Freehold Raceway Mall is a super-regional high-end shopping mall, located in

Freehold Township, New Jersey Freehold Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is both a regional commercial hub for Central Jersey, Central New Jersey (home to the Freehold ...

. A premier shopping center for

Central Jersey Central Jersey is the central region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The designation of Central New Jersey is a distinct administrative toponym. Geographic area and descriptions While the State of New Jersey is often divided into North an ...

, the mall is located off of

U.S. Route 9 U.S. Route 9 (US 9) is a north–south United States highway in the states of Delaware, New Jersey, and New York in the Northeastern United States. It is one of only two U.S. Highways with a ferry connection (the Cape May–Lewes Ferry, between ...

, Route 33, and County Route 537, opposite the

Freehold Raceway Freehold Raceway is a half-mile racetrack in Freehold Borough, New Jersey, and is the oldest racetrack in the United States. Horseraces have been taking place at Freehold Raceway since the 1830s. The Monmouth County Agricultural Society was fo ...

. The mall is anchored by

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gi ...

L.L. Bean L.L.Bean is an American privately-held retail company that was founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean. The company, headquartered in the place in which it was founded, in Freeport, Maine, specializes in clothing and outdoor recreation equipment. ...

and

Primark Primark Stores Limited (; trading as Penneys in the Republic of Ireland) is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. It has stores across Europe and in the United States. The Penneys brand is not us ...

, while also featuring other premier brands such as

Abercrombie & Fitch Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is an American lifestyle retailer that focuses on casual wear. Its headquarters are in New Albany, Ohio. The company operates three other offshoot brands: Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks. As of Februa ...

, Offline by Aerie,

Untuckit Untuckit LLC (styled as "UNTUCKit" in branding materials) is an American casual men's apparel company established in 2011 and headquartered in New York City. The company focuses on selling casual shirts that are designed not to be tucked into p ...

, Zara,

Lululemon Athletica lululemon athletica inc. (; styled in all lowercase) is a Canadian multinational athletic apparel retailer headquartered in British Columbia and incorporated in Delaware, United States. It was founded in 1998 as a retailer of yoga pants and oth ...

, and

Michael Kors Michael David Kors (born Karl Anderson Jr. August 9, 1959) is an American fashion designer. He is the chief creative officer of his brand, Michael Kors, which sells men's and women's ready-to-wear, accessories, watches, jewelry, footwear, and f ...

. As of 2020, the mall is the third largest

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that ...

the state A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "sta ...

, behind Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, and

American Dream Meadowlands American Dream is a retail and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The first and second of four opening stages occurred on October 25, 2019, and on December 5, 2019. The remainin ...

in East Rutherford.

Overview

The mall is owned and managed by

The Macerich Company Macerich ( ) is a real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers. It is the third-largest owner and operator of shopping centers in the United States. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned interests in 52 properties compris ...

, having purchased the mall from developer

Wilmorite Wilmorite Properties, Inc is a commercial real estate company based in Chili, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York. A subsidiary of the company owes significant back taxes and fees to the City of Rochester resulting from a loan and tax ag ...

in 2005, and has a of total

gross leasable area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...

, making it the third largest shopping mall in New Jersey. An outdoor lifestyle addition, begun in January 2007, added of additional retail space. On November 23, 2011, the mall was ranked in a Weather Channel news article titled "The Most Congested Malls for Black Friday". Freehold Raceway Mall ranked third in the nation.

History

Construction on Freehold Raceway Mall commenced in 1987, across the street from the

on land used for stables. The stables still exist, connected by a small pedestrian/horsecart bridge over Route 9, but they can only be accessed via mall entrance road. In preparation for the mall's opening, the Freehold Circle was eliminated and rebuilt into an at-grade intersection with traffic lights and jughandles. A traffic light and jughandle for the mall entrance road from Route 9 was also constructed due south of the intersection of

and Business Route 33.

