Queens Center is a large suburban-style mall anchored by Macys and JCPenney in a very urban location, New York City.  Located in the Elmhurst section of the borough of Queens, Queens Center is accessible by multi-modal forms of transportation: Subway, Bus, Car, foot, horse, turtle, whatever; it all converges at this mall.  Despite its name, the mall is not located in the geographic center of the Borough of Queens and actually about 4 miles to the northwest.  Queens Center is, however, located at one of the busiest intersections in the borough, Queens Boulevard and Woodhaven Boulevard, adjacent to the LIE (I-495) which is one of the main arteries carrying traffic from Midtown Manhattan out onto the vast expanse of suburban Long Island. 

Queens Center is unique in that it is only one of a handful of large shopping malls within New York City, which has a population of 8 million.  And in fact, it is the only large enclosed mall within the borough of Queens, with a population of 2.2 million.  As such, the mall is often crowded and numerous sources cite Queens Center as having the highest profit per square foot in the United States for an enclosed mall.  This is largely due to the fact that the millions of residents surrounding the mall would rather shop locally than either make the tedious journey into Manhattan or drive to the large suburban malls farther out on Long Island in the suburbs.

In 2002, Queens Center was about 25 years old.  Not only did Queens Center look a bit worse for wear, it was definitely in need of expansion.  So Macerich, the owner, embarked on a $275 expansion and renovation project which lasted over two years, changing the mall dramatically.  The old small, dirty food court was removed from its circular area upstairs to new basement digs.  A skybridge over 92nd Street connects the new part of the mall with the older, and glass atriums throughout provide ample light, a stark contrast to the dimly lit space of before.  Also, the mall was repainted with brighter colors, light beiges and pastels, to further modernize and brighten the place up a bit.  Gone too are interesting escalators which went down from the mall and literally into the middle of JCPenney a floor below, and all of the courts which were circular were squared off.  But, with the expanded space and brighter look, I think Queens Center is wholly better.  The mix of stores and restaurants has also been upscaled, with trendy features like California Pizza Kitchen and others.  I think flashing girl from Flushing, the Nanny named Fran, would definitely shop here post-renovation.  If only she hadn’t moved into the city…

We visited Queens Center twice, once in 2001 before renovation and once in 2007.  Feel free to leave comments and enjoy the photo sets.

2001:

2007:

Over the years we’ve spent a great deal of time investigating why malls die.  We’ve found a great number of reasons, and one of the most popular of these has been competition.  We hate to sound general, but it’s happened all over the place, and probably close to you too.  The newer, shinier mall (replace ‘mall’ with ‘Lifestyle Center’ or ‘Big Box Power Center’ or whatever, same difference) becomes instantly popular and leaves the smaller, older center by the wayside.  However, this process usually takes a while, typically at least several years if not longer before total dominance is shifted from one retail center/area to another, and the losing mall finally gives up and meets Mr. Bulldozer.  However, that’s not necessarily the case here. What we’re about to investigate is rather unique, in that the dominance of one center shifted to another instantaneously; as one shiny new mall opened, the older, smaller mall was immediately abandoned, seemingly overnight.

First, a bit about the area.  With just about 60,000 residents and over 150,000 in the metropolitan area, Jonesboro, Arkansas is the regional anchor city for the northeast part of the state.  Jonesboro is, however, culturally and economically linked to the larger metropolis of Memphis, Tennessee, about 70 miles to the south.  That said, Jonesboro does enjoy a degree of autonomy, being the seat of local government as well as for having Arkansas State University, and being a regional center for agriculture and trade.

Most of the typical Big Box strip malls, chain restaurants, and businesses in general in Jonesboro are located in the southeast part of town along Highland Dr, S. Caraway Rd., and Stadium Blvd.  Indian Mall, named after the University mascot, is located in this area, and opened here in the late 1960s featuring Blass, TG&Y, Sears, and a supermarket.  

By the mid-1990s, Jonesboro’s population had doubled since the 1960s debut of Indian Mall and, as the commercial center of all of Northeast Arkansas, could definitely support a larger and more modern mall.  The small Indian Mall chugged along into the 1990s, when its owner, Warmack & Company, proposed building a new mall just to the east of Indian Mall along Highland Dr. at Stadium Blvd.  Under the plans, Indian Mall was to have been changed into a Big Box or mixed-use retail center.  The new mall even got a name, Southern Hills Mall, and land was set aside for the development.  Unfortunately, though, due to a myriad of reasons it never materialized, and a competing mall developer stepped in to take the reigns and build Jonesboro a new center. 

