Bergen Town Center, known as Bergen Mall until 2006, an outdoor shopping center located in Paramus and Maywood, New Jersey. It is the oldest mall in New Jersey.
The mall is located at the junction of Route 4 and Forest Avenue, and includes a separate shopping strip, south of Route 4 connected to the rest of the property via a pedestrian bridge. The mall has over the years included community spaces, including a chapel, theater for live dramas, auditorium, post office, ice rink and bowling alley, and the Bergen County Museum. It was designed by John Graham of New York City. The mall is subject to Bergen County's Blue laws, which requires the mall to be closed on Sundays.
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) the space formerly occupied by Macy's (which had previously been Stern's). Century 21 occupies the middle two floors of the four story building, and Filene's Basement occupies the ground floor.
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 (139,000 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, which may be used for a Lowe's. A total of 4,339 parking spaces, including a five-story parking garage, will be provided.
New additions in 2009 include Target (Opened March 7, 2009), a Wetzel's Pretzels, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, an AT&T store, and a Whole Foods (which opened on March 19, 2009 and signed a lease for 77,000 sq ft (7,200 m2).), Lowe's, Filene's Basement (Opened October 28, 2007), 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.
