Brunswick Square is a single story shopping mall located in

East Brunswick, New Jersey East Brunswick is a Township (New Jersey), township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The suburban bedroom community is part of the New York metropolitan area and is located on the southern sho ...

, at the intersection of Route 18 and Rues Lane. It is owned and managed by Paramount Realty Group and has gross leasable area (GLA) of . The current

anchor store In North American, Australian and New Zealand retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are ...

s are

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC , Trade name, doing business as JCPenney (colloquially Penney's and abbreviated JCP) is an American department store chain store, chain with 649 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. It is managed as part of the Catalys ...

and

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

History

Brunswick Square Mall was built on land that was formerly the Ostroski Farm on Rues Lane. The Ostroski family sold the land to the Macy's Corporation in 1969 for the construction of

Bamberger's Bamberger's was a department store chain with branches primarily in New Jersey and other locations in Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. The chain was headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. History 19th century Newark was known for m ...

, which opened in 1970. Anchor

and the mall portion, originally owned by DeBartolo Corporation, opened in 1973. Bamberger's became Macy's in 1986 when the chain was phased out in favor of the Macy's name. In 1999, a smaller expansion took place that added a

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

and expanded the movie theater to 13 stadium seating screens. The theater expansion occupied an adjacent

McCrory's McCrory Stores or J.G. McCrory's was a chain of five and dime stores in the United States based in York, Pennsylvania. The stores typically sold shoes, clothing, housewares, fabrics, penny candy, toys, cosmetics, and often included a lunch co ...

. Several eateries were incorporated into the movie theater, including

Nathan's Famous Nathan's Famous, Inc. is an American company that operates a chain of fast-food restaurants specializing in hot dogs. The original Nathan's restaurant stands at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brook ...

Ben & Jerry's Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, the company went from a single ice cream p ...

and

Auntie Anne's Auntie Anne's is an American franchised chain of pretzel shops founded by Anne F. Beiler and her husband, Jonas, in 1988. Auntie Anne's serves products such as pretzels, dips, and beverages. They also offer Pretzels & More Homemade Baking Mix ...

to make up for a lack of a proper food court. Also that year,

Simon Property Group Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers, and community/lifestyle centers. It is the largest owner of shopping malls in the United States and is headquartered in Indian ...

acquired the mall from DeBartolo. In October 2000, the interior of the mall was renovated in which new ceilings, skylights, flooring and lighting was installed and a second main entrance was constructed on the west side of the mall through a space formerly occupied by

Kinney Shoes The G.R. Kinney Company was an American manufacturer and retailer of shoes from 1894 until September 16, 1998. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in March 1923, with the symbol KNN. The shoe concern was started by George Romanta Kinney ...

, next to

Spencer's Gifts Spencer Gifts LLC, doing business as Spencer's, is a North American mall retailer with over 600 stores in the United States and Canada. Its stores specialize in novelty and gag gifts, and also sell clothing, brand merchandise, sex toys, room dec ...

. In 2011, JCPenney underwent major renovations to give the store a new look and add a

Sephora Sephora is a French multinational retailer of personal care and beauty products, offering nearly 340 brands alongside its own private label, the Sephora Collection. Its product range includes cosmetics, skincare, fragrance, nail color, beauty t ...

inside the department store. Numerous stores have come and gone since 2011. The movie theater Mega Movies closed down and was replaced by

Starplex Cinemas Starplex Cinemas was a Dallas-based American movie theater chain which had 34 locations across the United States at its height. In 2012, Showbiz Cinemas acquired the Starplex location in Kingwood, Texas. Later, Starplex merged with Showplex Cinem ...

in 2011. Starplex had also bought the fast food franchise licenses of the Nathan's Famous and Ben & Jerry's from Mega Movies but subsequently decided to close the ice cream store due to a lack of revenue. In early 2013, construction was completed on a new entrance and hallway anchored with a

Panera Bread Panera Bread is an American multinational chain of bakery-café fast casual restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which are in the United States and Canada. Its headquarters are in Fenton, Missouri. The chain operates as Saint Louis ...

Tilted Kilt Tilted Kilt Pub and Eatery is a modern Scottish-Irish-themed sports pub and Franchising, franchisor-type restaurant chain in the United States. The company has six locations. History The first Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery was opened in the Las V ...

and GoWireless. In 2015, Starplex Cinemas was bought out by

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (doing business as AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC) is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and now headquartered ...

. Also in 2015, the Subway sandwich store closed and was replaced by the Pop in Cafe. The Pop In Cafe has since closed. In 2016, Simon Property Group sold the mall to WP Glimcher. Also that year, Ruby Tuesday closed to make way for

Bar Louie Bar Louie is an American bar and restaurant chain founded in 1990. Bar Louie serves food, beer, and cocktails, from locations predominantly located in urban and suburban markets. there are approximately 69 locations. Bar Louie is headquartered i ...

and

Red Robin Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc., more commonly known as Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews or simply Red Robin, is an American chain of casual dining restaurants founded in September 1969 in Seattle, Washington. In 1979, the first franchised R ...

. Bar Louie opened in late-2016 and Red Robin opened in August 2017. In addition,

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

moved next to

Famous Footwear Famous Footwear is a nationwide retail chain, chain of retail stores in the United States dealing in branded shoes, footwear, generally at prices discounted from suggested retail price, manufacturer's suggested prices. The chain is a division of ...

during this time and its former storefront was used for Red Robin. Pups of War, a nerf blaster arena, opened in June 2021. In November 2023, the mall was sold again, this time to Paramount Realty Group, a Lakewood based owner of numerous shopping centers in the area. This was the first mall Paramount has purchased, and has since acquired the

Neshaminy Mall Neshaminy Mall is a shopping mall located at U.S. Route 1 and Bristol Road in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania. The mall was opened in 1968 and was the sixth interior mall constructed in Greater Philadelphia. The Neshaminy Mall is anchored by Bo ...

in Pennsylvania. A new sneaker store was opened in 2024, specifically a resell store which sells sought after sneakers.

Gallery

File:Brunswick Square Mall.JPG, Exterior near Macy's File:East Brunswick Square Mall (Rear Main Entrance).jpg, South entrance near AMC Theatre

References

External links

Brunswick SquareInternational Council of Shopping Centers: Brunswick Square
{{New York City Malls Buildings and structures in Middlesex County, New Jersey Shopping malls in New Jersey Shopping malls established in 1970 East Brunswick, New Jersey Tourist attractions in Middlesex County, New Jersey Shopping malls in the New York metropolitan area