The Outlets At Bergen Town Center

The Outlets at Bergen Town Center (originally named Bergen Mall and then Bergen Town Center) is a shopping mall in Paramus, New Jersey. It has one level with 100 stores and services with 8,600 parking spaces.
Opened in 1957, like Westfield Garden State Plaza, it was originally an outdoor shopping mall. It was later converted into an enclosed shopping mall in 1972. The mall was completely renovated in 2009. The Outlets at Bergen Town Center is open from Monday-Saturday, but is closed on Sundays due to highly restrictive Bergen County blue laws, except for some restaurants, Whole Foods Market, Blink Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, CVS and Ulta Spa.
Across the street from the main mall is a little strip mall. The original tenants were Spa 2 (closed 2005), Chuck E. Cheese's (closed in 2010 and moved to its new location at The Shoppes on IV) and ShopRite (closed 1998 and moved to its new location on Route 4). The current tenants in the strip mall are Red Robin, Kirkland's Furniture and REI. Cups Frozen Yogurt was part of the three tenants, but it closed in 2015. By 2017, a Kirkland's Furniture store was added to the strip mall site. Lowe's Home Improvement, Miller's Ale House, and 24 Hour Fitness were added later and they are located behind the strip mall.  
The mall has 5 anchors, Kohl's, Target, Whole Foods Market, HomeGoods and Bloomingdale's.  
== History ==
The mall was first planned in 1955 by Allied Stores to have 100 stores and 8,600 parking spaces in a 1.5 million ft2 mall that would include a 300,000 sq ft (28,000 m2) Stern's store and two other 150,000 sq ft (14,000 m2) department stores as part of the initial design. Allied's chairman B. Earl Puckett announced The Bergen Mall as the largest of ten proposed centers, stating that there were 25 cities that could support such centers and that no more than 50 malls of this type would be built nationwide. The mall opened on November 14, 1957 with great fanfare, as Dave Garroway, host of The Today Show served as master of ceremonies. Bergen Mall got its second anchor when a 135,000 sq ft (12,500 m2) Ohrbach's location opened on August 17, 1967.
In July 1972, the owners of the Bergen Mall announced that they would begin converting the facility from an outdoor shopping plaza with a vast number of stores to an enclosed structure with all of these stores operating under one roof; the new mall would be anchored by Stern's at one end of the enclosed structure and Ohrbach's at the other. This was part of a general trend underway at the time where large-scale outdoor centers, like the Bergen Mall, had been for its first fifteen years and Garden State Plaza, which had been commissioned by R.H. Macy and Company and opened in 1957, was at the time, were no longer as popular while massive indoor facilities, like the Fashion Center (which opened in 1967) in Paramus and Willowbrook Mall (which opened in 1968) in Wayne, were becoming more and more popular. On September 15, 1973, the renovated mall held its grand reopening. Unlike its other regional counterparts, however, the Bergen Mall did not make attempts to modernize its look as the years wore on and proceeded to look dated.
In 1986, the Bergen Mall lost one of its two anchors when Ohrbach's closed its doors following a takeover by the Amcena retail group. Amcena reconfigured the store, as well as the other Ohrbach's stores it opted to keep, and it reopened in 1987 as part of the company's Steinbach chain. The store was converted to Value City in 1997 and later closed and demolished in the mid-2000s.
In the early 90's the mall was repositioned as a value-oriented center that included a Marshalls, Gap Outlet, and a Saks 5th Avenue Off 5th outlet. Across the street from the main mall is a little strip mall that was part of the mall property. It is located across from Forest Avenue and was connected with an auto and a pedestrian bridge. A Chuck E. Cheese's opened in the little strip mall in 1993. It remained in operation until closure in November 2010 when they planned to demolish the center for redevelopment of the area. They relocated to The Shoppes At IV in 2011. The site of the Chuck E. Cheese's is now a Red Robin restaurant. Other tenants in the strip mall were Spa 2 (closed 2004; replaced by REI) and ShopRite. The Shop Rite store closed in 1998 and was moved to its current location on Route 4 near the mall. Kirkland's Furniture occupied the former Shop Rite space in the strip mall until 2020.
