A South Jersey town is getting a liquor store — its first in at least a century — after lifting its longtime ban on alcohol sales.
The Super Buy Rite store will be located at the Moorestown Mall, officials said. It will open this spring, according to a report on the local Patch news site.
Voters in Moorestown approved a referendum in 2011 ending the local ban on liquor sales. The ban had been in place since the Burlington County town was established in 1922, two years after the start of the national Prohibition ban — repealed in 1933 — on the production and sale of alcohol.
“We know there were taverns that sold alcohol in the 1700s and 1800s, but to the best of my knowledge this is the first legal liquor store since Moorestown was incorporated as a township,” Mayor Nicole Gillespie told NJ Advance Media.
Super Buy Rite is opening its shop after the Moorestown council adopted an ordinance in 2021 authorizing liquor sales and the township awarded an auction bid, of just over $1 million, for the first distribution license. The council approved transferring the license on March 25 to Super Buy Rite’s location at the mall.
“The opening of the new Super Buy Rite liquor store represents an exciting new business opportunity for Moorestown,” Gillespie said.
“In addition to providing a convenient new option for those looking to responsibly purchase beer, wine and spirits, we anticipate that it will generate economic activity at the mall and create jobs for local residents,” Gillespie said.
Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, known as PREIT, operates two malls in New Jersey, including the Moorestown Mall, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
PREIT announced Monday it had emerged from its second bankruptcy filing in four years as a private company with a new chief executive officer. In addition to the Moorestown Mall, it owns the Cherry Hill Mall and about a dozen malls in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
While Super Buy Right has received the first distribution license, Moorestown previously sold seven consumption licenses to restaurants. Five are held by PREIT, with four currently in use by restaurants at the mall, Gillespie said.
The Moorestown Mall has been seeking to make changes as traditional shopping malls continue to contend with the loss of business to online retailers, vacancies exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and evolving consumer preferences. It opened in 1963.
Voters in Moorestown approved a referendum in November allowing the mall to bring in businesses that offer games of chance or skill, which the mayor previously said could open the door to businesses with amusement games — places such as Dave & Buster’s and Chuck E. Cheese. The change does not extend to allowing gambling.
Moorestown is located about 14 miles from Philadelphia and is home to about 21,000 residents.
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Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com.
