Manalapan Mall

The Manalapan Mall was a shopping mall in Manalapan Township, New Jersey. It opened in 1971 on the corner of U.S. Route 9 southbound and Symmes Road and was demolished in 1998 to be replaced by the Manalapan EpiCentre. The mall served the Marlboro Township and Freehold area.

The mall was anchored by Steinbach, and had 25 stores attached to its south side. A second phase would have included a Macy's, a Sears, and would have grown to a total of 100 stores. But the plans were shelved because of financial problems. By the 1980s, plans were submitted for a super-regional mall, the Freehold Raceway Mall, about 5 miles (8 km) south on Route 9. In 1996, the Steinbach chain was bought out, and the Manalapan Mall store was not included in the purchase. The former Steinbach store was converted to a Value City location. In late October, 2008, Value City declared bankruptcy and announced they would close all stores by early 2009. The Value City became a P. C. Richard & Son, which opened on November 11, 2011. A Sports Authority opened on August 11, 2012, in the same building as the P. C. Richard & Son.

A proposal in the early 1990s to expand the deteriorating mall faced opposition from neighbors fearing increased traffic. By the late 1990s, while Freehold Raceway Mall was prospering, Manalapan Mall was becoming a dead mall. In 1998, the mall, except for the Value City, was torn down to make way for a big-box Epi-Center with a total of 400,000 square feet (40,000 m2) of retail space, some four times the area of the original site.

The P.C. Richard & Son store site is a stand-alone store while the south and west corners of the old mall were turned into Wegmans, The Wiz (which was closed in 2003 and replaced by HomeGoods), Dick's Sporting Goods (which later moved to a space at the Freehold Raceway Mall and was replaced by Marshall's) and a Target. Other smaller businesses in the Manalapan EpiCentre are Applebee's, Verizon, Eyechic Optical Boutique, Gary's Jewelers, Gamestop, Cucina Alessi Italian Ristorante, and The Turning Point.

In 2005, plans were released to build an alternative mall facility that would include 800,000 square feet (70,000 m2) of space, including retailers, a multiplex theater and hotel.

Famous quotes containing the word mall:

    A father ... knows exactly what those boys at the mall have in their depraved little minds because he once owned such a depraved little mind himself. In fact, if he thinks enough about the plans that he used to have for young girls, the father not only will support his wife in keeping their daughter home but he might even run over to the mall and have a few of those boys arrested.
    Bill Cosby (20th century)