Wayne Towne Center is a

regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

shopping center located in Wayne,

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 York City metropolitan area, adjacent to Willowbrook Mall along Willowbrook Boulevard. As of 2008, the mall had 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 . The center formerly operated as an indoor shopping mall from the time when JCPenney was built, in the late 1980s, until its de-malling in 2008. The inner portion of the mall, which had one floor has since been demolished. The center is anchored by

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 ...

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (Trade name, doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only Big-box store, big-box retail stores (warehouse c ...

, Dick's Sporting Goods,

Nordstrom Rack Nordstrom Rack is an American off-price department store chain founded in 1973. It is a sister brand to the luxury department store chain Nordstrom. As of 2021, Nordstrom Rack operates 352 stores in 41 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces ...

. Of the four anchors, JCPenney has been there the longest as it was built along with the original mall. Costco had previously been located in a former Price Club in another shopping center across Willowbrook Boulevard, and decided to move to Wayne Towne Center and its own building when its lease expired. Dick's had long been attached to the center during the de-malling process and eventually opened in 2014. The other anchor was added in 2015, with one anchor that was once 24 Hour Fitness.

History

The complex dates back to 1974 as a strip mall called West Belt Mall that had of retail space and was steadily expanded over time, ultimately being renamed Wayne Towne Center in 1989 as a way to upgrade its image. A project begun in the mid-1990s sought to take a mall that had expanded to nearly and reconfigure the space to expand the two anchors while reducing the number of other stores by 30% to 49. Existing in the shadow of Willowbrook Mall, Wayne Towne Center has had difficulty dating back to 1993, when the

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...

Last Call outlet headed for

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. In January 2008, the

Borders Books and Music A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

, which replaced Last Call, was one of three North Jersey locations closed by the chain. The portion of the mall that housed the Borders store was demolished in Fall 2008. Later in 2008, the mall began undergoing what is referred to as "de-malling", which refers to a process where an enclosed shopping center slowly begins a transition to a more traditional shopping center. In order to accomplish this, the remaining stores in the mall were closed one a time as were two of its anchor stores,

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

and

Loehmann's Loehmann's was an American retail company which started as a single store in Brooklyn, New York and grew to a chain of off-price department stores in the United States. The chain was best known for its "Back Room", where women interested in fash ...

. The

TGI Friday's TGI Fridays (operating in the UK as FRIDAYS) is an American restaurant chain focusing on primarily American cuisine and casual dining. The restaurant's founder said the name stood for "Thank God It's Friday", although some television commerc ...

restaurant that was located in the mall was replaced by a freestanding location in the parking lot, and the remaining two anchors (JCPenney and Fortunoff) sealed off their mall entrances. The TGI Friday's in the frontmost parking lot was joined by Olive Garden and Bahama Breeze restaurants and a

DSW Shoe Warehouse Designer Brands Inc. is an American company that sells designer and name brand shoes and fashion accessories. It owns the Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW) store chain, and operates over 500 stores in the United States and an e-commerce website. T ...

store, while a

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 Uni ...

location was added in the JCPenney rear parking lot. Fortunoff went out of business in 2009, thus costing the mall its second anchor, and construction on other buildings stalled when Dick's Sporting Goods chose to pull out temporarily. In a deal closed on December 28, 2010, the mall was purchased by

Vornado Realty Trust Vornado Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust formed in Maryland in 1982, with its primary office in New York City. The company invests in office buildings and street retail in Manhattan. Investments Notable properties owned by the ...

for $12.1 million from

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

, along with annual lease payments of $2.5 million for the land. A Vornado spokesman said that the company planned to revamp the property, as Vornado had previously done at

The Outlets at Bergen Town Center Bergen Town Center (formerly known as The Outlets at Bergen Town Center) is a shopping center located in Bergen County, New Jersey, USA. The center consists of both an indoor mall and exterior outlying stores and occupies over 105 acres split bet ...

Paramus, New Jersey Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...

.Tangel, Andrew
"Vornado takes over Wayne Towne Center"
''

The Record (Bergen County) ''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and ...

'', February 9, 2011. Accessed March 31, 2011. In March 2014, construction began again in earnest and accelerated. The 215,000 square foot Fortunoff store, after undergoing asbestos abatement, was demolished. Dick's Sporting Goods reconsidered its decision to leave and in November 2014, a two-level store was opened adjacent to JCPenney. One month earlier, Costco opened its new location. (last paragraph)

Panera Bread Panera Bread is an American chain store of bakery-café fast casual restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which are in the United States and Canada. Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri. The company operates as Saint Loui ...

opened in the vacant rear half of the Chipotle building. A

La-Z-Boy La-Z-Boy Inc. (pronounced "lazy boy") is an American furniture manufacturer based in Monroe, Michigan, United States, that makes home furniture, including upholstered recliners, sofas, stationary chairs, lift chairs and sleeper sofas. The compa ...

furniture store was added in the JCPenney rear parking lot in mid 2015. A two-story

opened in October 2015 and a two-story 24 Hour Fitness opened in January 2016.

References

External links

International Council of Shopping Centers: Wayne Towne Center
{{coord, 40.8900, -74.2540, region:US-NJ_type:landmark, display=title 1974 establishments in New Jersey Buildings and structures in Passaic County, New Jersey Shopping malls in New Jersey Tourist attractions in Passaic County, New Jersey Wayne, New Jersey Demolished shopping malls in the United States Shopping malls established in 1974 Shopping malls in the New York metropolitan area