What Happened to this Manasquan Shopping Center?

This abandoned mall is like a ghost town now...with the last couple of shops finally closing.It's the shopping center on the Manasquan Circle and Atlantic Avenue once known as Peddler's Village and the Circle Factory Outlet.

For the last year or so, the Bass Outlet Store and the L'eggs/Hanes/Bali shop tried to hang on.

And, prior to that, Simonetti was still hanging on as a favorite local store for parents who needed new sneakers or sports things for their kids. They have since relocated to the Acme shopping center in Wall.

Of course the Bass Outlet store and L'eggs/Hanes/Bali combo store is still located at the Jackson Premium Outlets, and a Bass store and a Hanes store are also at the Jersey Shore Premium Outlets in Tinton Falls, so we don't have to go too far to access them.

But it feels like such a blight on our area to drive around the Manasquan Circle and see this dead, empty, shopping mall, which used to be a thriving part of our community.

Once referred to as Peddler's Village, and the Circle Factory Outlet, when Lou and I started our morning show 15 years ago we did a huge event there and every store was still bustling!

The building first opened in the 80s.

I have heard rumors of why every business has abandoned the location, as well as the constant gossip of what big store will bring that location back to life...but nothing that can be confirmed. (The last brouhaha was that the Whole Foods would open there. But that ended up adjacent to the Acme shopping center instead).

Do you think maybe they should just take down this ugly mess of a cracked and crumbled shopping center and parking lot and turn it into something prettier? Or do you think there's a chance that this center can be revived again?