Another major change came to the mall in 2001, and this involved the store it had been built around. In 1992, Stern's owner Allied Stores merged with Federated Department Stores. Two years later, Federated acquired R.H. Macy and Company out of bankruptcy. This gave Federated the position of having three different properties being anchors at the three major Paramus malls. In addition to Stern's and the A&S store co-anchoring Paramus Park, the acquisition gave Federated control of the Macy's store at Westfield Garden State Plaza.
In 1995, the year after acquiring Macy's, Federated decided to discontinue their A&S brand and converted the Paramus Park location to a Macy's to give them a second location in Paramus. Six years later, they made a similar decision to retire the Stern's brand and the Bergen Mall flagship joined most of its other sibling stores and was rebranded as Macy's. Federated did not keep the store open much longer, however, electing to liquidate it in 2005 and focus on their other two Paramus locations. Shortly after, the Macy's was converted into a Century 21 store.
The Bergen Mall was the target of a lawsuit by nuclear-freeze advocates who challenged the mall's restrictions on distribution of literature to shoppers. On October 12, 1984, Bergen County Superior Court judge Paul R. Huot ruled that the organization should be allowed to distribute literature anywhere and anytime in a shopping mall, noting that "the Bergen Mall has assumed the features and characteristics of the traditional town center for the citizens who reside in Paramus and surrounding Bergen County towns."
The Carmelite Chapel of St. Therese was located in the basement section called "The Village" since 1970, modeled after the Carmelite location in the basement of Northshore Mall, which opened in 1960. It moved to the upper level in 2007 when the center was redesigned. The chapel had masses daily from Monday-Saturday. However, since the mall is closed on Sundays, the chapel was closed and did not provide Sunday masses. The chapel also housed a gift shop which was located next to the chapel entrance. The chapel closed its doors on March 1, 2017, which was the final mass held inside the chapel.
The mall's water feature was a dandelion fountain, a replica of the El Alamein Fountain in Sydney and the twin fountains at the entrance of 1345 Avenue of the Americas on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.
Bergen Mall was also the first stop on MCA Records's "The Beautiful You: Celebrating The Good Life Shopping Mall Tour '87" starring teen pop sensation Tiffany as an alternative way to promote her debut album.
In 2003, the mall was sold by Simon Property Group to Vornado Realty Trust, which began plans to convert the mall's format, with high-profile stores and changes in the looks of the mall.
In one of the first changes planned for the mall, Century 21 opened on August 10, 2006, taking 67,500 sq ft (6,270 m2) of space in the old Stern's/Macy's building. Century 21 occupies the middle two floors of the four story building (1&2), while HomeGoods/Bloomingdale's-The Outlet Store occupy the Lower Level (LL) and Lincoln Tech occupies the 3rd floor (3).
On November 30, 2006, the Paramus Planning Board approved a series of changes that would bring the mall up to 1,500,000 sq ft (140,000 m2) at a cost of $171 million. The mall was renamed to Bergen Town Center, and was planned to include 872,000 sq ft (81,000 m2) of renovated mall retail space and a 167,000 sq ft (15,500 m2) freestanding big-box store across Forest Avenue in Maywood, Lowe's which opened in January 2011. A total of 4,339 parking spaces, including a five-story parking garage, will be provided.[2]
New additions in 2009 include Target (Opened March 7, 2009), a Wetzel's Pretzels, Subway, Baskin Robbins, Dunkin' Donuts, Verizon Wireless, an AT&T store, and a Whole Foods(which opened on August 19, 2009 and signed a lease for 77,000 sq ft (7,200 m2).[19]), Filene's Basement (opened October 28, 2007, since closed and replaced by HomeGoods which opened in October 2013.), Lowe's, Nike Factory Store (opened March 7, 2009), Bobby Flay's Bobby's Burger Palace (opened March 31, 2009), and Nordstrom Rack (Opened March 12, 2009). A Grand Opening Celebration was held on August 25, 2009 to mark the completion of the renovation/expansion. Filene's Basement filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, May 4, 2009. An affiliate of Men's Wearhouse had won the bidding process, with plans to keep approximately 20 of the chain's stores open. The five-year-old Filene's at Bergen Town Center is one of six stores that closed as part of the transaction. In October 2013, Home Goods opened in the space formerly occupied by Filene's Basement. This is their second location in Paramus, the other being on NJ-17 near Ridgewood Ave. H&M will be opening its third Paramus location at Bergen Town Center Holiday 2013. The 27,000 sq. feet two-level store will be larger than the H&M stores at Westfield Garden State Plaza and Paramus Park and will be located at the center of the mall next to J. Crew Outlet.