1990–2007

The mall officially opened on August 1, 1990; the public opening was preceded by a private "preview" gala and fundraiser for

CentraState Medical Center CentraState Healthcare System is a non-for-profit community health organization consisting of an acute-care hospital, an ambulatory care campus, three senior living communities, a Family Medicine Residency Program, and a charitable foundation. Es ...

which included

papier-mâché upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...

racehorse centerpieces and a fabric replica of the food court's carousel, which had not yet arrived from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The mall originally had two anchors:

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

and

Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was the oldest brick and mortar department store in the United States, in business from 1826 to 2020. The brand was purchased during former owner Le Tote's 2020 liquidation bankruptcy and relaunched by new owner, Saadia Group, as ...

with construction already underway on

(originally planned to be Hahne's, but the company was merged into Lord & Taylor), which later opened in 1991 as well as

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and ...

, which later opened in 1992. A fifth anchor,

, was opened on October 7, 1998. The mall was not initially successful. Vacancies were imminent, and many of the spaces were filled with non-traditional mall tenants, such as municipal services. Local photography clubs displayed their photos on the mall's empty walls, while other areas sported photos of the raceway and the fire that occurred in 1984. The only evidence of the mall from Route 9 was the monument sign approaching the mall entrance, as the satellite big box stores were not yet built. Customers could also easily travel to the nearby

Monmouth Mall Monmouth Mall is an enclosed split level shopping center in Eatontown, New Jersey located on the corner of the intersection of NJ 35, NJ 36, and Wyckoff Road ( Route 547). It is owned Kushner Companies and managed by Westminster Management. T ...

Seaview Square Mall Seaview Square Mall was a shopping mall located in Ocean Township, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. It has been repurposed as a power center and was renamed Seaview Square Shopping Center in 2012.Brunswick Square Mall, or the Manalapan Mall. However, once Nordstrom opened the Freehold Raceway Mall now had a store that was sure to be a success due to the fact there was not another Nordstrom store around for . The crowds eventually came and the vacancy rate at the mall significantly dropped. The explosive success of the Freehold Raceway Mall in the 1990s and early 2000s ultimately led to the downfall of the nearby Manalapan Mall, which closed in 1999 (which redeveloped into the Manalapan EpiCentre), along with the Seaview Square Mall (which redeveloped into a power center.).

2007–2020

Freehold Raceway Mall was expanded in 2007, and construction began in January. The expansion was built in the space between JCPenney and Sears in the upper floor parking lot. The addition included a strip of outdoor stores along the JCPenney side of the mall, occupied by 13 to 15 stores, two restaurants, a promenade, an area for community events and a valet parking station. In April 2007, the mall's first renovation project was underway. The renovation replaced the flooring, changing the brown and green tile to a beige stone tile, it replaced the green paint on the ceilings and ironwork with a more beige/earthtone, the brass rails were replaced in favor of wooden rails, new lighting under the skylights and along/under the columns was added, the globe lighting along the skylights, pillars and ironwork was replaced, a new escalator next to Sears was added, soft, carpeted seating areas were added and the large center court fountain was replaced with a smaller fountain, and a soft seating area. New additions include single- and two-story retail spaces, and two new parking lots which were built on site to replace those that were lost. They are located along the Raceway Mall Drive entrance and on the opposite side of the ring road next to Nordstrom. On July 18, 2011,

Borders Books & Music Borders Group, Inc. (former NYSE ticker symbol BGP) was an American multinational book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. In its final year, the company employed about 19,500 people throughout the U.S., primarily in ...

announced that they will be liquidating all of their stores, including their Freehold location. In September 2013, L.L.Bean opened their third New Jersey location inside the former

anchor. They hosted a grand opening festival including giveaways, contests, and also a Birds of Prey exhibit as well. On July 16, 2016,

joined the shopping center.

