Paramus, NJ (221 South Dr)

221 South Dr, Store #482 was a Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza/Chuck E. Cheese's in Paramus, New Jersey. It was located in a small plaza across from the Bergen Town Center. The store would be relocated to Paramus, NJ (275 Route 4 West) which opened on December 26, 2011 with a Studio C Beta, 16m and still operates to this day.

History

Pre CEC (1958-1993)

The Plaza where the Paramus (221 South Dr) location was located was built sometime in 1958⁽¹⁾. It is unknown how many tenants occupied the building, but the last tenant was closed by the end of 1992 with construction starting sometime afterwards.

CEC (October 1993-November 2010)

Paramus opened on October 18, 1993, in a plaza across the street from the Bergen Town Center with a 1-Stage and the 1993 version of the 1994 SPT Repositioning / Remodel Program. They remodeled to Phase 2 in 1997 which involved replacing Exterior Signage (Changing it from 'Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza' to 'Chuck E. Cheese's'), replacing the awnings, repainting the building, and possibly a minor interior remodel. The store received minor renovations over the years like the green overhead kid check light, new hats and cosmetic changes for Chuck E. and Munch. In the mid-late 2000's, following the closure of the stores surrounding the CEC like Shop Rite and Health Spa 2, the CEC was the only store left in the area. Similar to the old Union store, plans started to emerge of redevelopment of the area where the two abandoned stores were and the Paramus location. Paramus (also similar to Union) planned to close this location and relocate to another space nearby. The original Paramus location closed at the end of November 2010.

Post CEC (2010-Present)

After the store's closure, the building that occupied the Paramus store was demolished shortly after. By 2012, A building housing REI, Red Robin (which was formerly another restaurant) (Now Closed) & Kirkland's (Now Closed). The CEC relocated to Paramus, NJ (275 Route 4 West) in December 2011 and held its grand opening on January 2, 2012.

Stages

When Paramus (221 South Dr) opened, the store housed a 1-Stage (One of six installed in the state of New Jersey). Chuck E. wore his Tuxedo & Derby hat like all other 1-Stages when it was first installed. Around the Early-Mid 2000's Chuck's Tuxedo & Derby Outfit would be replaced by the Cool Chuck outfit. Chuck also wore the avenger cap in as early as 2006 (it is possible their cap was from a walkaround not the one for animatronics). It would remain this way until the stage's removal when the store closed permanently in November 2010.

Stage	Installed	Removed	Notes
1-Stage	October 1993	November 2010	One of six installed in New Jersey. First to be removed in the state.

Animatronics

Animatronic	Manufacturing Date	Whereabouts
Chuck E Cheese (Cyberamic)|Chuck E. Cheese (Cyberamic)	1993	Unknown.
Guest Star / Helen Henny (Cyberamic)	1993	Unknown.
Mr. Munch (Cyberamic)	1993	Unknown.
Jasper T. Jowls (Cyberamic)	1993	Unknown.
Pasqually (Cyberamic)	1993	Unknown.
Wink (Cyberamic)	1993	Unknown.

Videos

Link	Description	Filming Date	Published Date
Link	Video showcasing the store, games & 1-Stage in Late 1995	Late 1995	October 5, 2020
Link	Video showcasing the store, games & 1-Stage in January 1998	January 31, 1998	December 19, 2014
Link	Birthday Star 2001 in 2006. The Chuck cyberamic has the cool chuck attire and the avenger cap which was rare in 2006.	Late 2006	December 18, 2006
Link	Chuck E. March 2001 in 2008.	2008	July 15, 2008
Link	Video showing Birthday 2009 in December 2009	December 1, 2009	December 1, 2009
Link	Video showcasing the showroom, wall art, shelves, stage, uploaded by the same user.	December 1, 2009	December 1, 2009
Link	Brief clip of 'Holly Jolly Christmas' from the same user	December 1, 2009	December 1, 2009
Link	'Free Ride' from January 2010 Show being performed on Paramus's 1-Stage	January 30, 2010	January 30, 2010
Link	A Birthday Party being held at the location. As of May 2024, this is the last known video of the 221 South Dr. location.	April 24, 2010	April 24, 2010