Bridgewater Commons is a fully enclosed

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located in

Bridgewater Township, New Jersey Bridgewater Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Somerset County, New Jersey, Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The township is both a regional commercial hub for Central Jersey, Central New Jersey (home to Bridgewater Comm ...

. The mall is located at the intersection of Route 22 and Route 202/ 206 and borders

I-287 Interstate 287 (I-287) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US states of New Jersey and New York. It is a partial beltway around New York City, serving the northern half of New Jersey and the counties of Rockland and Westchester in N ...

. The mall opened on February 26, 1988 and has a

gross leasable area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...

of . The mall was expanded in 2005 and 2006 to include a lifestyle center called "The Village at Bridgewater Commons". It is anchored by

Maggiano's Little Italy Maggiano's Little Italy is an American casual dining Restaurants fall into several industry classifications, based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing, as well as the means by which the food is served to the customer. This article ...

. The Village contains 15 other stores and restaurants. As of 2022, the mall is anchored by the traditional chains

Bloomingdale's Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain; it was founded in New York City by Joseph B. Bloomingdale, Joseph B. and Lyman G. Bloomingdale in 1861. A third brother, Emanuel Watson Bloomingdale, was also involved in the bus ...

and

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

. The mall also features the premier brands

Abercrombie & Fitch Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is an American lifestyle retailer that focuses on casual wear. Its headquarters are in New Albany, Ohio. The company operates three other offshoot brands: Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks. As of Februar ...

Adore Me Adore Me is a direct-to-consumer women's intimate apparel brand based in New York City. The company was started by Morgan Hermand-Waiche in 2010 while he was an MBA student at Harvard Business School and is a Certified B Corporation. History Adore ...

Janie & Jack Janie and Jack is a children's clothing brand founded in 2002 in San Francisco, California. Their current product range includes clothing for newborns up to 24 months old, as well as boys and girls up to age 18. As of 2021, the brand currently op ...

Free People Free People is an American bohemian apparel and lifestyle retail company that sells women’s clothing, accessories, shoes, intimates, and swimwear. It also has a beauty and wellness category, which includes products such as cosmetics, skin, an ...

, and

Fabletics Fabletics is a global, active lifestyle brand that sells both men's and women's sportswear, footwear and accessories, commonly referred to as "activewear". The company operates on a membership model and is known for its e-commerce business approa ...

. The mall also features an AMC Dine-In Theatre.

History

In the 1960s, a township redevelopment agency combined various plots of land in Bridgewater, and then it declared the entire area blighted so that the land could be sold to one developer.Rundquist, Jeanette (July 7, 1991). "Bridgewater Office Complex Stalled as Economy Hinders Developers". ''The Star-Ledger'' (Newark, New Jersey). Bridgewater township signed a contract with

The Hahn Company The Hahn Company, San Diego, California, alternately known as Ernest W. Hahn, Inc., was a major American shopping center owner and developer from the 1950s to the 1980s. Purchased by the Trizec Corp. in 1980 (which then took the name TrizecHahn), ...

, a California-based mall-developer, in 1985. The Prudential's real estate division joined the development project later. In 1986, R.H.Macy Co announced they would open a Macy's store in the shopping center, instead of the company's

Bamberger's Bamberger's was a department store chain with branches primarily in New Jersey and other locations in Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. The chain was headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. History 1892–1912 Newark was known for ma ...

banner, as originally planned. The company was in the process of retiring the Bamberger's brand and converting its Bamberger's stores to its Macy's banner. Bridgewater Commons opened in February 1988 with anchor stores

, Hahnes and

Stern's Stern's (originally Stern Brothers) was a regional department store chain serving the U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The chain was in business for more than 130 years. In 2001, Stern's parent company Federated Department ...

