The Mall at Mill Creek, formerly known as Mill Creek Mall, is a

strip mall A strip mall, strip center or strip plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. ...

located in

Secaucus Secaucus ( ) is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 16,264,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 ...

in the

New Jersey Meadowlands New Jersey Meadowlands, also known as the Hackensack Meadowlands after the primary river flowing through it, is a general name for the large ecosystem of wetlands in northeastern New Jersey in the United States, a few miles to the west of ...

. It is situated in the Harmon Meadow Plaza complex, approximately from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, and is owned by

Hartz Mountain Industries Hartz Mountain Industries (HMI) is a private family-owned-and-operated company known for its real estate holdings in the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan Area. Its former parent, Hartz Mountain Corporation, which is notable for its pet product ...

. The International Council of Shopping Centers lists the mall as having 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 ...

(GLA) of .

History

The mall was constructed by

on a site of marshland in the

along the environmentally-sensitive

Hackensack River The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The drainage basin, watershed of the ri ...

. The mall's developer had sought permission to construct a mall, office complex, and condominiums on the site in the early 1980s. After the condominium portion of the proposal was removed, the plan was approved by the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

in 1982, which found that Hartz Mountain's proposal would have "no significant adverse environmental impacts", with the stipulation that a wetland mitigation project of higher ecological value would offset the impact of the fill at the site of the mall complex. In 1989, the company completed rehabilitation of a tidal wetland on both sides of the New Jersey Turnpike near the mall, as compensation for its filling the space occupied by the mall. The $6 million effort was performed as part of a mitigation project approved by the Army Corps of Engineers and the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...

. The enclosed section of the mall was supposed to be closed as of October 1, 2007, as part of a redevelopment project that would replace the site with four big-box retails stores. A judge ruled in December 2007 that the four remaining tenants in what had been a 50-store mall with a food court, must vacate their stores by January 1, 2008. The tenants had sued arguing that they would suffer "considerable losses" if forced to move, a claim rejected by a judge of the

New Jersey Superior Court The Superior Court is the state court in the U.S. state of New Jersey, with statewide trial and appellate jurisdiction. The New Jersey Constitution of 1947 establishes the power of the New Jersey courts.Jeffrey S. Mandel, New Jersey Appellate Pr ...

who argued that monetary compensation from Hartz Mountain would adequately compensate the tenants for their losses.

Free speech issues

New Jersey state law allows individuals and organizations to distribute information at malls, subject to "reasonable requirements" placed by the mall owner. In 1996, a

judge ruled that the mall's requirement of a $1 million

liability insurance Liability insurance (also called third-party insurance) is a part of the general insurance system of risk financing to protect the purchaser (the "insured") from the risks of liabilities imposed by lawsuits and similar claims and protects the in ...

policy had to be waived to allow supporters of then-presidential candidate

Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the U ...

to distribute campaign literature. After successive appeals, the

New Jersey Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases challenging th ...

ruled in January 2000 that the insurance policy costing $665 required by the mall and the one-day-per-year limit on leafleting was an unreasonable burden, noting that "putting too high a price on the exercise of that freedom may destroy it."

Transportation

The Plaza is bound on the south by Route 3 and

Paterson Plank Road Paterson Plank Road is a road that runs through Passaic, Bergen and Hudson Counties in northeastern New Jersey. The route, originally laid in the colonial era, connects the city of Paterson and the Hudson River waterfront. It has largely been su ...

, and is accessible via the 78 and 85 local routes, and the

190 Year 190 ( CXC) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Sura (or, less frequently, year 943 ''Ab urbe condita'' ...

and

320 __NOTOC__ Year 320 ( CCCXX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantinus and Constantinus (or, less frequently, year 10 ...

routes, which travel to and from the

Port Authority Bus Terminal The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving about 8,000 buse ...

in Midtown Manhattan.Hudson County Transit Map
Hudson Transportation Management Association. Accessed July 31, 2022.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mall at Mill Creek Buildings and structures in Hudson County, New Jersey Shopping malls in New Jersey Shopping malls established in 1986 Secaucus, New Jersey Shopping malls in the New York metropolitan area Strip malls