The mall, with four anchors and 167 other stores and attractions, partially opened to the public in October 1987 with
Sears and
Stern's as two of the four anchors operating. The 1,200,000-square-foot (110,000 m2) was intended to draw residents from the new Newport waterfront development and the surrounding area, as well as shoppers from
Bergen County, where
blue laws keep shopping malls closed on Sundays.[3]
There are three floors to the mall complex. The mall is part of the Newport Complex, which includes the
Newport Tower, the sixth tallest building in Jersey City. Both it and the Hudson Mall are in an "
Urban Enterprise Zone", reducing the state sales tax on purchases from 6.625% to 3.3125% at eligible merchants (with no sales tax on clothing).
On March 16, 2020, Jersey City Mayor
Steve Fulop ordered the Newport Centre to be closed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.[7] The next day, New Jersey Governor
Phil Murphy backed this temporary closure and ordered all malls in New Jersey to temporarily close as well.[8] It reopened on June 29, 2020.[9]
^Kennedy, Shawn G.
"Real Estate; New Twist For a Mall In Jersey", The New York Times, October 28, 1987. Accessed February 4, 2018. " Close up, however, a formidable low-rise component of this huge waterfront development becomes evident – a 1.2-million-square-foot shopping mall four blocks from the water's edge, still in construction but already open and partly occupied.This Newport Centre mall will have four department stores, 167 shops and restaurants and a nine-screen movie theater.... The new mall, at the intersection of Sixth Street and Luis Munoz Marin Boulevard, has been in limited operation since mid-October when Stern's and Sears, two of the four anchor tenants, as well as a handful of smaller stores, opened to the public."
^Levine, Cecilia.
"New Jersey Sears Closing", Hudson Daily Voice, January 5, 2024. Accessed January 6, 2024. "New Jersey's last-standing Sears store, located in Jersey City, appears to be closing."