus, Garden State Plaza is completely closed on Sundays. The Paramus Borough Code forbids the performance of any "worldly employment" on Sunday, with very limited exceptions.^[10] These laws were enacted shortly after Garden State Plaza opened out of fear that the mall would cause high levels of congestion in the borough.^[11] While there have been several attempts to repeal these laws over the years, they have all failed.

[edit] Expansion

The borough of Paramus has asked the state's highest court to review a decision that allows the Garden State Plaza to construct a 16-screen movie theater. The borough had submitted a petition against the Garden State Plaza and the Borough's Planning Board to the New Jersey Supreme Court, asking it to review the plans to construct a 163,000-square-foot "entertainment lifestyle precinct" at the mall that will include the theater and 10 specialty retail stores, along with a 158,000-square-foot parking lot below the new wing.^[7] As of January 1, 2007, construction of the much fought over 160,000+ sq. ft. addition to the mall is well underway. New stores include a new vision of Barnes and Noble Booksellers, as well as another new concept by the Cheesecake Factory, Grand Lux Cafe.

[edit] Public transportation

Garden State Plaza is also a major bus transfer point for New Jersey Transit, as the 162 and 163 to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the 171 and 175 to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, the 770 to Paterson and Hackensack, the 709 to Bloomfield, and Bergen County Academy Express-contracted local routes 751, 753, 755, 756 and 758, stop there^[12].