The Shops at Ledgewood Commons is a

shopping plaza 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 ref ...

in Ledgewood,

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 ...

, United States. Its anchors are

Ashley Furniture HomeStores Ashley (formerly known as Ashley HomeStore and still known as Ashley Furniture HomeStore in some countries) is an American furniture store chain that sells Ashley Furniture products. Opened in 1997, the chain comprises over 2000 locations worldwi ...

Marshalls Marshalls is an American chain of off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and Puerto Rico, and 61 stores in Canada. Mar ...

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

, and

Burlington Burlington may refer to: Places Canada Geography * Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador * Burlington, Nova Scotia * Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington" * Burlington, Prince Edward Island * Burlington Bay, no ...

. It is an outdoor shopping plaza with a gross leasable area of . From the mall's opening in 1972 until 2016, it was branded Ledgewood Mall as a enclosed mall.

History

The center was originally opened in 1972 as Ledgewood Mall, with anchors of

W. T. Grant W. T. Grant or Grants was a United States-based chain of mass-merchandise stores founded by William Thomas Grant that operated from 1906 until 1976. The stores were generally of the variety store format located in downtowns. History In 1906 the ...

store and

Finast Finast was a retail supermarket brand that started in the northeastern United States, with headquarters in Somerville, Massachusetts. Finast was an acronym for FIrst NAtional STores. Commonly referred to as "The First National", the stores ope ...

. By 1980, the mall's anchors were

Rickel Rickel (known as Rickel Brothers in its early years, Rickel Supermarts in the 1960s, and Rickel Home Centers in later years) was a chain of home-improvement centers based in northern New Jersey. The company’s first store opened in 1953 and for ...

Jamesway Jamesway Corporation, more commonly known as Jamesway, was a chain of Discount store, discount department stores based in Secaucus, New Jersey. It was founded in 1961 with a single store in Jamestown, New York, ultimately growing into a chain tha ...

, and Arthur's Catalog Showroom. These anchors remained for over a decade. The Rickel space later closed and became

Phar-Mor Phar-Mor (stylized as PHA℞-MOR) was a United States chain of discount drug stores, based in Youngstown, Ohio, and founded by Michael "Mickey" Monus and David Shapira in 1982. Some of its stores used the names Pharmhouse and Rx Place (purchas ...

and

Federated Department Stores Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito ...

announced in July 1993 that it would be opening a

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 ...

store in the fall of 1994, as part of a major nationwide expansion of the chain. This store was converted to a

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 ...

in 2001 when Stern's stores were closed.

closed in December 1995 following the company's liquidation. By 1999,

replaced both the former Jamesway and Arthur's stores, and

Circuit City Circuit City is an American consumer electronics retail company, which was founded in 1949 by Samuel Wurtzel as the Wards Company, operated stores across the United States, and pioneered the electronics superstore format in the 1970s. After m ...

, which has since closed as part of the economic collapse of that retail chain, was added as well. PharmHouse eventually became an

Ashley Furniture HomeStore Ashley (formerly known as Ashley HomeStore and still known as Ashley Furniture HomeStore in some countries) is an American furniture store chain that sells Ashley Furniture products. Opened in 1997, the chain comprises over 2000 locations worldwi ...

location. From 2009 to 2017, Circuit City became

Spirit Halloween Spirit Halloween, LLC is an American seasonal retailer that supplies Halloween decorations, costumes, props and accessories. It is the country's largest Halloween retailer. It is currently owned by Spencer Gifts. It was founded in 1983 and began ...

every September until October. In 2018 the Spirit Halloween relocated to the nearby Roxbury Mall. By 2013, many of the mall's former tenants relocated to the nearby Roxbury Mall, including

Jo-Ann Jo-Ann Stores, LLC, more commonly known as Jo-Ann (stylized as JOANN), is an American specialty retailer of crafts and fabrics based in Hudson, Ohio. It operates the retail chains ''JOANN Fabrics and Crafts'' and ''Jo-Ann Etc''. The headquarter ...

, W. Kodak Jewelers and

Weight Watchers Weight Watchers or WW may refer to: * Weight Watchers (diet), a comprehensive weight loss program and diet * WW International WW International, Inc., formerly Weight Watchers International, Inc., is a global company headquartered in the U.S. tha ...

