Menlo Park Mall

About Menlo Park Mall

Menlo Park Mall is a two-level super regional shopping mall, located on U.S. Route 1 and Parsonage Road in Edison, New Jersey, USA. The mall has a gross leasable area of 1,232,000 ft² (114,000 m²). Menlo Park Mall is currently owned by the Simon Property Group.

The mall opened in the late 1950s and eventually became the first enclosed mall in Central Jersey. It is named after the Menlo Park area of Edison, where Thomas Edison had his famous laboratory, the site of which is about two miles from the mall. From the 1950s to 1990, Menlo Park Mall was anchored by Bamberger's (changed to Macy's in 1987), Alexander's, a small JCPenney (closed in 1981 after the move to Woodbridge Center, 3 miles up Route 1) and a two-level Woolworth. The mall was one level and as a result of the lack of skylights (only shaded windows along the sides of the ceiling) and low lighting was quite dark. The flooring was quite unique in that there were patterns of orange, black, yellow and white throughout the mall. When Alexander's went out of business, the mall was able to secure the 2nd Nordstrom in the state of New Jersey, but changes had to be made to prepare for the opening. Most of the mall was closed from 1990-1991, when it underwent a significant renovation and expansion that converted it from a single-story structure into its current two-story form. In expanding and fitting into the space, the new Menlo Park Mall was built on an angle with the vertex occurring at center court. The new Menlo Park Mall was also changed to have galleria style skylights, domed fountain courts, marble flooring, dramatic lighting, sculptures and a large, skylit food court. Two parking decks were also added, as was a 12 Screen Cineplex Odeon movie theatre, which replaced the smaller Menlo Park Cinema on Route 1 (which was later replaced by Romano's Macaroni Grill). Macy's was the only store to remain open during the primary expansion.

While not featured, the mall's name was mentioned in Kevin Smith's films Mallrats and Chasing Amy, both of which take place in Central Jersey areas. An episode of Comedy Central's Upright Citizen's Brigade was filmed in the Menlo Park Mall. The Scott and Todd Big Show on radio station WPLJ sponsored a contest in April 2007, in which five contestants had to live in a makeshift prison in the mall for five days with the winner receiving a $5,000 shopping spree and a vacation to Aruba.