The Shops at Riverside is a two-level 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 Hackensack, in

Bergen County Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.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, off Route 4, along the

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 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 ...

(GLA) of . The "lavishly appointed" mall opened on March 10, 1977 with of retail space, which included a

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 ...

(expanded from an original freestanding site opened in 1959) and a

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street and ...

."Hackensack Gets New Shopping Mall"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', March 6, 1977, p. 431. Accessed September 12, 2017. Until 2005, the shopping center was known as Riverside Square Mall. The Shops at Riverside is a very high-end mall which caters to the affluent suburban areas surrounding Hackensack in Bergen,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, and

Passaic Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69,7 ...

counties in New Jersey as well as

Rockland County Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...

in New York State. The mall has 66 stores. The anchor stores are

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. ...

Pottery Barn Pottery Barn is an American upscale home furnishing store chain and e-commerce company, with retail stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Australia. Pottery Barn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. The company is headq ...

, and

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (d/b/a AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas or AMC Multi-Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain fou ...

History

Originally a freestanding Bloomingdale's built in 1959, an enclosed mall was opened in 1977, and the shopping center became known as Riverside Square Mall. The original mall had a Southern California feel, with

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

tile, red brick, and skylights. In 1995, after years of declining traffic and lost tenants and amidst a major renovation and expansion of nearby

Westfield Garden State Plaza Garden State Plaza (officially Westfield Garden State Plaza) is a shopping mall located in Paramus, New Jersey. It is owned and managed by Paris-based real estate management company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, and located at the intersection of R ...

, The Shops at Riverside was completely renovated with new marble floors, glass railings, and comfortable seating. From 2005 through 2008, The Shops at Riverside added of retail and dining space, including 30 new stores and three restaurants. Much of the space that was added is in a portion of the mall reclaimed from Bloomingdale's. The original Bloomingdale's Home Store bisected the mall, and was moved to the north end of the existing Bloomingdale's, while the 1977 expansion of Bloomingdale's was renovated in 2005 in preparation for the expansion in 2006. The expansion added three restaurants. It also added a new concourse that linked the north corridor to the south corridor. In December 2014, Saks closed its Shops at Riverside location, freeing up more than of space that the company had occupied since 1977. Plans for re-purposing the space as a cinema and dining-entertainment complex were announced in May 2015. An AMC Dine-In Theater with nine screening rooms opened in most of the second floor on September 13, 2017. The second phase of the renovation project include removal of the glass elevator, new flooring, a new set of escalators by Bloomingdale's, a new staircase in the center court, completion of the second floor portion of the mall and a new glass ball near the new movie theater. Most of the construction is expected to be finished by November 2018. The third phase will include a new mall entrance with valet parking, a luxury lounge, and a coat check and personal shopping service. The Bloomingdales is also expected to be renovated. The third phase will be complete by late 2019.

Blue laws

Due to highly restrictive

Bergen County Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.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. ...

, the restaurants, and the movie theater. The mall was an organizer of an unsuccessful 1993 referendum effort to repeal Bergen County's blue laws.

Public transportation

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

bus lines that serve The Shops at Riverside are the 756 and 762 routes.Bergen County System map

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

. Accessed September 12, 2017. The NJ Transit

New Bridge Landing New Bridge was a prosperous mill hamlet, centered upon a bridge strategically placed at the narrows of the Hackensack River. In the American Revolution, New Bridge Landing was the site of a strategic bridge crossing the Hackensack River, where Ge ...

train station in River Edge is approximately 5 minutes from the mall.

References

External links

The Shops at Riverside website

International Council of Shopping Centers: The Shops at Riverside
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shops at Riverside, The 1977 establishments in New Jersey Hackensack, New Jersey Hackensack River Shopping malls in New Jersey Shopping malls established in 1977 Buildings and structures in Bergen County, New Jersey Tourist attractions in Bergen County, New Jersey Shopping malls in the New York metropolitan area