Willowbrook Mall is a one-level shopping center with a partial second floor located in Wayne, in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
. It is near the intersection of
New Jersey Route 23
Route 23 is a List of state highways in New Jersey, state highway in the northern part of New Jersey, United States. The route runs from Bloomfield Avenue (County Route 506 (New Jersey), County Route 506, CR 506) and Prospect Avenue ( ...
Interstate 80
Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...
in the
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the List of cities by GDP, largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a List of U.S. metropolitan areas by GDP, gross metropo ...
and is situated close to both
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
and
Morris
Morris may refer to:
Places
Australia
* St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia
Canada
* Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry
* Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba
** Morris, Man ...
counties near the
Passaic River
The Passaic River ( or ) is a river, approximately long, in North Jersey, northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburb ...
. The mall features more than 165 retail establishments and a leasable area of . The mall opened in 1969 and was expanded or renovated in 1970, 1988, 2006, and 2015.
Macy's is the longest tenured anchor, having opened with Willowbrook as a
Bamberger's
Bamberger's was a department store chain with branches primarily in New Jersey and other locations in Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. The chain was headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.
History 19th century
Newark was known for m ...
in 1969. Bloomingdale's opened in 2002 in a former
Stern's
Stern's was a regional department store chain serving the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey. The chain was in business for more than 130 years.
In 2001, Stern's parent company Federated Department Stores opted to retire the Stern's bran ...
location. JCPenney closed its Wayne Towne Center location and moved into the former
Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor was an American department store chain founded in 1826 by Samuel Lord. It had 86 full-line stores in the Northeastern United States at its peak in the 2000s, and 38 locations at the time of its liquidation in 2021. The Lord & Tay ...
location in March 2024. As of July 2024, the mall's four anchor spaces are occupied by
Macy's
Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...
,
Bloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain founded in 1861 by Joseph Bloomingdale and Lyman Bloomingdale. It was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1930, which purchased the Macy's department store chain in 1994, ...
,
BJ's Wholesale Club
BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc., commonly referred as BJ's, is an American regional membership-only warehouse club chain based in Marlborough, Massachusetts, operating in the eastern United States in addition to Ohio, Michigan, Louisville, Ke ...
, and
JCPenney
Penney OpCo LLC , Trade name, doing business as JCPenney (colloquially Penney's and abbreviated JCP) is an American department store chain store, chain with 649 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. It is managed as part of the Catalys ...
.
The mall also features a 14-screen
Cinemark
Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (stylized as CineMark from 1998 until 2022 and in all caps since 2022) is an American movie theater chain that started operations in 1977 and since then it has operated theaters with hundreds of locations throughout the A ...
movie theater, which is located in the rear parking lot adjacent to BJ's auto center.
With
blue law
Blue laws (also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws, and Sunday closing laws) are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world. The laws were adopted originally for Religion, religio ...
s in effect in neighboring
Bergen County
Bergen County is the List of counties in New Jersey, most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Paramus, Willowbrook Mall has benefited from the spillover of shoppers on Sunday. The mall and its surrounding access roads and parking areas are prone to flooding in rainstorms. The
Passaic River
The Passaic River ( or ) is a river, approximately long, in North Jersey, northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburb ...
flows near the mall and one of its tributaries, and the
Pompton River
The Pompton River is a tributary of the Passaic River, approximately long, in Passaic County in northern New Jersey in the United States.
It is formed south of the borough of Pompton Lakes by the confluence of the Ramapo and Pequannock river ...
, runs behind it.
History
Construction of Willowbrook Mall began in 1966 with the groundbreaking of a
Bamberger's
Bamberger's was a department store chain with branches primarily in New Jersey and other locations in Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. The chain was headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.
History 19th century
Newark was known for m ...
Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...
. The mall was originally planned as a 110-store indoor shopping mall, encompassing . It opened on September 24, 1969. A second phase opened on August 12, 1970, consisting of 47 specialty stores on two floors, and a
Stern's
Stern's was a regional department store chain serving the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey. The chain was in business for more than 130 years.
In 2001, Stern's parent company Federated Department Stores opted to retire the Stern's bran ...
department store. Upon its opening, Willowbrook Mall became the largest enclosed shopping mall in the world.
