Quaker Bridge plan still a go

Quaker Bridge Mall has long been in need of some alterations.

Once the premiere mall in the area, it has over the alst decade or so been surpassed by mammoth malls to its north and east.

That’s why it came as good news over the summer that the Simon Properties Group had won approval from the Lawrence Township Planning Board to increase the mall’s size by about 50 percent and to bring in new, high-end anchor stores to augment its current line-up.

Timing, however, tends to be everything in business so the question of whether the expansion would actually go through was an open one as Annie and I wandered the mall on our first foray into the Christmas shopping season. The mall, as I wrote in an earlier post, was only moderately busy, especially by holiday season standards, leaving me to wonder whether any retailers — let along retail property developers — would want to commit to expansion while the economy was contracting.

The answer to that question, however, comes in this story from NJ.com: “Mall expansion remains a go.” According to the story, the expansion may not be moving as quickly as first expected, but it is moving.

Jonathan Epstein, an attorney for the developers, said the plans have not been disrupted by troubles in the retail and commercial industries.

“It’s obvious what is going on in the capital markets is having an impact on large real estate developments around the country,” Epstein said in an interview recently. “But Simon continues to have the financial wherewithal to proceed with a project of this magnitude.”

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Nordstrom reaffirmed that the upscale retailer is still committed to the project. She said plans call for the store to open in an expanded mall in the fall of 2011.

Mall owners currently view the mall as being in the “B category.” It is 33 years oldneeds to be “reposition(ed) … to compete in a retail environment that has been transformed by big-box and lifestyle shopping centers.”

Sounds good. I only hope there’ll be someone out there with the cash to do the buying.