Menlo Park Mall is a two-level super regional shopping mall, located on

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making ...

and Parsonage Road in

Edison, New Jersey Edison is a township located in Middlesex County,in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated in Central New Jersey within the core of the state's Raritan Valley region, Edison is a commercial hub, home to Menlo Park Mall and Little India. It ...

. The mall 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 .Menlo Park Mall

International Council of Shopping Centers The International Council of Shopping Centers, doing business as ICSC, is the global trade association of what it calls the "Marketplaces Industry" (i.e., shopping centers, shopping malls, and all other retail real estate). Founded in 1957, it fe ...

, backed up by the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

as of February 5, 2012. Accessed September 4, 2018. Menlo Park Mall is currently owned and managed by

Simon Property Group Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers, and community/lifestyle centers. It is the largest owner of shopping malls in the United States and is headquartered in Indian ...

. Anchors are

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 ...

and

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, a ...

. Other tenants include

Barnes & Noble Booksellers 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. ...

and AMC Dine-In Menlo Park 12.

History

The Menlo Park Shopping Center opened in September 1959, as an open-air complex. It was developed and constructed by Abraham Sommer and Sigmund Sommer, developers from

Iselin, New Jersey Iselin is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Woodbridge Township, in Middlesex County, New Jersey. It was named after the Menlo Park area of Edison, also the site of

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

's former laboratory location. The structure was fully enclosed between June 1966 and December 1967. After the remodeling, it was renamed Menlo Park Mall. The original center was anchored by Bamberger's,

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

(opened May 1960), a small, dry goods only,

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 ...

, a two-level Woolworth, as well as two grocery stores: ShopRite (later a

Pathmark Pathmark is a supermarket brand owned by Allegiance Retail Services, a retailers’ cooperative based in Iselin, New Jersey, USA. Pathmark currently has one location in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, which it has operated since 2019. From ...

), and

Pantry Pride Food Fair, also known by its successor name Pantry Pride, was a large supermarket chain in the United States. It was founded by Samuel N. Friedland, who opened the first store (as Reading Giant Quality Price Cutter) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania i ...

, later a Big Buy. Originally a one-level structure, the fully enclosed mall (post-1967) had a lack of skylights, with only shaded windows along the sides of the ceiling. The low lighting made the interior quite dark, as was customary with interiors of malls at the time. The mall had unique flooring with patterns of orange, black, yellow and white throughout the mall. The Montgomery Ward space was taken over by

Alexander's Alexander's is a real estate investment trust that owns 7 properties in New York metropolitan area, including 731 Lexington Avenue, the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P. It is controlled by Vornado Realty Trust. It was founded by George Farkas and ...

in 1972. JCPenney moved to

Woodbridge Center Woodbridge Center is a major two-level shopping mall located in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey at the intersection of U.S. Route 1 and U.S. Route 9. As of 2022, the mall currently features Macy's, Boscov's, J. C. Penney, and Dick's Sporting Good ...

in 1981. Bamberger's was rebranded by

in October 1986. When

went out of business in 1992, the mall was able to secure the second

in the state of

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 ...

, but changes had to be made to prepare for the opening. Most of the mall was closed from 1990 to 1991, when it underwent a significant renovation and expansion that converted it from a single-story structure into its current two-story form. In expanding and fitting into the space, the new Menlo Park Mall was built on an angle with the vertex occurring at center court. The renovated Menlo Park Mall was also changed to have galleria style skylights, domed fountain courts, marble flooring, dramatic lighting, sculptures and a large, skylit food court featuring trees and sculptures, designed to look like a "formal garden." The new mall was designed by architecture firm RTKL Associates Inc. of Dallas Texas. Two parking decks were also added, as was a 12 Screen Cineplex Odeon movie theater which replaced the smaller Menlo Park Cinema on Route 1. Cineplex was later replaced by an AMC Dine-In Theater. Macy's was the only store to remain open during the primary expansion.

officially opened to the public at Menlo Park Mall on September 27, 1991. On March 9, 1997, Target Greatland opened across the street from the mall. Rainforest Cafe opened on September 17, 1998. On January 27, 2003,

The Cheesecake Factory The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated is an American restaurant company and distributor of cheesecakes based in the United States. The company operates 219 full-service restaurants: 206 under The Cheesecake Factory brand and 13 under the Grand Lux ...

opened its doors for the first time. In 2014, Smashburger opened along with an upgrade to the food court. In 2015, a renovation project was started which removed such features as the central fountain and trees. The food court's raised platform, sculptures, and trees were also removed, and the food court was renamed "Dining Pavilion." On September 22, 2018, a

Disney Junior Disney Junior is an American pay television network owned by the Walt Disney Television (part of Disney General Entertainment Content) unit of The Walt Disney Company through Disney Branded Television. Aimed mainly at children two to seven y ...

themed kids zone opened by Nordstrom. On June 24, 2020, GNC announced that it closed its location at Menlo Park Mall.

References

{{Simon Property Group Edison, New Jersey Simon Property Group Shopping malls established in 1959 Shopping malls in New Jersey Buildings and structures in Middlesex County, New Jersey Tourist attractions in Middlesex County, New Jersey Shopping malls in the New York metropolitan area 1959 establishments in New Jersey U.S. Route 1