Willowbrook Mall (NJ) - Raw & Real Retail
This is our walkthrough of the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, NJ from January 22, 2019. This is a big thriving mall in northern New Jersey. The owner of this mall, GGP (now Brookfield Properties) decided at some point to completely rip any vintage character out of this mall. If you look up pictures of this place on google, you'll be greeted with a bunch of old postcards done of this mall back in the 1970s that show off an abundant use of plants, very interesting light fixtures, and lots and lots of color. The mall today stands as a testament to overzealous renovation ideas, as it is nearly pure white now and retain absolutely none of the original charm this mall had. I did not particularly care for this mall.
Songs used in this video (in order):
Keith Mansfield - Gladiator
Jaga Jazzist - Oban
Steve Gray - Wonder Groove
Here is some info from Wikipedia:
Willowbrook Mall is a one-level shopping center with a partial second floor located in Wayne, New Jersey, United States, in the New York City metropolitan area. It is near the intersection of U.S. Route 46, Route 23 and Interstate 80. The mall opened in 1969 and was expanded or renovated in 1970, 1988, 2006, and 2015. The mall has over 200 retail establishments and a gross leasable area of 1,514,000 ft², and is the fourth-largest shopping mall in New Jersey. The mall anchors are Macy's, Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale's, Sears, and Dave & Buster's.
With blue laws in effect in neighboring Bergen County, and nearby shopping haven Paramus imposing even stricter Sunday-sales restrictions of its own, Willowbrook Mall has benefited from the spillover of shoppers on Sunday.
Construction of a 100,000-square-foot Ohrbach's store in 1968, joined by a Sears, were the original anchors of what was designed as a two-level, 110-store, indoor shopping mall, encompassing 1,500,000 square feet.
In 1993, Willowbrook Mall became one of the first malls in New Jersey to ban smoking on mall grounds.
Sears is the mall's only remaining original anchor store, while the former Bamberger's store has been open without interruption for the mall's entire existence. Bamberger's was rebranded as Macy's in 1986 after its corporate parent decided to rebrand its entire northeastern United States operation under its namesake marque. Ohrbach's came under new ownership and was rebranded as part of the Steinbach chain, which went out of business in 1996. The building was gutted and expanded for its new tenant Lord & Taylor, which opened in 1997. Stern's closed its doors in 2001 after its parent company, Federated Department Stores, retired the brand; the store was converted to its sister brand, Bloomingdale's, which opened in late 2002.
In 2015, Sears Holdings spun off 235 of its properties, including the Sears at Willowbrook Mall, into Seritage Growth Properties.
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 seating in the food court, new flooring throughout the mall, additional seating, and a two-story streetscape theme for the Bloomingdale's wing. In 2017, Sears shrunk its square footage and subleased the unused portion to Dave & Buster's, which opened on Valentine's Day 2018.
The mall and its surrounding access roads and parking areas are prone to flooding in rainstorms. The Passaic River flows near the mall and one of its tributaries, the Pompton River, runs behind it.
In August 2018, Macy's added a Macy's Backstage outlet in a portion of its store. Seritage plans to demolish the Sears Auto Center for a Cinemark movie theater, becoming the second movie theater within the mall area limits (after a 14-screen AMC Theatres, formerly Loews Theatres). P.F Chang's opened in the Bloomingdale's wing of the mall on January 22, 2019.
The mall and its parking lots serve as a transportation hub for the surrounding area: An NJ Transit park and ride facility, opened in 1974, provides bus service to and from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan.
Willowbrook Mall was the site of The Adventures of Pete & Pete special episode, What We Did on Our Summer Vacation (May 17, 1992), in which Ellen's photo booth was located in the parking lot of the mall
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