David Hocker & Associates was the competing developer’s name, and offered up plans which did materialize in 2006 in the form of The Mall at Turtle Creek.  The new 750,000 square-foot center opened then, and took with it most of Indian Mall’s stores.  JCPenney and Dillards had brand new digs there, and almost overnight many of Indian Mall’s remaining in-line stores seemingly packed up and moved down the street.  Almost immediately, Indian Mall was left completely vacant, except for Sears and Dillard’s Clearance Center. 

The Mall at Turtle Creek features JCPenney, Target, Dillards, a large center court food court, as well as junior anchors Circuit City, Bed Bath & Beyond, Barnes and Noble, and Steve and Barrys.  The mall has become quite popular with both locals and college students alike, as the only enclosed mall within a one-hour-plus drive to Memphis.  Well, that is, unless you count the dead mall down the street this one killed… 

Turtle Creek also holds the distinction of being the only enclosed mall to open in all of 2006 nationwide, showing that enclosed centers are fast falling out of fashion to be replaced by ’Lifestyle’ and Big Box-anchored power centers.  But as far as new mall construction, Turtle Creek isn’t half bad. Turtle Creek is actually designed to woo Lifestyle and Big Box center shoppers.  By placing restaurants and junior anchors toward the front of the mall, and having the main corridor wrap around behind it, the mall has more functionality and efficiency, which is what draws shoppers to the Lifestyle and power centers.  In addition, there are more attractive common areas in front of the mall for sitting cafe-style in front of restaurants.  The mall’s interior corridor is also offset to be a slight curve rather than a squared-off straight shot between the two abutting anchors, making the mall appear slightly longer than it is.  All of these design features are attempts at catering to the modern shopper, who demands aesthetic conveniences.

So, because Indian Mall’s owner’s plans fell through, this mall got built in virtually the same location and Indian Mall now sits empty. The pictures here were taken in June 2007.  Also, don’t forget to check out Indian Mall, the mall this one outmoded.    

Over the years we’ve spent a great deal of time investigating why malls die.  We’ve found a great number of reasons, and one of the most popular of these has been competition.  We hate to sound general, but it’s happened all over the place, and probably close to you too.  The newer, shinier mall (replace ‘mall’ with ‘Lifestyle Center’ or ‘Big Box Power Center’ or whatever, same difference) becomes instantly popular and leaves the smaller, older center by the wayside.  However, this process usually takes a while, typically at least several years if not longer before total dominance is shifted from one retail center/area to another, and the losing mall finally gives up and meets Mr. Bulldozer.  However, that’s not necessarily the case here. What we’re about to investigate is rather unique, in that the dominance of one center shifted to another instantaneously; as one shiny new mall opened, the older, smaller mall was immediately abandoned, seemingly overnight.

First, a bit about the area.  With just about 60,000 residents and over 150,000 in the metropolitan area, Jonesboro, Arkansas is the regional anchor city for the northeast part of the state.  Jonesboro is, however, culturally and economically linked to the larger metropolis of Memphis, Tennessee, about 70 miles to the south.  That said, Jonesboro does enjoy a degree of autonomy, being the seat of local government as well as for having Arkansas State University, and being a regional center for agriculture and trade.

Most of the typical Big Box strip malls, chain restaurants, and businesses in general in Jonesboro are located in the southeast part of town along Highland Dr, S. Caraway Rd., and Stadium Blvd.  Indian Mall, named after the University mascot, is located in this area, and opened here in the late 1960s featuring Blass, TG&Y, Sears, and a supermarket.  Blass became Dillards, TG&Y closed in the 1980s and Dillards used its mall-fronting space for an expansion, and the supermarket closed and was converted to a food court.  Also, in 1976, JCPenney attached itself to the small 300,000 square-foot center, adding a stub wing onto the north end.  Indian Mall’s decor was relatively unchanged throughout its four-decade lifespan, which is neat for us mall historians, but don’t look for it being around too much longer. 