. On June 18, 1988, a

Disney Store The Disney Store is a chain of specialty stores selling only Disney related items, many of them exclusive, under its own name and Disney Outlet. It was a business unit of Disney Consumer Products with the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products seg ...

opened, which was the first Disney Store located outside of California. On October 18, 1989, Hahnes converted to

Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was the oldest brick and mortar department store in the United States, in business from 1826 to 2020. The brand was purchased during former owner Le Tote's 2020 liquidation bankruptcy and relaunched by new owner, Saadia Group, as ...

. In 2001, Macy's announced that two Stern's stores will close in the same year, and reopen as

stores in 2002. Bridgewater was one of them. The other store that was affected was the Wayne location, located at the Willowbrook Mall. The mall complex pursued a major expansion in 1991 to add two eight-story office buildings to the complex, which would include . of office space and a 300-room hotel. The effort was initiated as part of a longstanding urban renewal project. By 2000, with a 347-room Bridgewater Marriott Hotel already under the construction, the mall's developers pushed ahead to develop the office towers planned for the complex. The two towers later opened, occupied mostly by

Brother Industries is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational electronics and electrical equipment company headquartered in Nagoya, Japan. Its products include Printer (computing), printers, multifunction printers, desktop computers, sewing machin ...

and

Sanofi-Aventis Sanofi S.A. is a French multinational pharmaceutical and healthcare company headquartered in Paris, France. Originally, the corporation was established in 1973 and merged with Synthélabo in 1999 to form Sanofi-Synthélabo. In 2004, Sanofi-Syn ...

. Since opening, mall management and

Somerset Medical Center Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset, located in Somerville, New Jersey, is a nationally accredited, 355-bed regional medical center providing a variety of comprehensive emergency, medical/surgical and rehabilitative services to Cent ...

have sponsored a HealthHike

mall walking Mall walking is a form of exercise in which people walk or jog through the usually long corridors of shopping malls as a substitute for a running track or other walking venue. Many malls open early so that people may mall walk; stores and other su ...

program to give walkers an indoors, secured, and climate-controlled environment in which to walk. Anyone can obtain a

name tag A name tag is a badge or sticker worn on the outermost clothing as a means of displaying the wearer's name for others to view. Name tags may be temporary, such as a sticker with the iconic image being the "Hello! My Name Is ________"; or it ma ...

to enter the mall starting at 6:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday. The program also includes a monthly meeting at 8:30 a.m. on the first Wednesday of each month from October through June to discuss health-related topics. Since opening, the mall has also featured an annual

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

display and kids photo opportunity with

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...

in addition to a photo opportunity with the

Easter Bunny The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit—sometimes dressed with clothes—bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" orig ...

around

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

time. In 1993, Bridgewater Commons became one of the first malls in the state to ban smoking, joining 300 of 1800 malls nationwide that prohibited smoking on mall grounds. In 2003, McCormick & Schmick's opened. The Village at Bridgewater Commons officially opened on Saturday, September 23, 2006. As of November 2008, the Food Court has reopened after its extensive renovation. Some of the restaurants within have reopened as well. On January 31, 2020, Marriott opened another hotel about 3/4 of a mile away from the mall, called,

AC Hotels AC Hotels by Marriott is a chain of hotels in Austria, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Portugal, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Jamaica, the United Kingdom, and North America. The brand's amenities include accom ...

by Marriott, along with a rooftop restaurant, called The Bradford, which opened a month after the hotel opened. During the construction of the hotel, a brand-new Zinburger opened its 17th location, but later closed all of their restaurants as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. It has since been replaced with Tommy's Tavern + Tap. On August 27, 2020, Lord & Taylor announced they would shutter their brick-and-mortar fleet after modernizing into a digital collective department store.

References

External links

Official websiteInternational Council of Shopping Centers: Bridgewater Commons
{{Brookfield Properties Buildings and structures in Somerset County, New Jersey Shopping malls in New Jersey Shopping malls established in 1988 Brookfield Properties Tourist attractions in Somerset County, New Jersey Shopping malls in the New York metropolitan area Bridgewater Township, New Jersey