In 2015, it has been confirmed that the mall will undergo a $130 million 200,000 square foot expansion, which will include adding another level to the mall and new tenants.
In January 2018, it was announced that the Best Buy location at nearby Westfield Garden State Plaza would close and be relocated to the Outlets at Bergen Town Center property next to the strip mall. It opened on April 14, 2018. [23] In June 2018, it was announced that a Burlington Coat Factory store would go above Marshall's and would occupy space that used to house the Chapel on the mall as well as some mall offices. The mall celling between Saks OFF 5th and Marshall's is expected to be raised so that escalators and an elevator are able to reach the store. The Burlington Coat Factory store opened in August 2019. Also, Pei Wei Asian Diner and Potbelly Sandwich Shop closed in the mall to make way for Ruth's Chris Steak House, which opened in November 2018. It was also announced that the current bridge that connects the mall and the other shops on the other side would be replaced. The former Midas Tire shop is also expected with a new restaurant that is yet to be determined. The work on the Parking Deck near Marshalls and Saks OFF 5th and the bridge are all expected to be completed by September 2018.
The Outlets at Bergen Town Center also had a chapel, which was located above Marshalls. Although they did not provide Sunday masses since the mall is closed on Sundays, the chapel was open Monday-Saturday and conducted three masses a day, four on Saturdays. There was also a gift shop next to the chapel entrance. The chapel closed on March 1, 2017. By 2019, a Burlington outlet store will replace the chapel. On April 14, 2018, a Best Buy opened near the Kirkland's Furniture store after moving from nearby Garden State Plaza. However, the Kirkland’s location closed in 2020. The Century 21 location closed in September 2020 due to the company's financial collapse from the COVID-19 pandemic. It was later replaced by Kohl's on November 4, 2022. The Red Robin location closed in late 2022. 
==Anchors==
* Best Buy
* Burlington Coat Factory
* Kohl's (originally Stern's, then Macy's, later Century 21)
* Target (originally Ohrbach's, then Amcena, later Value City)
* Whole Foods Market
== Dining ==
(S) indicates that the restaurant is open on Sundays and has the special Sunday entrance.
===Sit Down Restaurants===
* Bahama Breeze (S)
* Miller's Ale House (S)
* Olive Garden (S)
* Ruth's Chris Steak House (S)
=== Other Restaurants===
* Ani Ramen (coming soon; open Monday-Saturday only)
* Bluestone Lane (coming soon)
* Cava Grill (S)
* Chick’n Cone (open Monday-Saturday only)
* Chopt (S)
* Stickey's (S)
* Villa Pizza (open Monday-Saturday only)
* Qdoba Mexican Grill (S)
* Sarku Japan (S)
* Dunkin' Donuts (open Monday-Saturday only)
* Target Café (Starbucks and Pizza Hut Express) (open Monday-Saturday only)
== Entertainment ==
* Fun Rides
* Aquarium
* Children's Play Area
== See also ==
* Westfield Garden State Plaza
* Paramus Park
* Paramus Place
== External Links==
Outlets at Bergen Town Center's Official Website
Category:Malls in the United States
Category:Shopping Malls
Category:Malls in New Jersey
Category:Multi-Level Malls
Category:Malls that opened in 1957
Category:Former Stern's-anchored Malls
Category:Former Value City-anchored Malls
Category:Former Macy's-anchored Malls
Category:Former ShopRite-anchored Properties
Category:Former Filene's Basement-anchored Properties
Category:Century 21-anchored Properties
Category:HomeGoods-anchored Properties
Category:Bloomingdale's Outlet-anchored Properties
Category:Whole Foods-anchored Properties
Category:Qdoba Mexican Grill Locations
Category:Olive Garden Locations
Category:Target-anchored Malls
Category:REI-anchored Properties
Category:Marshalls-anchored Properties
Category:Saks Off 5th-anchored Properties
Category:Gap Locations
Category:Bahama Breeze Locations
Category:Old Navy-anchored Properties
Category:H&M-anchored Malls
Category:Nordstrom Rack-anchored Properties
Category:Lowe's-anchored Properties