By the mid-1990s, Jonesboro’s population had doubled since the 1960s debut of Indian Mall and, as the commercial center of all of Northeast Arkansas, could definitely support a larger and more modern mall.  The small Indian Mall chugged along into the 1990s, when its owner, Warmack & Company, proposed building a new mall just to the east of Indian Mall along Highland Dr. at Stadium Blvd.  Under the plans, Indian Mall was to have been changed into a Big Box or mixed-use retail center.  The new mall even got a name, Southern Hills Mall, and land was set aside for the development.  Unfortunately, though, due to a myriad of reasons it never materialized, and a competing mall developer stepped in to take the reigns and build Jonesboro a new center. 

David Hocker & Associates was the competing developer’s name, and offered up plans which did materialize in 2006 in the form of The Mall at Turtle Creek.  The new 750,000 square-foot center opened, and took with it most of Indian Mall’s stores.  JCPenney and Dillards had brand new digs there, and almost overnight many of Indian Mall’s remaining in-line stores seemingly packed up and moved down the street.  Almost immediately, Indian Mall was left completely vacant, except for Sears and Dillard’s Clearance Center. So, after nearly four decades in operation, the Indian Mall was felled in one swoop.  And, because its owner’s development wasn’t selected to become the new mall, Indian Mall sits there like a deer in headlights.  As of Summer 2007 the mall is technically open, but only functions as a corridor for mall walking and to get between the two remaining anchors.  Nothing else remains at Indian Mall and it’s only a matter of time before the property is redeveloped, and the mall’s website recently went down forever. 

The photos here were taken in June 2007.  Feel free to add your own thoughts or anecdotes and be sure to check out the Mall at Turtle Creek posting as well.  We felt they stood better together chronologically yet as separate posts.   

The Landmark Mall in Alexandria, Virginia is one of those curious cases where its really surprising that the mall became a dead mall. Landmark seemingly had the right ingredients; a nice facility at a solid, high-traffic location in a relatively affluent, high-population area. What’s more, the only mall very nearby that’s in direct competition is the also-faltering Springfield Mall, which seems to have something of a bad reputation. What gives?

The Landmark Mall originally opened in 1965, although I believe the center was originally an open air plaza that was dramatically different than the mall of today. The center was anchored by Hecht’s, Sears, and Woodward & Lothrop. The center was dramatically reconfigured and enclosed in 1990, turning the mall into a giant and modern “U”-shaped, three level center with tons of skylights filtering natural light into the center. The Woodward & Lothrop store was in the center of the “U,” with the Sears and Hecht’s stores on either end of the mall, and entrances to the parking lot from either the top portions on either side of the “U” or from the very bottom. Most of the mall was two level, but there was a third level food court with an entrance into the Woodies at the lower portion of the U.

Woodward & Lothrop went out of business in 1995, and their store at Landmark became a JCPenney. However, low sales caused the JCPenney store to shut in a round of closings in 2000 (when Penney’s was in quite a bit of trouble–something that’s hard to imagine now). Around 2001, there was a major push to reposition the mall, and a large amount of space was retenanted. A large portion of the second level of the Sears wing became an Old Navy store, and the vacant JCPenney was replaced by a brand new Lord & Taylor store in an attempt to make Landmark skew a bit more upscale.

This renaissance was very short-lived, however. Within a few years, many of the stores had fled the mall, leaving many of the few remaining tenants clustered around center court. The Sears wing, in particular, was a ghost town by 2005, with the Old Navy having exited along with many of the other small tenants. The pictures shown here were taken on my second visit to the Landmark Mall in July 2006, when the mall seemed about half empty. Note that the Hecht’s signage is still in place.

In 2004, the mall was bought by General Growth Properties, and in 2005 they announced a plan to dramatically reconfigure the center by demolishing most of the mall’s interior and replacing it with a lifestyle center. The Sears and Hecht’s (now Macy’s) anchors were to remain, but most of the rest of the center would be history. In addition to a retail component, the new center–to be dubbed Landmark Village–would include more dining options, housing (over 1,600 condos, so a lot of housing), and a 400 room hotel. There’d also probably be a gazebo, since there always is.
Has anyone been by to the Landmark Mall recently? How is it doing? Is Lord & Taylor still open (I could’ve sworn it was closed a year ago, but the interwebs seems to disagree with me. Maybe it was just that it downsized to two levels).

