By Sunayana Prabhu
EATONTOWN – Come spring, Monmouth Mall will be turning over a new leaf. The high-profile, long-awaited redevelopment of the area landmark undertaken by owner and real estate developer Kushner Companies will begin in March, transforming the site into 1,000 residences and an open-air retail shopping complex, as it originally was in 1960.
Monmouth Mall is now a classic two-level enclosed shopping center that has served area residents for almost 60 years. Located less than a mile from Exit 105 of the Garden State Parkway, the space offered a vibrant mix of shopping, entertainment and dining options for the entire family for decades. However, in the past several years, business plummeted for many reasons, including the growth of online shopping and the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the main anchors of the mall shuttered, Lord & Taylor in 2018 and Ruby Tuesday restaurant in 2020; in 2022, JCPenney announced it was closing its brick-and-mortar stores, opting for an online marketspace. Last year the TGI Fridays restaurant, a satellite property on the mall’s premises, closed.
The Monmouth Mall transformation has been in the works for nearly a decade but gained momentum when the property value declined in the past few years. In April 2021, the Eatontown Borough Council designated the property as an area in need of redevelopment for non-condemnation purposes, declaring nearly 500,000 square feet – out of the total 1.5 million square feet of retail space – underutilized. On April 26, 2023, the council adopted and set forth the Monmouth Mall Redevelopment Plan.
New York-based Kushner Companies, owned by the family of Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior advisor to former President Donald Trump, owns the Monmouth Mall property. The approved redevelopment plan includes 1,000 multi-family units and a mixture of retail, commercial and medical offices. The firm also owns Pier Village in Long Branch and a property in Colts Neck with a proposed housing development under fire from environmental groups for potential water issues.
The mall has a gross leasable area of 1.5 million square feet. Kushner’s ambitious redevelopment plan calls for the demolition of 600,000 square feet, leaving 900,000 square feet of leasable retail.
According to Michael Sommer, chief development officer for Kushner, the residences will be constructed on what is now vacant land.
Sommer noted that there will be a total of 115,000 square feet of medical office space on the property, following in the footsteps of the multistory Anne Vogel Family Care & Wellness Center, part of RWJ Barnabas Health, which opened in 2022 next to Boscov’s.
The centerpiece of the project will be a public green space that will be accessible to residents and members of the public. The plan is to develop the green space for recreational and community use, such as farmer’s markets, live music and other events. The project also includes plans for a new playground.
In addition to inking a deal with Whole Foods Market, expected to take 40,000 square feet of space currently occupied by Barnes & Noble, which will be moving to an adjoining space within the mall, Sommer said, “The ownership team is in active discussions with other new and exciting tenants for the project.”
While the outparcels – Chili’s, Jared, Chipotle and Shake Shack – will stay, the food court inside the mall will be redesigned and redeveloped as a modern food hall with new offerings. Sommer noted the mall will continue to operate throughout the redevelopment process and most of the anchor stores, including Macy’s, Boscov’s and the AMC theater, as well as Buffalo Wild Wings, will remain.
“We are in discussions with various existing tenants to potentially extend their leases,” he said.
Sommer said demolition is slated to begin in March.
The article originally appeared in the January 11 – January 17, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
