Wayne Towne Center

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Wayne Towne Center
Map
LocationWayne, New Jersey
Address80 Route 23, Wayne, New Jersey
Opening date1974 (as West Belt Mall)
Closing date2008 (indoor portion)
(demolished 2008)
DeveloperArlen Realty[1]
OwnerVornado Realty Trust
No. of stores and services14
No. of anchor tenants1 (1 Vacant)
No. of floors1 (2 in anchors, except Costco)
ParkingParking Lot

Wayne Towne Center is a regional shopping center located in Wayne, New Jersey, in the New York City metropolitan area, adjacent to Willowbrook Mall along Willowbrook Boulevard. As of 2008, the mall had a gross leasable area of 653,000 square feet (60,700 m2).[2] The center formerly operated as an indoor shopping mall from the time when JCPenney was built, in the late 1980s, until its de-malling in 2008. The inner portion of the mall, which had one floor has since been demolished.

The center is anchored by Costco, Dick's Sporting Goods, Nordstrom Rack, and UFC Fit. JCPenney closed & moved to the Willowbrook Mall in 2024.

History

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The complex dates back to 1974 as a strip mall called West Belt Mall that had 175,000 acres (71,000 ha) of retail space and was steadily expanded over time, ultimately being renamed Wayne Towne Center in 1989 as a way to upgrade its image.[3] A project begun in the mid-1990s sought to take a mall that had expanded to nearly 650,000 square feet (60,000 m2) and reconfigure the space to expand the two anchors while reducing the number of other stores by 30% to 49.[4]

Existing in the shadow of Willowbrook Mall, Wayne Towne Center has had difficulty dating back to 1993, when the Neiman Marcus Last Call outlet headed for Pennsylvania.[5]

In January 2008, the Borders Books and Music, which replaced Last Call, was one of three North Jersey locations closed by the chain.[6] The portion of the mall that housed the Borders store was demolished in Fall 2008.

Later in 2008, the mall began undergoing what is referred to as "de-malling", which refers to a process where an enclosed shopping center slowly begins a transition to a more traditional shopping center.[7] In order to accomplish this, the remaining stores in the mall were closed one a time as were two of its anchor stores, Old Navy and Loehmann's. The TGI Friday's restaurant that was located in the mall was replaced by a freestanding location in the parking lot, and the remaining two anchors (JCPenney and Fortunoff) sealed off their mall entrances. The TGI Friday's in the frontmost parking lot was joined by Olive Garden and Bahama Breeze restaurants and a DSW Shoe Warehouse store, while a Chipotle Mexican Grill location was added in the JCPenney rear parking lot. Fortunoff went out of business in 2009, thus costing the mall its second anchor, and construction on other buildings stalled when Dick's Sporting Goods chose to pull out temporarily.

In a deal closed in December 2010, the mall was purchased by Vornado Realty Trust for $12.1 million from Wells Fargo, along with annual lease payments of $2.5 million for the land. A Vornado spokesman said that the company planned to revamp the property, as Vornado had previously done at The Outlets at Bergen Town Center in Paramus, New Jersey.[8]

In March 2014, construction began again in earnest and accelerated. The 215,000-square-foot (20,000 m2) Fortunoff store was demolished after asbestos abatement was completed. Dick's Sporting Goods reconsidered its decision to leave and in November 2014, a two-level store was opened adjacent to JCPenney. One month earlier, Costco opened its new location.[9] Panera Bread opened in the vacant rear half of the Chipotle building. A La-Z-Boy furniture store was added in the JCPenney rear parking lot in mid 2015. A two-story Nordstrom Rack opened in October 2015 and a two-story 24 Hour Fitness opened in January 2016. 24 Hour Fitness closed in 2020 due to the company's bankruptcy. It was replaced by UFC Fit in 2022.

JCPenney, had been one of the mall's original anchors when it opened in March 1974, announced in February 2024 that it will be closing its location at the mall after 50 years in March 2024 and relocating to Willowbrook Mall.[10]

References

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  1. ^ "West Belt is Arlen's 5th in Jersey". The Herald News. March 13, 1974. p. 59. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
  2. ^ Wayne Towne Center, International Council of Shopping Centers, backed up by the Internet Archive as of March 4, 2008. Accessed March 31, 2011.
  3. ^ "Wayne", Herald News, September 15, 2014. Accessed August 28, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "1974 An enclosed mall, named West Belt Mall, opens on the 40-acre site, with two department stores as its anchor stores, a J.C. Penney and an S. Klein.... 1989 The renovated mall is renamed Wayne Towne Center, with a more upscale image."
  4. ^ Garbarine, Rachelle. "Commercial Property/The Wayne (N.J.) Towne Center; A Mall Rebuilds Itself With a Hybrid Image", The New York Times, June 25, 1995. Accessed August 28, 2022. "The center was built in 1968 as the West Belt Mall, a 175,000-square-foot retail strip, and over time it was enclosed and expanded to its current scale. Its anchors did well, but it never was able to compete with the Willowbrook Mall, which opened in 1974. In 1988, West Belt Realty, the mall's owner, began a renovation to turn Wayne Towne Center into an upscale mall with the financial help of Aetna."
  5. ^ Braue, Marilee Loboda. "LAST CALL IS PACKING ITS BAGSDISCOUNT RETAILER TO LEAVE WAYNE MALL", The Record (Bergen County), March 11, 1993. Accessed August 16, 2007.
  6. ^ Verdon, Joan. "Borders to close Wayne, Paramus stores", The Record (Bergen County) January 10, 2008. Accessed March 12, 2008
  7. ^ Verdon, Joan. "To Stay Competitive, Northern New Jersey Malls Remodel, Reposition."[dead link], The Record (Bergen County), February 11, 2004. Accessed August 16, 2007.
  8. ^ Tangel, Andrew. "Vornado takes over Wayne Towne Center", The Record (Bergen County), February 9, 2011. Accessed March 31, 2011.
  9. ^ Verdon, Joan (October 27, 2014). "Costco says it is closing Hackensack store next year". The Record. Retrieved October 28, 2014. (last paragraph)
  10. ^ DeVencentis, Philip. "Willowbrook Mall to get new anchor store. See who'll join Bloomingdale's, Macy's", The Record, February 13, 2024. Accessed February 14, 2024. "JCPenney will open a new department store at Willowbrook Mall next month, an agent for the mall said Tuesday. The 121-year-old chain is relocating its local store from Wayne Towne Center on Route 23 south to the vacant anchor slot on the southwest side of the mall.... JCPenney opened at Wayne Towne Center in March 1974. At that time, the retail plaza was known as West Belt Mall."
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40°53′24″N 74°15′14″W / 40.8900°N 74.2540°W / 40.8900; -74.2540

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