The Mall That Changed the Waterfront
Before there was a food court with 19 options or a climbing wall under construction, there was a patch of old rail yards and freight tracks along the Hudson. In 1987, that changed.
Newport Centre opened its doors in Jersey City, reshaping the waterfront with glass, escalators, and suburban retail transplanted into an urban grid. A generation later, the mall still stands.
New tenants move in, old ones shut their gates, and the third floor still smells like grilled cheese and burgers. Among things to do in Jersey City, New Jersey, it’s always managed to stay on the list.
Lease-Up and Launch – The 1987 Retail Pivot
Newport Centre did not roll out all at once. The soft opening came on October 14, 1987, with only part of the 1.2 million square foot layout active.
Sears and Stern’s were the anchors in place. JCPenney was already slated to move in, but its doors would stay shut for another two years.
The fourth anchor remained unclaimed.
By November 11, the official launch had enough tenants onboard to justify the ribbon-cutting.
New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean and Senator Frank Lautenberg showed up for it.
Seventy-five tenants were open for business that day.
Sam Goody, Eddie Bauer, Benetton, and Hallmark were among them.
The event was pitched toward residents of the Newport development, then still new and raw, and toward Bergen County shoppers boxed out by Sunday blue laws.
The mall’s opening was part of a larger effort by the LeFrak Organization, aiming to convert Jersey City’s post-industrial waterfront into a high-density residential and commercial district.
In that context, the shopping mall was both a magnet and a symbol.
It sat inside a planned $10 billion investment zone that would eventually span offices, apartments, and hotels.
But in the fall of 1987, it was the first working piece.
The mall wasn’t a local strip center stitched into existing neighborhoods.
It was a wholesale import from suburban planning into an urban core.
Sidewalks bent around it. Transit lines were rerouted to reach it. Mall Drive West and Mall Drive East were renamed and reshaped to bracket the site.
Hudson Mall and Journal Square have a history. Newport Centre had a blueprint.
Anchor Strategy and Retail Realignment
The original four-anchor plan did not lock in immediately.
JC Penney opened on October 4, 1989, taking its place as the third anchor.
The fourth anchor was still unresolved. It stayed that way for most of the 1990s.
Stern’s, one of the early anchors, underwent a brand shift in 2001 when Federated Department Stores closed the division.
The Newport Centre location was folded into the Macy’s network instead.
At that point, the mall wasn’t simply retrofitting a logo.
It was absorbing a new retail layout. Plans had already been drafted to build a separate Macy’s store on-site, and that project went forward.
On November 6, 2002, the new Macy’s opened. The previous Stern’s building went offline, and around 300 employees moved to the newer space.
That left a gap. In December 2005, Kohl’s announced that it would occupy the older Macy’s footprint.
Less than a year later, on October 1, 2006, Kohl’s opened its doors.
The configuration solidified: JC Penney, Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Sears filled the anchor spots.
Sears lasted longer than expected. It was part of the mall from day one in 1987, but by 2024, it had become the last remaining Sears in New Jersey.
The company announced it would close the location in the spring of that year.
In response, the space was subdivided.
Dick’s House of Sport and Primark will take leases in 2025, targeting newer shopping categories like activewear and fast fashion.
Interior Layout and Revenue Generators
Newport Centre was built across two full retail floors, with a third floor set aside for dining.
The food court sits at the top of the complex and covers a wide central space with seating for about 1,000 people.
In terms of footprint, it’s among the largest single-level dining areas in Hudson County retail.
Around 19 food vendors cycle in and out, depending on lease renewals and seasonal contracts.
The mall’s full gross leasable area measures about 1,152,600 square feet.
Across that space, the lineup has held between 130 to 165 stores, depending on the year.
Most are national chains under Simon Group management, but the ground floor and concourse levels contain some smaller tenants in seasonal rotation.
AMC Theatres serves as the entertainment anchor. Its 11-screen layout draws nighttime traffic even when retail floors slow down.
The mall is set inside an Urban Enterprise Zone. That legal designation reduces sales tax from 6.625% to 3.3125% on qualifying purchases.
Clothing remains exempt entirely. As of 2024, the zone’s benefits still apply, giving Newport Centre an edge over malls in neighboring counties.
The Newport Tower sits nearby.
It’s the sixth-tallest building in Jersey City and forms part of the commercial loop that gives the mall its daytime foot traffic.
Those office leases, combined with transit proximity, keep the weekday traffic stable, even without event programming or external draws.
Transit Footprint and Shopper Flow
Newport Centre didn’t just build around existing transit, transit was pulled toward it.
The PATH station known as Newport, part of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson line, feeds directly into the complex’s east side.
Riders from Manhattan cross under the Hudson and exit onto Mall Drive East in under ten minutes during peak service.
The Hudson–Bergen Light Rail’s Pavonia/Newport station handles cross-county movement.
That line connects Bayonne to North Bergen and sends daily foot traffic through the southern edge of the mall.
In planning terms, the mall acts as a transfer hub between the two systems.
Jersey City Heights and the North Hudson towns, Guttenberg, Union City, West New York, and North Bergen, use NJ Transit bus routes that terminate at Newport.
That matters for weekday flow.
The physical footprint of the mall sits near the base of Newport Parkway.
Henderson Street, Mall Drive East, and 6th Street box in it.
Access by car funnels through the Holland Tunnel on the eastern side, giving the property an edge over malls farther inland.
That advantage shows up most clearly on weekends.
Parking garages attached to the property are often full.
What that tells planners is simple: despite declines in certain retail categories, Newport Centre’s layout still responds to movement, local and inbound, and converts that movement into sales and leases.
Lease Turnover and Post-2020 Shifts
On March 16, 2020, the mayor of Jersey City ordered the mall closed in response to statewide health directives.
The property reopened on June 29, 2020. By then, tenant churn had already started.
Some closures were expected, short-term leases with little margin for loss, but others reflected deeper changes.
In early 2024, the Sears anchor space shut down. That closure marked the end of Sears’ presence in New Jersey.
Two replacements were announced. Primark took over a portion of the footprint, bringing fast fashion inventory under a price-driven model.
Dick’s House of Sport claimed the rest.
That concept store, part of Dick’s Sporting Goods, uses in-store installations, climbing walls, golf simulators, and batting cages, to drive customer retention and dwell time.
It’s scheduled to open in fall 2025.
New entries in 2025 reflect a pivot toward blended-use space.
Tapville Social adds beer taps and self-pour kiosks to a formerly retail-heavy corridor.
Carter’s/OshKosh B’gosh opened on January 13, 2025.
Mango and other mid-tier apparel brands are listed in the current tenant updates.
Physical changes also followed. In February 2025, a free play zone called “PLAY” was added near Kohl’s.
It targets children under 42 inches in height and includes tunnels, slides, and climbing features.
Simon Group began testing similar installations in other properties, but this was the first in Hudson County.
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