In 1993, as part of an effort to attract non-smokers, the Willowbrook Mall became one of the first malls in New Jersey to ban smoking on mall grounds. The Bamberger's store was rebranded as
Macy's
Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...
in September 1986 after its corporate parent decided to rebrand its entire northeastern United States operation under its namesake marque. Ohrbach's was converted as part of the Steinbach chain, which went out of business in 1996. The building was expanded for its new tenant
Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor was an American department store chain founded in 1826 by Samuel Lord. It had 86 full-line stores in the Northeastern United States at its peak in the 2000s, and 38 locations at the time of its liquidation in 2021. The Lord & Tay ...
, which opened in 1997. Stern's closed its doors in 2001 after its parent company,
Federated Department Stores
Macy's, Inc. (previously Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American holding company of department stores. Upon its establishment in 1929, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus (departm ...
, retired the brand; the store was converted to its sister brand,
Bloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain founded in 1861 by Joseph Bloomingdale and Lyman Bloomingdale. It was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1930, which purchased the Macy's department store chain in 1994, ...
, which opened on April 11, 2002.
In 2015, it was announced that the mall would undergo a two-year, $23 million renovation. The renovation entailed new ceilings in the Sears & Macy's wings, an overhaul of the food court, new flooring throughout the mall, additional seating, and a two-story streetscape theme for the Bloomingdale's wing. In 2017, Sears opened an updated store format and subleased an unused space to
Dave & Buster's
Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. (stylized in all caps) is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's location has a full-service restaurant, full bar, and a video arcade; the latter of w ...
, which opened on Valentine's Day 2018. Seritage shuttered and razed the Sears Auto Center for a
Cinemark
Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (stylized as CineMark from 1998 until 2022 and in all caps since 2022) is an American movie theater chain that started operations in 1977 and since then it has operated theaters with hundreds of locations throughout the A ...
movie theater, becoming the second movie theater within the mall area limits (after a 14-screen
AMC Theatres
AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (doing business as AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC) is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and now headquartered ...
, formerly
Loews Theatres Loews may refer to:
* Loews Cineplex Entertainment, formerly Loews Incorporated, a defunct North American cinema chain which formerly owned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
**''United States v. Loew's Inc.'', a United States Supreme Court case involving Loews
...
). On July 15, 2019, Sears announced that it would shutter as part of an ongoing decision to eliminate their traditional brick-and-mortar format. In October 2020, it was announced that
BJ's Wholesale Club
BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc., commonly referred as BJ's, is an American regional membership-only warehouse club chain based in Marlborough, Massachusetts, operating in the eastern United States in addition to Ohio, Michigan, Louisville, Ke ...
would plan to open a warehouse store and gas station where the previous Sears outpost was with the gas station opening north of the mall's parking lot. The store opened in November 2022.
In August 2018, Macy's added a Macy's Backstage outlet in a portion of its store. A P.F Chang's opened in a small space within the Bloomingdale's store on January 22, 2019.
In August 2020,
Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor was an American department store chain founded in 1826 by Samuel Lord. It had 86 full-line stores in the Northeastern United States at its peak in the 2000s, and 38 locations at the time of its liquidation in 2021. The Lord & Tay ...
announced that it would shutter its traditional brick and mortar format as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shopper's Find opened in Lord & Taylor's former anchor location in June 2021 and closed in early 2023. JCPenney, which had been an anchor at neighboring Wayne Towne Center since that mall's opening, moved to Willowbrook in the spring of 2024 to take over a space previously occupied by Ohrbach's, Steinbach, and
Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor was an American department store chain founded in 1826 by Samuel Lord. It had 86 full-line stores in the Northeastern United States at its peak in the 2000s, and 38 locations at the time of its liquidation in 2021. The Lord & Tay ...
.
BJ's opened its Willowbrook outpost in late 2022 in a portion of the former
Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...
anchor, which had been downscaled and reconfigured before it was closed.
Public transportation
The mall and its parking lots serve as a transportation hub for the surrounding area. A
NJ Transit
New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. I ...
park and ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...
facility, opened in 1974, provides bus service 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 station, bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving ab ...
in
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...
. The buses serve the mall.
In popular culture
Willowbrook Mall was the site of the
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
comedy ''
The Adventures of Pete & Pete
''The Adventures of Pete & Pete'' is an American television sitcom created by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi for Nickelodeon. It focuses on two brothers, both named Pete Wrigley, and their humorous and surreal humour, surreal adventures in subur ...