Fashion Center Paramus — Local services in Paramus

The Fashion Center, once the pinnacle of luxury shopping in North Jersey, a mall that was dubbed the Fifth Avenue of  Bergen County,  also was written off as dead before coming back to life. It was the first mall in North Jersey to save the mall by de-malling it. It turned itself inside out, closing off the interior of the mall and converting the center into a collection of big box-style stores with separate entrances.

Past: The mall opened in 1967 and was anchored by the tony B. Altman and Company and Lord & Taylor, with other upscale retailers including Rogers Peet and Georg Jensen. After B. Altman closed in 1989, the mall floundered, and for a while tried to reinvented itself as a kids' play destination, with a Discovery Zone fun center, a toy store and children's clothing stores.

Present: WRDC, the Pennsylvania real estate company that bought the mall in 1998, decided quickly that the Fashion Center, at 500,000 square feet, couldn't compete with the larger malls and moved to de-mall it, redeveloping it into its current configuration. The B. Altman building was subdivided into a Bed, Bath & Beyond; T.J. Maxx, and a Buy Buy Baby. A Fairway supermarket opened there in 2009.

Future: WRDC says the center remains in demand and it expects the center to continue in its current form. Two parent companies of two retailers in the center, Fairway and Toys R Us, have struggled recently, but the Fashion Center's location should help it fill any vacancies that arise...

Good selection of shops. Parking surrounds this cluster of stores and can be a hassle, especially on Saturday. Small enough so you can easily walk from one end; Bed Bath & Beyond to Fairway Market or Lord & Taylor at the other, depending on which level you are on. There are 3 levels. Best Buy is in the center on the lowest level next to Applebee's restaurant. No interior mall. All stores entered from outside. It's basically a cluster of stores as...

I only went to Fairway market here and it was just as disappointing as the one in Nanuet NY which closed. The place was packed with employees and hardly any customers. Not a single employee greeted me, acknowledged me or offered to help. In fact, when I tried to check out my groceries there were 4 employees too busy talking to each other and I had to interrupt them after 60 seconds of just standing there to ask if they were still open...