Willowbrook Mall (Wayne, New Jersey)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Willowbrook Mall is a two-level, major shopping center located in Wayne, New Jersey, an affluent suburb of New York City. Broadly, it is located near the intersection of U.S. Route 46, Route 23 and Interstate 80. The mall opened in 1969 and was expanded / renovated in 1970 and 1988. Today the mall has over 200 retail establishments and a gross leasable area (GLA) of 1,500,000 ft²,[1] placing it near the largest shopping malls in the United States, and making it the fourth largest of all Shopping malls in New Jersey (tied with Monmouth Mall).

Owned by General Growth Properties, the mall's anchor stores include Bloomingdale's, Lord & Taylor, Macy's and Sears. Its major restaurants include California Pizza Kitchen, Cheesecake Factory, and Ruby Tuesday.

Willowbrook Mall's regular season hours are 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

With Blue laws effect in Bergen County, and shopping-mecca Paramus imposing even stricter laws of its own, Willowbrook Mall has benefited from the overflow of shoppers on Sunday.[2]

Contents

[edit] Anchors and majors

Anchor stores and other major establishments, listed in descending order by square footage:

Anchors
Majors

[edit] History

Construction of a 100,000 ft² Ohrbach's store in 1968, joined by a Sears, were the original anchors of what was designed as a two-level, 110 store, indoor shopping mall, encompassing 1,500,000 ft².[3]

In the early 1970's the mall was the site of Willowbrook Ministries, and effort by two ministers to reach out to a flock while taking care of their day-to-day routines. The ministry office, funded by several major Christian denominations, was open six days a week, every day except Sunday.[4] Increasingly, shoppers were seeking to fulfill all of their needs -- including their spiritual needs -- at the mall.[5] In that same period, book stores started their migration from Main Street to malls, and the Willowbrook Mall was at the forefront with an early Waldenbooks location.[6]

With more shoppers at malls, it was becoming increasingly difficult for advocacy groups to reach out to customers shopping at malls. In 1983, the Willowbrook Mall bowed to pressure from the Passaic County Nuclear Freeze Committee to distribute pamphlets and obtain petition signatures, subject to the malls rules and oversight.[7]

In 1993, Willowbrook Mall jumped on the bandwagon, becoming one of the first malls in new Jersey to join 300 of 1,800 malls nationwide that banned smoking on mall grounds.[8]

Sears is the only original anchor store from the mall's opening. Ohrbach's became Steinbach's in 1987 and then Lord and Taylor in 1997, Bamberger's became Macy's in 1986 and Stern's became Bloomingdale's in 2002.

[edit] Transportation

A park and ride facility, opened in 1974, provides New Jersey Transit bus service to and from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan.[9]

[edit] Popular culture

The Willowbrook Mall was the site of The Adventures of Pete & Pete special episode What We Did on Our Summer Vacation, where Ellen's photo booth was located in the parking lot of the mall.

Willowbrook was also the filming location for a 1978 Kinney Shoes commercial featuring Ken Berry.

[edit] References

  1. ^ International Council of Shopping Centers: Willowbrook Mall, accessed September 21, 2006
  2. ^ "On Sundays, Bergen Shoppers Rest; PARAMUS JOURNAL To keep Paramus Sundays peaceful, it is illegal to shop.", The New York Times, December 7, 1992. p. B6
  3. ^ "Ohrbach's Builds in Jersey", The New York Times, September 27, 1968. p. 75
  4. ^ "Shopping Center Served By Marketplace Ministry", The New York Times, February 20, 1972. p. 105
  5. ^ "Busy Day in a Busy Mall; Busy Day in Busy Willowbrook Mall", The New York Times, April 2, 1972. p. 55
  6. ^ "To Survive, Bookstores Move to Malls", The New York Times, September 10, 1972. p. 108
  7. ^ "Mall Bows, Grants Bid To Group To Petition", The New York Times, October 9, 1983. p. N_J_24
  8. ^ "2 Big Malls Ban Smoking", The New York Times, October 8, 1993. p. B6
  9. ^ "Park-Ride Center to Open Monday at Willowbrook Mall", The New York Times, January 4, 1974. p. 64

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/i/l/Willowbrook_Mall_%28Wayne%2C_New_Jersey%29_ece2.html"