. Puffin Jewelry moved to West 10 Plaza then the Nail House building. Many other stores closed, including Hero Town, Just A Buck, Wonder Nails and em’s Irish gift shop. PMZ Landscpaing relocated from the property in 2018 to

Hackettstown, NJ Hackettstown is a town in Warren County, New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 10,248. Hackettstown was incorporated as a town by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 9, 1853, from portions of Ind ...

. During the same year Delizia Pizza Kitchen relocated to the nearby Morris Canal Plaza. In 2016, JV Partnership, Advance Realty, Debartolo Development & Invesco bought the mall. The owners had plans for a redevelopment that would turn the mall into an open-air power center. The owners announced that Barnes & Noble would get a new building where Sports Authority once was. The former Macy's building was demolished on November 30, 2017, which kicked off the construction project. As of June 2018, much of the mall had been demolished, with only a small seating area remaining open between Marshalls and Ashley Home Furniture. What is not already demolished had been closed off to the public. On September 26, 2018, the owners of the mall announced that

Five Below 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awar ...

Ulta Beauty Ulta Beauty, Inc., formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and before 2000 as Ulta3, is an American chain of beauty stores headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Ulta Beauty carries both high-end and low-end cosmetics, fragran ...

, DSW,

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

Chipotle Mexican Grill Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (, ), often known simply as Chipotle, is an American chain of fast casual restaurants specializing in bowls, tacos and Mission burritos made to order in front of the customer. Chipotle operates restaurants in the Unit ...

and

Five Guys Five Guys Enterprises LLC (doing business as both Five Guys Burgers and Fries, and simply Five Guys) is an American fast food restaurant chain focused on hamburgers, hot dogs, and french fries, and headquartered in Lorton, Virginia, part of Fa ...

had signed leases and would open stores in the mall. On December 6, 2018, Walmart announced that it would demolish its current store at the Shops at Ledgewood Commons for a new modern supercenter store. The old store closed on May 10, 2019, and Walmart started construction on the new store in June 2019, which opened on October 7, 2020, Walmart had originally planned to open on October 17, 2020, but construction finished early and the opening date was moved sooner. In 2019, Lemon Tree Hair Salon opened in the former

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at d ...

. On January 16, 2019,

24 Hour Fitness 24 Hour Fitness is a privately owned and operated fitness center chain headquartered in Carlsbad, California. It is the second largest fitness chain in the United States based on revenue after LA Fitness, and the fourth in number of clubs (behi ...

announced that it would open a gym at the mall. However, on August 27, 2020, the company pulled out of the project due to the company recently filing for bankruptcy. That same day,

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

permanently closed its location at the mall, after being at Ledgewood from 1994 to 2020. On September 9, 2020, Burlington Department Store announced it would officially open a store at the new mall. On October 7, 2020, it was announced that At Home would open in the space where

was going to be. On February 18, 2021,

opened at The Shops At Ledgewood Commons. On March 19, 2021, Burlington Department Store opened at The Shops At Ledgewood Commons.

Panda Express Panda Express is an American fast food restaurant chain that serves American Chinese cuisine. With over 2,200 locations, it is the largest Asian-segment restaurant chain in the United States, where it was founded, and is mainly located in North ...

opened at The Shops At Ledgewood Commons in April 2021. On July 30, 2021, The Shops At Ledgewood Commons held a grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony which marked the official opening of the new open air power center.

Controversy

The construction of the Shops at Ledgewood Commons was given an exception from Governor

Phil Murphy Philip Dunton Murphy (born August 16, 1957) is an American financier, diplomat, and politician serving as the 56th governor of New Jersey since January 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the United States ambassador to Germa ...

's Essential Construction order during

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Construction workers protested the decision, though the Mayor of Roxbury Township said that the project is essential since the center has a

and restaurants. The Walmart temporarily closed in 2019 for a new supercenter store.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shops at Ledgewood Commons, The Buildings and structures in Morris County, New Jersey Roxbury Township, New Jersey Shopping malls in New Jersey Shopping malls established in 1972 Shopping malls in the New York metropolitan area