On the Main Level near Bloomingdale's, Anthropologie now fills a space of 9,577 square feet. It opened on January 28. Downstairs in the food court, a Popeyes counter opened on March 9 in a space of 644 square feet. Those are the two confirmed arrivals of 2026 at Bridgewater Commons. Both are retail-sized spaces, the kind a mall can lease, build out and open within one season.
The two largest dark spaces in the building are a different story. One is the former Redstone American Grill. The other is the former Lord & Taylor, empty since 2020. Neither is waiting on a shopper or a leasing agent. One needs a liquor license to change hands. The other needs to come back under the mall's control at all. What happens at those two addresses over the coming year will matter far more to the mall than any storefront swap, and in September both started to move.
This year's openings came in small sizes
The mall's March 2026 leasing announcement read like a list of quick hits. Anthropologie is the larger arrival by a wide margin, roughly fifteen times the floor area of the new Popeyes. Still, both fit the mall's existing layout. Anthropologie took a Main Level slot beside an existing department store. Popeyes took a food court counter. Neither needed the building to change.
The same announcement listed more moves planned for later in the year, timed by quarter. The most visible of them is happening now, and it shows how this mall tends to change. Brands already in the building are being rearranged.
The Aerie shuffle
In August, NJ.com reported that the mall's American Eagle and Aerie stores would combine into one larger space this fall. The old Aerie space won't sit empty. OFFLINE by Aerie, the company's women's activewear line, is preparing to open there on the Main Level next to JD Sports, and NJ.com expected it to open by the end of the year.
According to the same report, it will be the fifth OFFLINE store in New Jersey. The others include locations at Freehold Raceway Mall and Jersey Shore Premium Outlets in Tinton Falls. The shop sells leggings, matching sets and accessories.
So one retailer takes up two storefronts in a new arrangement, and the building ends up with one more brand name, all inside space the mall already controls. Changes like this are easy because nothing outside the mall's own leasing office has to approve them. The two big vacancies have no such shortcut.
The Redstone space is waiting on a liquor license
Redstone American Grill closed in January. In February, Patch reported that the restaurant first described the closure as temporary, and that its online presence later disappeared. Eight months later, the space was still dark.
At the Bridgewater Township Council meeting on September 17, Councilman Timothy Ring reported on a regional center partnership meeting he had attended the day before. Patch covered his remarks, including this description of the Redstone space:
"It is my understanding that it's very, very early in the process, but someone is apparently slowly starting the process for a liquor license transfer to potentially take over the space previously occupied by Redstone Grill."
Ring did not name the party involved, Patch reported. Even unnamed, the transfer is the first public sign since January that someone is looking at the room. "Hopefully, that process moves forward without any issues," Ring said.
For now, the right word is possibility. No operator, concept or timeline has been announced. If a transfer goes forward, it is the kind of item that shows up on a township agenda before any sign goes up on the storefront.
Lord & Taylor has been out of the mall's hands since 2020
The older vacancy has a longer backstory. Lord & Taylor closed its Bridgewater store in 2020 after its parent company, Le Tote Inc., filed for bankruptcy on August 2 of that year and later announced it would close its remaining 38 stores.
Ring explained why the space has stayed empty for so long in a building that keeps finding tenants for smaller storefronts. "It's been almost six years now since the Lord Taylor has closed," he told the council, according to Patch. He said the mall "has not had access to that space; it has been held by Lord and Taylor, different successors through bankruptcy courts and finance companies and stuff."
That explains years of a dark anchor better than any guess about retail demand. A mall can't market a space it doesn't control. By Ring's account, that may be changing. "It appears there's finally some light at the end of the tunnel and the mall will actually be able to go to market that they're getting control of that space back," he said.
Regaining control would let the mall begin marketing the space. No incoming tenant or reuse plan has been named for the space. Ring called both developments good news for the township's regional shopping center. The difference in timing is still large. Anthropologie went from announcement to open storefront inside a single year. The Lord & Taylor space has spent almost six years waiting just for the chance to be offered to tenants.
Where each space stands heading into the holidays
As of the latest public reports, the mall's 2026 changes sort into three groups:
- Open: Anthropologie on the Main Level near Bloomingdale's, since January 28, and Popeyes in the food court, since March 9.
- In motion inside the mall: the combined American Eagle and Aerie store, reported for this fall, and OFFLINE by Aerie next to JD Sports, expected by the end of the year.
- Waiting on outside processes: the former Redstone space, where a liquor license transfer is in very early stages, and the former Lord & Taylor, which may soon return to mall control.
The third group holds the two largest footprints, and its timeline is set by township agendas and the end of a bankruptcy-era chain of ownership, not by the mall's leasing calendar.
The holiday season fills the middle of the mall
While the two big spaces wait, the mall's calendar has kept the central corridors busy. In May, the mall announced a World Cup "Goal Zone" event featuring the NY Cosmos. In August, it announced a vote on sculptures built from canned goods donated by Goya Foods. Teams from New Jersey companies built the sculptures to benefit the Food Bank Network of Somerset County. RoboCon New Jersey returned September 26 and 27.
The holiday calendar on the mall's events page picks up from there:
- The Salvation Army Angel Tree, November 6 through December 24. It stands on the Main Level by L'Occitane, and gifts go back unwrapped into the red bin beside it.
- Santa @ The Commons, November 14 through December 24. Santa will be at Center Court on the Lower Level. The event page says more details are coming, so check hours before you go.
Angel Tree tags go up on November 6, and Santa arrives eight days later. Both sit in the parts of the building the mall controls and keeps programming. The OFFLINE storefront is expected to join them by year-end. The next real news about the Redstone and Lord & Taylor spaces is more likely to come from a council meeting than from the mall's own announcements.
Changes at a regional shopping center like Bridgewater Commons are part of the township's everyday life, and the team at Brown & McCrea follows them as closely as any listing. If you want to talk about how Bridgewater is changing around your home, or what these updates might mean for your plans next year, we're happy to help. Contact Us.
