Seaview Square Mall

Seaview Square Mall

Aerial view of the Seaview Square Mall on March 29, 1995.
Location Ocean Township, New Jersey, United States
Address 1000 Rte 66, Ocean Township, NJ 07712
Opening date November 2, 1977
Closing date December 31, 2000
Developer Goodman Company
No. of anchor tenants 3
Total retail floor area 929,620 square feet (86,365 m2)
No. of floors 2

Seaview Square Mall is now a mostly defunct indoor 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.[1] The 856,000-square-foot (79,500 m2) mall,[2] located at the intersection of Route 35 and Route 66, was originally constructed in 1977 as an indoor mall.[1][3] It faced stiff competition from the more upscale Monmouth Mall, located five miles (8 km) further north on Route 35.[1] One of its four anchors never opened,[1] and several smaller stores, and Stern's and Steinbach, two of its anchors, were victims of the then-indoor mall's then-state of decline.[4]

History

The mall's past history can be traced back to the 1950s, when Sears relocated its downtown Asbury Park store to a more suburban site on Route 66 at the site of the present-day Neptune World Class Shoprite, just west of the Asbury Circle.

Following the 1970 Asbury Park riots, many businesses left Asbury Park's downtown. Thus, planning for Seaview Square began at the site across the street from the Sears, behind a small cinema, which was later renamed the "Seaview Square Cinema" and absorbed as part of the mall's property. The site was originally a landfill from 1941 to 1975 and was considered a Superfund site by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) until 1991.[5] The 856,000-square-foot (79,500 m2) mall would be anchored by Steinbach at the west end, and a newer and much larger Sears at the other end, which also housed Sears' regional credit office. The mall also had room for about 150 stores and two extra anchors.

The mall was developed by The Goodman Company [6] and opened on November 2, 1977. At this point, the mall was about 40% occupied. Steinbach operated its Seaview Square store as an upscale, fashion-oriented store, and their Asbury Park store more towards housewares and furniture. By 1979, however, the Asbury Park store had closed and the company reevaluated itself as a "value chain". In the same year, Stern's opened along the front side of the mall, after it wasn't able to open at the nearby Ocean County Mall in Toms River. Around the same time, Lord & Taylor was rumored to be the mall's fourth anchor, but never came to fruition.

In the 1990s, Stern's parent company, Federated Department Stores, bought Macy's, and decided to merge the Abraham & Straus chain into Macy's, which left the Monmouth Mall with an empty anchor. Sterns subsequently moved to the vacant space, but continued to operate the Seaview Square store as half-store and half-clearance center until their lease ran out in 1999. Steinbach folded that same year, and was replaced with a Value City.

Current

The mall closed on December 31, 2000 (with Radio Shack, an original mall tenant, being the final store to close), for reconstruction, and most of the original indoor mall was demolished in 2001, with the exception of its remaining two anchors, Value City and Sears.

In September 2002, the Wharton Realty Group purchased the mall and renamed it the Seaview Square Shopping Center. New construction on the Route 66 entrance to the mall created 3 new restaurants and additional retail stores. A wave of new tenants soon filled most of the empty space of the old mall including Guitar Center, A.C. Moore, Big Lots, Lowe's, Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Park, Costco, PetSmart and a Target among others.[7]

In 2004, Lowe's vacated the space due to cracks and depressions in the floor and relocated to a separate location in nearby Eatontown, NJ. In 2005, the floor and foundation problems were corrected and the majority of the space was later filled by Burlington Coat Factory. The former Value City building is reportedly going to be demolished and replaced with a new anchor.

Seaview Square has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity since it's influx of new tenants. The 110-acre shopping center sits in the middle of three major highways – routes 18, 35 and 66 – and also borders the Asbury Park circle, where Asbury Park, Neptune and Ocean Townships meet - and is considered to be a downtown hub for shopping in the Asbury Park area.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 In the Region/New Jersey; Foundering Ocean Township Mall Is Bulking Up, The New York Times, July 23, 2000
  2. ↑ International Council of Shopping Centers: Seaview Square Mall, accessed December 9, 2006
  3. ↑ Upscale development fills commercial corridor, Asbury Park Press, October 20, 2005
  4. ↑ For a while, plenty of parking at mall, Asbury Park Press, January 18, 2001
  5. ↑ Cracks in floor at Lowe's spur shutdown for repairs, Asbury Park Press, February 28, 2004
  6. ↑ "The Goodman Company". The Goodman Company. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  7. ↑ , accessed May 9, 2016


Coordinates: 40°13′55″N 74°02′42″W / 40.232°N 74.045°W / 40.232; -74.045

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