Burlington Center was a

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 Burlington Township,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. It was built by

The Rouse Company The Rouse Company, founded by Hunter Moss and James W. Rouse in 1939, was a publicly held shopping mall and community developer from 1956 until 2004, when General Growth Properties (GGP) purchased the company. Beginnings - Moss-Rouse Company T ...

Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland. It is one of the principal communities of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is a planned community consisting of 10 self-contained villages. Columbia began with ...

. Its anchors were

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 ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

, and

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

. The mall closed on January 8, 2018, with only Sears remaining open until its closure on September 2, 2018. Demolition of the mall began in early 2021.

History

Burlington Center mall opened in 1982 and was developed by

. The opening of Burlington Center mall in 1982 on the formerly rural corridor along County Route 541, has been credited as the trigger of a development boom on the stretch between Burlington Township and Mount Holly Township.

opened a store in August 1996 as an addition to the existing Strawbridge's and

stores. Jager Management acquired the mall in November 1999 for $10.5 million. Strawbridge's, a longtime anchor at the mall, was converted to a

store as of September 9, 2006. At its peak, the mall had 3 anchor stores and 100 smaller stores and restaurants.

Decline and redevelopment

In recent years, The Burlington Center mall saw an increase in the vacancy rate with few national chains remaining in the mall. In January 2010, Macy's announced that its Burlington Center location would close by March 2010. In June 2012, the mall was sold at auction to Moonbeam Equities for $4.4 million. In 2014, JCPenney left the mall as part of the chain's round of closures affecting 33 locations nationwide, leaving Sears as the only anchor store at the mall. In 2014, the mall announced plans for redevelopment that would demolish the former Macy's and JCPenney and replace it with an outdoor shopping area. Construction was expected to begin by the summer of 2016, but work was delayed as a result of lease renegotiations with Sears, a primary property holder. Throughout 2017, the mall continued to decline. By summer 2017, only a few stores were left at the mall, including a food pantry, arcade, Bath & Body Works, and

Foot Locker Foot Locker Retail, Inc. is an American sportswear and footwear retailer, with its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and operating in 28 countries. Although established in 1974, and founded as a separate company in 1988, Foo ...

. The food court was completely vacant and portions of the parking lot were overgrown with weeds. As of the 2017 Christmas season, two non-profits were asked to leave the mall by December 22. The mall voluntarily closed on January 8, 2018 due to extensive damage from a burst water pipe, after originally planning to close in March 2018. The Sears store located on the property, which was under separate ownership than the rest of the mall, remained open. On May 31, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing in September 2018 as part of a plan to close 72 stores nationwide, leaving the mall entirely without tenants. In January 2019, Clarion Partners LLC was moving ahead with plans to acquire the former mall from Moonbeam Capital Investments LLC and demolish it for an industrial development. OClario Partners purchased the mall for $22 million. On February 1, 2019, a large bronze elephant named Petal that had been in the mall since 1982 was moved out of the closed mall and was relocated to the Burlington Riverwalk. In November, 2019, a new proposal was introduced for the redevelopment of the mall, including retail, restaurants, 400 to 500 housing units and several large warehouses. Following the demolition of the mall in 2021, construction on a warehouse on the former site of the mall began in 2022.

Controversy

The mall was closed early on January 13, 2007, due to gang-related violence that may have involved 20 individuals connected with the

Bloods The Bloods are a primarily African-American street gang founded in Los Angeles, California. The gang is widely known for its rivalry with the Crips. It is identified by the red color worn by its members and by particular gang symbols, includ ...

and the Next Level Gang (considered a stepping stone to the

Crips The Crips is an alliance of street gangs that is based in the coastal regions of Southern California. Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams, the Crips were initially a single alliance ...

Former anchors

Mall anchors included: *

– , (opened August 2, 1982; closed September 2, 2018) *

– (originally Strawbridge & Clothier; closed 2010) *

– (opened 1996; closed 2014)

Location

The mall was located on Mount Holly Road ( County Route 541), between Interstate 295 (exits 47A/B) and the

New Jersey Turnpike The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highways in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although maintained by NJTA, is not consi ...

(exit 5).

References

External links

*
Moonbeam Capital Investments
{{Philadelphia Malls Buildings and structures in Burlington County, New Jersey Shopping malls in New Jersey Shopping malls established in 1982 Shopping malls disestablished in 2018 Tourist attractions in Burlington County, New Jersey Burlington Township, New Jersey Defunct shopping malls in the United States Demolished shopping malls in the United States 1982 establishments in New Jersey 2018 disestablishments in New Jersey