2020–present

The early 2020's saw multiple traditional chain anchors update their brick-and-mortar fleets after being disrupted by digital retailers and the COVID pandemic in recent years. On May 7, 2020, Nordstrom, which maintains several additional outposts close by, announced plans to shutter along with several additional locations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on its remaining best performing locations. On August 27, 2020, Lord & Taylor announced they would shutter their brick-and-mortar fleet after modernizing into a digital collective department store. By October 2022, after the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

shut down, Freehold Raceway Mall had announced several new additions, among them are Offline by Aerie and Lidl. Lidl will occupy the same outparcel space that Bob's Stores used to be located. Bob's Stores will now be an attached fixture of the mall near Primark. On May 25, 2021, the Freehold Township Planning Committee proposed a rezoning ordinance to the shopping centers in the township, the Freehold Raceway Mall property notwithstanding. The township's Business Administrator Peter Valesi, expressed the need to modernize the township's shopping centers. On July 13, 2021, the township planning board approved the amendment in a 3-1 decision. This legislation redefines the “regional mall” as a “regional mall shopping center”. The expansion of zoning allowances grants the owners of the mall the ability to potentially include more commercial amenities, such as; movie theaters, performing arts venues, indoor amusement parks, roller rinks and other assortment of recreational activities.
"Freehold Twp Committee Approves Expanded Raceway Mall Uses". Written by Nicole Rosenthal. Patch. July 15, 2021. Accessed July 17, 2021. The rezoning could also allow the mall to offer designated civic, cultural and senior citizen centers, as well as educational spaces, office spaces, breweries, and health care facilities. The rezoning policies will allow the mall to offer more Lifestyle center, 'lifestyle' amenities, which are becoming more commonplace in other prominent malls in the state (such as what can be found at the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne or the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford), while also still preserving the prestige that this mall has earned with its reputation in featuring luxurious retailers.

Anchors

Current anchors

* L.L.Bean *

Macy’s Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

Outparcels

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (d/b/a AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas or AMC Multi-Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain fou ...

* Ashley Furniture HomeStores *

Big Lots Big Lots Stores, Inc. (stylized as Big Lots!) is an American retail company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio with over 1,400 stores in 47 states. History The Big Lots chain traces its history back to 1967 when Consolidated Stores Corporation ...

Bob's Discount Furniture Bob's Discount Furniture is an American furniture store chain headquartered in Manchester, Connecticut. The company opened its first store in 1991 in Newington, Connecticut and is ranked 12th in sales among United States furniture stores acc ...

* Christmas Tree Shops *

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized as "DICK'S Sporting Goods") is an American sporting goods retail company, based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The company was established by Richard "Dick" Stack in 1948, and has approximately 854 stores ...

Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement re ...

* Lidl *

Raymour & Flanigan Raymour & Flanigan is a high-end American furniture retail chain, based in the Northeastern United States. Overview Raymour's Furniture Company, the predecessor of Raymour & Flanigan Furniture, was established by brothers Bernard Goldberg and Ar ...

Former anchors

(closed in 2021) *

(closed in 2020) *

(closed in 2020)

Outparcels

Linens 'n Things Linens 'n Things was a Clifton, New Jersey-based big-box retailer specializing in home textiles, housewares, and decorative home accessories. The chain operated 571 stores in 47 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces, and had 7,300 employees as o ...

(closed in 2008) *

Toys "R" Us Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1957; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters loca ...

(closed in 2018) * Bob's Stores (closed its outparcel store in 2022; will reopen attached to the mall in 2023)

References

External links

Freehold Raceway MallInternational Council of Shopping Centers: Freehold Raceway Mall
{{Macerich Buildings and structures in Monmouth County, New Jersey Shopping malls in New Jersey Macerich Shopping malls established in 1990 Tourist attractions in Monmouth County, New Jersey U.S. Route 9 Shopping malls in the New York metropolitan area Freehold Township, New Jersey 1990 establishments in New Jersey

Overview

History

1990–2007

2007–2020

2020–present

Anchors

Current anchors

Outparcels

Former anchors

Outparcels

See also

References

External links