"It was wonderful to be able to keep that legendary store in town," Deputy Mayor Ketan Bhuptani said this summer at the ribbon cutting for Barnes & Noble's new home at 530 W. Mt. Pleasant Avenue, as TAPinto Livingston reported. The store had been one of the last tenants at the Livingston Mall. It closed its mall location on July 15, and TAPinto described the mall as permanently closed. Macy's had already left in April, according to Patch.
So the bookstore found a new address. The 59 acres at 112 Eisenhower Parkway did not. Most of that land is still zoned to be a shopping mall, and the township set it up that way deliberately. Since September, the next move on the site belongs to the Township Council, not to a bulldozer or a new tenant.
Two parcels with two different rulebooks
The mall property is split into two tax lots, and the township treats them very differently. The northern piece of about 16 acres, where Sears used to be, has a residential plan. The remaining 43 acres, including the main mall building, do not.
| Former Sears site, Block 6002, Lot 1.01 | Main mall, Block 6002, Lot 1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | About 16 acres | About 43 acres |
| Housing allowed | Up to 376 multifamily units | None under the plan |
| What else is allowed | One multifamily or mixed-use building, up to 81 townhouses | Existing D-S shopping-center uses |
| Height limits | 4 stories and 50 feet for the apartment building; 3 stories and 35 feet for townhouses | 35 feet under D-S zoning |
The Sears-site rules get specific. The plan allows up to 301 market-rate units. At least 20% of all permitted units have to be affordable, and affordable units built on site count on top of the 301. Market-rate apartments must be at least 45% one-bedrooms. The townhouses are two-bedroom units spread across no more than 15 buildings, and dens may not be used as bedrooms.
The 43-acre side has a much shorter list. The D-S, or Designed Shopping Center, district allows retail stores, personal services, restaurants and cafes, and one food court. It also allows one indoor family entertainment center, one auto center for tires and accessories, one freestanding hotel, and one freestanding restaurant building of up to 8,000 square feet. The mall and its related parcels are the only properties in Livingston zoned D-S. In short, a building with almost no stores left sits on land where retail is still the main thing the rules allow.
The trade that kept housing off the 43 acres
The township has explained why it drew the line where it did. In a Livingston Mall update posted by the township, officials described the Sears-site plan as an integral part of Livingston's settlement with the Fair Share Housing Corporation over its Third Round affordable housing obligation. Livingston agreed to allow the 376 units on the Sears site. In return, it would not be required to allow housing on the remaining 43 acres.
The same document says the deal headed off the possibility of developers seeking as many as 1,500 housing units across the whole mall site. It kept the township's zoning control over what happens on the 43 acres.
The arrangement also carried into the next affordable housing cycle. The township puts its Fourth Round obligation at 407 affordable units. It says it started that round with 124 surplus credits from the Third Round settlement, including the Sears-site units. By the township's math, at a 20% set-aside, those credits stand in for 620 units that would otherwise have had to be built.
That is why the zoning looks the way it does. Residential density went onto the Sears parcel so the larger parcel could stay under the township's control. The trade-off is that the larger parcel is tied to a retail model that the building itself no longer supports.
A mall that was legally built as one property
A second, older reason explains why the site is hard to redevelop piece by piece. When the mall opened in 1972, its anchors were Bamberger's, later Lord & Taylor; Hahne & Company, later Macy's; and Sears. The redevelopment plan traces a set of agreements that tied those stores and the land together. The first was a Reciprocal Easement and Operating Agreement signed in 1970 by R.H. Macy & Co., Sears, Roebuck and Co., Adcor Realty Corporation, and Livy Development Co., the landlord at the time. It gave each party shared rights to the mall's common areas.
That commitment held even after the Sears land was split off into its own tax lot. The plan quotes the ratification agreement filed at the time:
"the rights, obligations, covenants and agreements of Developer and Sears set forth in the Mall Documents requiring the continued operation of the Mall and the Sears Parcel as an integrated retail shopping center, including, without limitation, rights of access, ingress and egress, cross-parking rights, rights to utilities and other Mall common areas, and use restrictions shall remain in full force and effect"
The parking adds another layer. A 1972 agreement with PSEG gave the mall the right to build and maintain driveways and parking lots on neighboring utility land. The plan says those areas are still used for mall access and parking.
NJ.com reported last December that the property is owned by Kohan Retail Investment Group and Transformco. The township's own update notes that Livingston does not own the site.
What the September vote changed
That gap between public rules and private ownership is what this fall's ordinance addresses. The steps happened in this order:
- October 14, 2024. Through Resolution 24-232, the council designated the mall property a condemnation area in need of redevelopment. The recitals in Ordinance 30-2026 say the Planning Board had recommended that designation "with the powers of eminent domain, in accordance with the Redevelopment Law."
- February 2025. Topology, the township's planning consultant, completed the original Livingston Mall Redevelopment Plan.
- August 11, 2026. The council introduced an amended plan and sent it to the Planning Board, which found it substantially consistent with the Master Plan.
- September 14, 2026. After a public hearing, the council adopted Ordinance 30-2026. Mayor Shawn Klein, Deputy Mayor Bhuptani, and Councilmembers Michael Vieira, Al Anthony, and Meinhardt all voted yes.
You can read the ordinance and the amended plan in the September 14 council packet. The ordinance makes the plan supersede underlying zoning, while keeping existing zoning for part of the area. According to Citizen Portal's account of the meeting, township staff said the amendment brings the plan in line with the earlier designation, including the option of eminent domain if it becomes necessary. Staff also said it adds no housing units and no new permitted uses.
So the unit counts and permitted uses stayed the same.
The Planning Board's meetings on September 15, October 6, and October 20 dealt with other business. The council canceled its November 12 meetings, and its next scheduled meetings are November 23, according to the township's council meeting calendar.
What the same process looks like when it moves
Elsewhere in Livingston, a redevelopment project is already underway. Demolition started August 24 at the former Walgreens and Firehouse Commons property at 45 South Livingston Avenue, the Short Hills Sentinel reported. At the same September 14 meeting where it amended the mall plan, the council approved Resolution 26-257. That resolution authorized a developer's agreement for 19–43 and 45 South Livingston Avenue with 45 Partners II Urban Renewal, LLC. The Planning Board had approved the project for 226 units, including 17 affordable units and 14 reserved for special needs housing, plus about 19,600 square feet of retail, according to Citizen Portal.
On South Livingston Avenue, the Planning Board had already approved a specific project before the council voted on the developer's agreement. The first public sign that the mall site is moving will show up on a council agenda, and the next one on the calendar is November 23.
If you own a home near the mall or along the Route 10 corridor and want to know how changes on that 59-acre site could affect your home's value, Orsini Real Estate & Marketing Group follows every council agenda and land use decision in Livingston. Request a free home valuation and we'll show you where your home stands today.
