A Whole Foods and huge changes coming to NJ’s Monmouth Mall

Before too many years, you may not even recognize Monmouth Mall in Eatontown.

A Whole Foods Market is set to take over the 40,000 square feet that Barnes & Noble currently occupies. B&N is expected to move to a different location on the same property but no word on where or when this will happen. Don't look for Whole Foods soon: 2026 is being talked about with no firm opening date.

Yet that's only the beginning.

Monmouth Mall has been around since 1960. It's now 1.5 million square feet but started as a 600,000 square foot 14-building 50-store open-air center. In 1975 the mall was enclosed and started its expansion to its current size. Then it was renovated in 1987. In the mid-1990s an elevator went in as well as a food court with a Jersey Shore theme.

More changes came. And now, after 63 years, it's been announced even more changes are coming. Huge ones.

Kushner Companies is planning to demolish the vacant JCPenny Lord & Taylor stores and reduce the center to 900,000 square feet. It's being reported it will be rebranded as Monmouth Square, an open-air retail spot with not only stores but 1,000 new luxury apartments and walking paths and event spaces. Medical office space is also in play.

This is all going to take time. If the thought of calling Monmouth Mall something different like Monmouth Square feels too strange, know that when it all first opened 63 years ago it was called Monmouth Shopping Center.

Nothing stays the same.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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