A few months back, I proudly proclaimed that I thought I’d seen all of the malls in New Jersey. Of course I hadn’t; New Jersey has tons of hidden malls, including this (sort of) departed gem, Cape May’s Rio Mall. Michael Lisicky sent us a great set of old photos from when the mall still had a smidge of glamour, as well as a sad set that shows what’s become of her. Check it out:

“With all of the attention on Labelscar that the mega-mall Mall of America has created I decided to pay homage to one of the smaller malls that I have ever known. Arguably New Jersey, for a state its size, is the King of Shopping Malls. Besides its hundreds of shopping centers everywhere New Jersey is home to such showplaces as the Garden State Plaza and the Cherry Hill Mall. However southern New Jersey was also home to many “mini-malls”, malls that were anchored by a junior department or discount store and/or a supermarket. These malls contained about a dozen stores located between the anchors where shoppers could support these businesses where “every day is like Springtime” (from an old Cherry Hill Mall advertisement). Centers like the Cinnaminson Mall, the Tri-Towne Mall in Marlton, and the Village Mall in Willingboro are now a distant memory for many as the novelty quickly wore off. But nobody pulled off the “mini-mall” better than the Rio Mall.

The Rio Mall is (was) located in the southern tip of New Jersey four miles north of Cape May. Cape May County in the early 1970s was still quite seasonal and, besides a few small centers, serious shopping was still a half hour north near Atlantic City. In came the Rio Mall. The Rio Mall was built in 1973 in Rio Grande, NJ. It was a novelty for its time. The closest indoor mall, the Shore Mall 30 miles north, would actually not complete its final construction with its new glitzy Steinbach store until 1974. The Rio Mall had no big department store. It was anchored by a Grant City, an A&P, a movie theatre, and about 15 other stores. Each store in the mall basically served one of every type of need. From the start, the Rio Mall was a success. It was constantly occupied but not just by local fly-by-night storefronts. The mall, unlike most “mini-malls,” had a full Deb Shop, JS Raub shoe store, Thrift Drug and the upper-end branch of Atlantic City’s famous Palley’s Jewellers. With little competition and the fascination of indoor shopping Cape May County was happy.

The Rio Mall wasn’t necessarily a mall where you could browse all day. But if you wanted a new pair of shoes, wanted to fix your watch, needed to buy some cards and catch a movie it was “one stop shopping”. Even when Grants closed their doors with the rest of the chain in 1976 the anchor store did not stay dark for long. In came K-mart. Even Atlantic City didn’t have a K-mart until after Woolco closed its store in 1982. For years the Rio Mall served the county well. Along the way it lost some stores but they were quickly replaced by such chains as Rafters, a NJ woman’s clothing store and a (small) Reynolds junior department store.

But then the area became more year-round. Demand for shopping grew. Soon some of the earliest power centers would invade its territory. JCPenney built a new store down the street along with Peebles. Thrift Drug merged with Eckerd and left to a store next to Starn’s Shop-Rite. Reynolds moved into a “real” storefront across the street. Palley’s closed all of their stores. By the mid 90s the exodus was in full swing. Slowly the mall began to die. It tried to survive but for many it was time to move on.

So what’s left of Rio Mall? Not much anymore. Kmart still is going strong but the mall was “removed”. Kmart took over much of the mall’s space as it braced for a hit from the area’s first Wal-Mart down the road. The theaters are there but they’ve moved. (Actually the theater company, Frank’s, had purchased the mall not long ago from mall owner PREIT but is now looking to unload it.) There is a strange corrider that is still left from the old mall. It’s almost like a hurricane came through; part of the mall is still there, but now it’s open to the elements. The ceiling tiles are still there. The framework to Thrift Drug is still there. But it’s all filled with trash. But what does remain is perhaps one of the perfect “labelscar”s of all malls. The Rio Mall sign still peeks from its bricks hoping that someone still remembers the role it once played in the growth of Cape May County.”

From the look of Michael’s photos, I really didn’t miss anything–at least not nowadays, anyway. I’m am, however, glad for the chance to see what it was like–thanks Michael!