Games, Entertainment, Amusement To Be Added Uses At Bridgewater Mall

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — To help the Bridgewater Commons draw more people, the Township Mayor and Council introduced an ordinance to allow establishments for games, entertainment, and/or amusement to be added at the mall.

"We talk about controlling development and watching the future of our town - if the mall went into a death spiral we would have every developer walking through the door telling us how many apartments they want to build on the mall site. So we want to make sure that the mall is healthy," said Mayor Matthew Moench during the Monday night council meeting.

The mall currently is only allowed retail along with food and drink establishments. The ordinance would amend section 126-320.2 for the Bridgewater Regional Center Zone to allow a broader use.

"As we all know the mall is important to the township, Lord & Taylor is vacant … the mall has made a lot of progress. A lot more stores have been filling in. It has been weathering the pandemic as well as the retail market overall," said Moench. "But long story short, if they wanted to bring in - off the top of my head, hypothetically - Dave & Busters or Top Golf. Certain use stuff that we want in town that would support the retail, that are compatible with the mall, right now they can’t do that."

Moench touted that the amended ordinance would help bring hands-on experiences to consumers at the mall that they can't get with online shopping such as a laser tag space.

However, the ordinance does cap the allowable entertainment space to 90,000 square feet to avoid the mall turning entirely into entertainment.

Councilman Filipe Pedroso expressed some concerns with the language of the ordinance saying "entertainment" is a very general term.

Pedroso used an example of entertainment for "dancing services."

"Are you talking about a strip club at the mall?" Moench asked.

"The word entertainment is very general," said Pedroso.

Moench said he would double-check on the definition of entertainment and if needed insert language to limit what is allowed.

Council Vice President Michael Kirsh also thought the idea of the amendment was a good idea as he recently visited the Garden State Plaza where they offered race cars on a track there.

"I like where [the ordinance] is heading but I think we need to narrow the definition," said Pedroso.

The amended ordinance was introduced unanimously at the Dec. 5 meeting with changes to the definition most likely to be added before the final hearing of the ordinance at the next council meeting on Dec. 19.

The public will have a chance to comment on the ordinance prior to the final vote by the council.

See the full ordinance below:

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