Pre-construction and development
The genesis of the mall dates back to efforts by A&S in mid-1966 to identify a site for a location in Bergen County. From 1969 to 1971, Federated Department Stores and The Rouse Company, which had been selected to develop the mall, acquired land for the mall itself, as well as to create a bridge connecting the site to Route 17.[12] Federated founded its real-estate development arm Federated Stores Realty in 1972, and this would be one of their first malls, albeit jointly developed with Rouse.[13]
The Rouse Company and Federated Stores Realty formed the subsidiary Paramus Park, Inc. and partnered with Congen Properties, Inc., the real-estate arm of the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (now The Cigna Group), which would develop, own, and manage the mall.[14] RTKL Associates were the architects of the complex.[15] By 1971, a series of lots covering 64 acres was assembled and the wetlands were drained by October 1972 to create a site for the construction to begin.[16]
The mall opened on March 14, 1974,[17] with a 300000 sqft Abraham & Straus (since turned into a Macy's store)[18] and Sears (which did not open until August) as anchors and space for 120 specialty stores.[1] The Paramus High School Marching Band played at the grand opening.
The mall's second-floor food court was an innovation, and is now credited as the first successful shopping mall food court in the United States following The Rouse Company's Gourmet Fair food court for Sherway Gardens in Canada in 1971, which was credited as the first successful food court for North America, and a failed attempt with Plymouth Meeting Mall in 1968 in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania.[19] A Fortunoff opened at the store in 1977, the chain's first location in New Jersey.[20]
The mall is shaped as a four-legged zigzag, with an anchor store at each end and the mezzanine-level food court encircling an atrium which featured 6000 gal of water flowing each minute over a 30 ft terraced waterfall surrounded by vegetation and punctuated by a pair of escalators; claimed to be the nation's second largest, tens of thousands of coins were tossed into the artificial waterfall, with nearly $3,500 collected in the mall's first year.[21] In its first 25 years, some 12 million coins had been collected from the waterfall, with an average of $400 per month donated from the proceeds to charitable organizations in the area.
2005 fire
In 2005, Paramus Park Mall suffered an electrical fire, filling the facility with heavy smoke and soot. The mall's automatic fire sprinkler system, however, did not activate, as the fire was in an electrical room and was not direct in the main mall areas. Several stores closed temporarily for cleanup.[33]
During the Great Recession of 2007-2009, the mall's smaller stores, historical lower congestion and location along the Garden State Parkway in an affluent area attracted upscale shoppers and tenants that had previously shifted away from smaller malls in lieu of the larger ones in the area, such as Westfield Garden State Plaza, according to a 2011 NorthJersey.com report.[4]
The mall received approval in 2008 for a new 88650 sqft lifestyle center on the west side of the mall, which would have more of a "main street" feel for shoppers.[34]
In 2011, the Foot Locker complex store was closed as L.L. Bean decided to begin leasing the space. The store opened in November 2011.[4]
