Harbor Square, formerly Shore Mall, is a shopping plaza (formerly a

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 ...

) in

Egg Harbor Township Egg Harbor Township is a township in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The U.S. Census Bureau in the 2020 census reported the population as 47,842, an increase of 4,519 over the 43,323 counted in the previous decade in the 201 ...

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 United States on U.S. Route 40/

U.S. Route 322 U.S. Route 322 (US 322) is a long, east–west United States Highway, traversing Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The road is a spur of U.S. Route 22 and one of the original highways from 1926. A portion of it at one time was concurrent with ...

originally known as "Searstown". The plaza is accessible from Exit 36 off the

Garden State Parkway The Garden State Parkway (GSP) is a controlled-access toll road that stretches the north–south length of eastern New Jersey from the state's southernmost tip near Cape May to the New York state line at Montvale. Its name refers to New Jerse ...

. The plaza is owned by Aetna Realty. The plaza 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 337,423 ft², formerly 620,000 ft² when it was a mall, located on of land. The plaza's anchor store includes Boscov's.

History

1968-1988

Shore Mall originally opened in 1968 as an open-air mall called Searstown. Original

anchor stores In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. W ...

included

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

, Grant City and a

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 ...

supermarket. Between 1971 and 1974, the mall was enclosed and expanded, with regional up-market department store Steinbach being added as a fourth anchor store. A

time capsule A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy relics dates ...

was buried next to the Steinbach store to be opened 100 years later on March 20, 2074. Grant City was shuttered in 1976 when the chain declared bankruptcy; by the end of the year,

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 ...

opened in the former Grant City space. Pantry Pride was subsequently replaced with

Foodtown Foodtown was a New Zealand supermarket chain owned by Progressive Enterprises. As with Woolworths, the Foodtown brand was phased out in the late 2000s, with all stores rebranded as Countdown by the end of 2011. Foodtown supermarkets were t ...

, and the mall was renamed Shore Mall. In 1987, Developer Kravco Company (Kravco Company LLC) and JCP Realty, the development arm of JCPenney, opened the new

Hamilton Mall The Hamilton Mall is a major shopping destination in Mays Landing, in Hamilton Township, Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. Opened in 1987, the two-story enclosed mall is anchored by Macy's. The former Sears and JCPenney are closed. (S ...

about 5 miles west on the

Black Horse Pike The Black Horse Pike is a designation used for a number of different roadways that had been part of a historic route connecting the Camden area to the area of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Roadways now bearing the Black Horse Pike designation include ...

( U.S. Route 40 and

). This caused problems with the Shore Mall, because the Sears and JCPenney anchors moved to the Hamilton Mall. With the two anchors gone, Shore Mall underwent a fair sized renovation enclosing the still open-air portion between the two anchors (pictured to the right in December 2012) as well as re-tiling the mall to its current blue and white color scheme. In 1988

Clover Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus ...

, a discount chain owned by the Strawbridge's chain (now

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 ...

), soon opened in the former JCPenney/Grant City space, while Boscov's replaced the former Sears. Circuit City opened in the former Foodtown, which closed in the early 1990s. Steinbach went out of business in 1995 but was replaced in 1996 with

Value City Value City was an American discount department store chain with 113 locations. It was founded in 1917 by Ephraim Schottenstein, a travelling salesman in central Ohio. The store was an off-price retailer that sold clothing, jewelry, and home good ...

Department Store. Clover closed in 1997 when that chain also faced closure by its parent company, becoming

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with i ...

a year later.

2004-2010

In 2004, Circuit City moved to a strip mall called Hamilton Commons near the

. The Circuit City's location at the mall was replaced with a K&G Fashion Superstore in 2006 (which has since closed). Since then it has remained vacant but in 2012 it was rented by The Spirit Halloween Costume Store as a seasonal tenant. In January 2006, the Shore Mall was sold

Cedar Realty Trust Cedar Realty Trust, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers in the Mid-Atlantic states. Investments As of December 31, 2019, the company owned 56 properties containing 8.3 million square feet, in ...

(Formally Cedar Shopping Centers) for $36.5 million. Their initial plan was to "de-mall" the mall converting it into an open-air plaza. In 2008, the Value City store at Shore Mall was among 24 locations sold by Value City's parent company to Burlington Coat Factory. The store closed on September 21, 2008 and remained vacant until it was occupied temporarily by The Community Food Bank of New Jersey in 2011-2012 while their permanent location was torn down and reconstructed. Construction began in 2010 on a

Golden Corral Golden Corral is an American restaurant chain which offers an all-you-can-eat buffet and grill. It is a privately held company headquartered in the U.S. city of Raleigh, North Carolina, with locations in 43 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. History ...

restaurant near the main entrance to the mall (where the former Dairy Queen stood, before moving into the outer building where the AT&T store and Wells Fargo bank are located) and opened in 2011. In August 2010, Cedar Shopping Centers applied for a state Economic Redevelopment and Growth(ERG) grant in the amount of $3 million to $41 million. The grant would be used to help finance an $87 million revamp of the mall. The plan called for demolishing most of the mall (except Boscov's, Burlington Coat Factory, and all everything else that can be seen from the Black Horse Pike), then converting the site to a strip mall with four additional large stores. It also includes $23 million for transportation upgrades such as a reconfiguration of Exit 36 of the Garden State Parkway, an intersection between West Jersey Avenue and the Black Horse Pike, and a boulevard style road network.

2012-present

In July 2012, Cedar Realty Trust stated that they will be razing 1/3 (over 250,000 square feet) of the mall including the former Value City location. Most tenants will have to relocate as the space will be torn down. After demolition, Cedar Realty Trust plans to do some improvements to the location such as a new south entrance to what is remained of the main shopping center, new landscaping, parking lot improvements, and fencing off the excess land in the rear part of the property to put up for sale as vacant commercial land unless phases of new development occur under the owner. On January 28, 2013, the Steinbach Time Capsule was dug up in a small ceremony due to demolition process needing it to be moved. The plaque and contents of the capsule were given to the Egg Harbor Township Historical Society who will create a display in remembrance of the mall at their location. Demolition continued through early-mid 2013, including the former Value City store. The Motor Vehicle Commission office closed on August 23 and August 24, 2013, due to demolition of the back of the mall and the relocation to behind Boscov's which opened on August 26 The center was renamed Harbor Square in October 2013. In February 2014, Cedar Realty Trust sold Harbor Square to Aetna Realty for $25 million. In early 2017 the Carrabba's was closed abruptly along with 13 others due to under performance, in Fall 2019, Burlington Coat Factory moved to Consumer Square in Mays Landing.

Gallery

File:Shore Mall Time Capsule.JPG, The Shore Mall Time Capsule. Buried in 1974 and un-earthed on January 28, 2013 due to the demolition of part of the mall. The plaque and content are currently in the hands of Greater Egg Harbor Township Historical Society. File:Former Value City Shore Mall.JPG, The Former Steinbach/Value City entrance from the mall, 2012 File:Boscov's Center.JPG, Front of the Mall's "Hall" facing the front, to the left includes Boscov's Furniture. To the right is the main Boscov's store and the center is also Boscov's Merchandise.

References

External links

Shore Mall Demographics under parent company Cedar Realty Trust.

Shore Mall Pictures

Leasing Brochure, Before Demolition and Renovation
{{Philadelphia Malls Buildings and structures in Atlantic County, New Jersey Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey Shopping malls in New Jersey Shopping malls established in 1968 Tourist attractions in Atlantic County, New Jersey