The town green, and restoration of the Sprout Brook waterway that runs through the mall property is intended to create more green space and is core to the sustainability goals for the project, URW’s Mason said.
The project will include 45,000 square feet of retail, which will be managed by the mall, as well as a one-acre “town green” for community events sponsored by the mall. The complex is slated to have about 550 apartments, with about 400 of the units geared toward young professionals, with an additional 150 units grouped in a “boutique” building targeted to an older, empty-nester market. Mill Creek and Westfield expect to submit additional plans to Paramus officials within several months. The project is expected to break ground in 2024, and is scheduled to open to residents in 2026. But at the Plaza, “we have a vibrant mall, we have a gem that continues to succeed and it needs to succeed 24/7, 365 while we’re under construction.”
You go in and say we’re going to knock this mall down and we’re going to create a town center and you start from scratch,” he said. “Developing part of a mall is a whole new level of complexity that we’re excited to be a part of, and we’re excited to have Westfield as our partner,” Caldwell said. While Mill Creek has done mixed-use retail and residential projects in the past, acting as joint partners with the mall owner makes the Plaza project unique, Sean Caldwell, a founding partner of Mill Creek and executive managing director for Mill Creek’s Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and North Carolina properties, said in a phone interview. A rendering of the town green portion of the residential project planned at the Westfield Garden.