Fashion Center
The Fashion Center sign, still used to this day although Fashion Center has been an outdoor mall since 2009.
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| Location | Paramus, New Jersey, USA |
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| Opening date | February 15, 1967 |
| Owner | Willner Realty and Development Co. |
| No. of stores and services | 11 (as of 2013) |
| No. of anchor tenants | 7 |
| Total retail floor area | 446,000 sq ft (41,400 m2) |
| No. of floors | 2 (original indoor mall), 1 (current layout) Lord & Taylor and former B. Altman store each operate on three levels; the B. Altman store houses T.J. Maxx, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Buy Buy Baby, with one store occupying each floor. |
| Public transit access |
 NJ Transit bus: 722, 752 |
| Website | Official Website |
The Fashion Center is a shopping center located in Paramus, New Jersey. From the time of its opening until 2009, the Fashion Center was a traditional indoor shopping mall. The mall slowly underwent a "de-malling" process over a period of several years prior to 2009, which resulted in the former interior portion of the mall gradually taken over by other stores and eventually sealed off, with each store inside the center having its own outside entrances.
The property is owned by Willner Realty of Pennsylvania. It has a gross leasable area of 446,000 sq ft (41,400 m2) and is considered small by modern standards, with fewer than fifteen storefronts at its peak.
Prior to the mall's construction, the area was native marsh and grassland where muskrats were trapped and sold for their fur by local residents. The mall opened on February 15, 1967 and was billed as a miniature Fifth Avenue. Hoping to capitalize on the affluent population of Bergen County, it included two anchor stores: Lord & Taylor on the north end and B. Altman and Company on the south end. The department stores were connected to each other by an indoor shopping arcade that was 1,500 feet (460 m) in length and included high-end retailers such as Rogers Peet (later replaced by Brooks Brothers), Georg Jensen, and Ann Taylor. There was also a free-standing Best & Company store in the parking lot that was built while the company was liquidating; the store instead housed a Britt's location and is now occupied by Toys "R" Us.
The Fashion Center, which was designed in a contemporary style of decor, was prosperous through the 1970s. The center court included a fountain that was also used in the mall's former logo. But as the years progressed, other malls in the Paramus area, including Garden State Plaza, Paramus Park, Riverside Square Mall, and Bergen Mall began to capture its local market share. By the 1980s, this growing competition, coupled with the demise of B. Altman, led to a severe decline in the mall's fortunes. Retailers gradually moved out, leaving Lord & Taylor as its only anchor store and leading some to refer to the Fashion Center as a dead mall.
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