Liquor Store In Moorestown Projected For Spring Opening

MOORESTOWN, NJ — A liquor store is expected to open soon at Moorestown Mall, marking the township's first since such businesses became legal in the historically dry locale.

Super Buy Rite plans to open sometime this spring, according to a spokesperson for PREIT, the mall's parent company.

Buy Rite Wine & Liquor has about 50 locations throughout New Jersey, including a handful of "super" stores. Moorestown's store will be located at 675 S Lenola Rd. — a pad site on the mall property.

Earlier this week, the Township Council approved the place-to-place transfer of a license that will allow Super Buy Rite to sell alcohol from the Moorestown location — another sign of progress toward opening day. Previously, the retail liquor license was registered to the address of a former Buy Rite location in Somerset.

Moorestown was a dry town for much of its history, with a ban on liquor sales lasting nearly eight decades after Prohibition ended in 1933. Voters passed a repeal of the ban in a 2011 referendum.

A decade later, the Township Council passed an ordinance that permitted liquor stores in Moorestown. The ordinance restricted them from operating within 200 feet of residential zones, effectively consolidating them to the Moorestown Mall area and other business districts.

The liquor store is part of PREIT's efforts to revitalize Moorestown Mall, which also include Cooper University Health Care's new medical facility that opened on the property last year, and the future developments of a 375-unit apartment complex and a massive family-amusement center.

PREIT, which owns several malls throughout the Mid-Atlantic, declared bankruptcy in December for the second time in three years. In recent years, PREIT executives have touted Moorestown Mall's redevelopment as a company bright spot, while its other South Jersey asset, Cherry Hill Mall, has long been the top performer in PREIT's mall portfolio.