Paramus J.C. Penney department store at Garden State Plaza to close March 10

The J.C. Penney department store at the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus — an anchor since 1958 at what is now New Jersey's largest shopping center — will close on March 10, store and mall officials confirmed Friday.

The announcement comes as J.C. Penney is closing stores and trying to reinvent itself in an increasingly challenging era for shopping malls, department stores and other brick-and-mortar retailers. It previously announced it was closing 140 stores this year, but the 177,000-square-foot Paramus store was not on that list. Real estate insiders speculated that the store closing at Garden State Plaza was prompted by redevelopment plans at the mall, rather than Penney's ongoing cutbacks.

More: Best Buy relocation creates opening for new moves at Garden State Plaza

More: Garden State Plaza to get new European owner under Westfield sale deal

Mallville USA: Paramus and its malls at a turning point

Mallville USA: Rating the four malls of Paramus. Will they survive?

Mall officials have hinted in recent months that they will be announcing major redevelopment plans this year. The freestanding Best Buy store at the mall is also leaving the mall and is expected to close in the spring.

In a statement on Friday, a Westfield Garden State Plaza spokeswoman, Lisa Hermann-Srednicki, said mall officials are "pleased to have acquired" the J.C. Penney store.

"As has been demonstrated many times in the past, recovering former department store buildings provides Westfield a strategic opportunity to creatively transform retail spaces in a way that offers far more engaging and relevant experiences for our customers," she said.

Hermann-Srednicki did not disclose the mall's plans for the current J.C. Penney space beyond saying that acquiring it would allow the mall "to more fully build upon the momentum of the Garden State Plaza's ongoing makeover," including a new food court, "and continue to enhance the choices and diverse new offerings available on the property."

A J.C. Penney spokesman, Carter English, said in a separate statement that the decision to close the Paramus location followed a review of the company's store portfolio and was part of its "ongoing efforts to achieve sustainable growth and long-term profitability."

"We will go to great lengths to relocate esteemed leaders and, if possible, assist associates in identifying other job opportunities at nearby JCPenney stores," he said. Some store workers who lose their jobs as a result of the store's closing will receive "separation benefits, including outplacement support and an on-site career training class," English said.

Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera, reached Thursday evening, said he had not been notified of the store closing, but he said he is confident that it will quickly be replaced with a new tenant. "Rest assured, in Paramus, when one door closes, another door opens," he said.

J.C. Penney arrived at Garden State Plaza in 1958, a year after the mall at the crossroads of Routes 4 and 17 opened as an open-air shopping center. The mall has expanded and evolved around the store. An expansion in the early 1980s gave J.C. Penney a new entrance inside the mall, and the construction of a new wing in the mid-1990s placed the moderately priced department store amid luxury tenants, including Neiman Marcus.

The store was extensively remodeled in 2012 and 2013 during the failed attempt by its maverick chief executive, Ron Johnson, to give the stores a more modern image.