Big news last week out of New York: the Nanuet Mall in Nanuet, New York will soon be closing to be demolished and replaced with an open-air lifestyle center.

I only visited the Nanuet Mall once–way back in 2000–and I remember being amazed at the time that it seemed to do fairly well given that it exists in the shadows of Nyack’s mammoth Palisades Center Mall, a far newer behemoth that’s one of the largest malls in the tri-state area. Nanuet seemed quieter and more civilized than its cousin down the street; clearly a case of a mall that had (successfully, then) positioned itself as a convenient option for residents living in the immediate area, much in the same way that Paramus Park manages to thrive in the shadows of Garden State Plaza. I guess that times have changed since then, however, and the center needs to dramatically reposition itself to remain viable.

The Nanuet Mall was the largest mall for affluent, suburban Rockland County in the lower Hudson region for 30 years. The mall opened in 1969, with Bamberger’s and Sears as anchor stores. Here’s a vintage photo of the Nanuet Mall from that era; the Bamberger’s signage is plainly visible in the shot. In 1986, Bamberger’s was converted to Macy’s. In the mid-1990s, a new wing was added (creating a “T” shaped layout) with an Abraham & Straus anchor store; this store would later become a Stern’s. When Stern’s and Macy’s merged in 2001, the store was shut and later replaced by a Boscov’s store; one of only four in New York State.

The redevelopment plans call for eliminating the entire center save the Macy’s and Sears stores; Boscov’s is leaving the complex for good. There were rumblings of something like this happening for awhile, with a scare around the holidays about the mall cutting its hours from 10-9 down to 11-6. Instead it looks like they’ll be cut back a whole lot more than that.

Prangeway took all of these photos in 2001, a much better time for the poor old Nanuet Mall.

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:

The Broadway Mall is one of the largest–and perhaps strangest–malls on Long Island. The mall opened in the 1956 on the site of a former boys’ orphanage as the open-air Mid-Island Plaza. The Hicksville area of Long Island was in the middle of a building and population boom at the time, as residents were flocking to the suburbs in great numbers. Some of the largest strictly suburban areas on the entire east coast are located in the vicinity of the center, including archetypal post-war suburbs like Levittown and Hempstead (which, with over 700,000 people, is the second most populous census-designated place in New York State).

The original Mid-Island Plaza consisted of 10 buildings and 8,000 parking spaces. The center’s main anchor, Gertz, was a local store from downtown Jamaica Queens who opened a major outpost in Hicksville to follow the population trends. Gertz’ 5-story, 300,000 square foot store dominated the center’s original design, and its rumored that this store is the tallest suburban department store ever built. At some point the mall also was home to an EJ Korvette’s store. The mall was even structured with an underground tunnel (still in use today) that allowed deliveries to be made directly to the stores underneath the mall. The Mid-Island Plaza was being enclosed in 1968 (and perhaps renamed at the same time?), then renovated again in 1989 and 1995. Gertz Department Stores parent company, Allied, united the Gertz stores under the Stern’s banner in the 1980s before becoming a Macy’s in 2001. The mall’s website offers a bit of its history.

The Broadway Mall is located only a few miles from Roosevelt Field Mall, the largest mall in all of New York state and one of the largest on the entire eastern seaboard. As a result, it has an interesting feel and has an unusual store roster. The center is shaped like an “H”, with Macy’s at one of the junctions. Its other two anchors are a Target (which had been a JCPenney very briefly from 1999 to 2001 or 2002) and an IKEA, making for one of the stranger rosters of anchor stores of any mall in the northeast. Broadway Mall also boasts Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear, H&M, Old Navy, and a movie theatre as junior anchors. I’m not entirely sure what the IKEA or Target stores were initially, but the mall did boast EJ Korvette’s as one of its original anchors. Korvette’s stores tended to have large footprints, so it’s possible that IKEA took this space after the mall’s major redevelopment in 1995.

MallsofAmerica has some really cool photos of the Broadway Mall during its Mid-Island Plaza days, and our photos were all taken in May of 2007. I’ve been to this mall many times since 1999 (until 2004, this IKEA was the closest one to Boston) and it hasn’t changed much in that time, beyond when Target replaced JCPenney at the rear anchor. The imposing, humungous Macy’s store is certainly a highlight here, as is the cavernous center court and the strange way the food court is cantilevered onto a second level. But really, Broadway Mall is most interesting as an example of how a second-tier mall that would normally be crowded out by larger siblings is able to hang on with some less-than-traditional anchor stores and make out just fine.

Longtime readers of Labelscar (or any other mall/retail history website, frankly) will notice we hold a distinct bias against a lot of the most successful shopping malls. Of course the obvious question is “Why?”–if these malls do well, and we like malls, why don’t we cheer for them as much as the others?

It’s not that we derive any thrill out of the death or decay of a shopping mall, but rather because we feel that the shopping malls of the ’60s, ’70s, and first half of the ’80s exuded a certain cool; rather than today’s centers which are practically-floored to maximize sales per square foot, they were often designed by architects who were trying to make grandly palatial, modern, contemporary gathering spaces. And unfortunately, the only malls left that still look like this tend to be the ones that have been neglected over the past two decades. The rest of them had their personality beaten out of them, usually with the walls painted white, the planters and fountains ripped out, and useless kiosks stuffed into every available space in the main concourse.

Long Island’s Walt Whitman Mall, at Walt Whitman Road and Jericho Turnpike, is no exception. But because it is one of these neat old malls by design, it does retain some vestiges of its past, and is at least somewhat interesting (if only architecturally, at this point), especially for a mall that is very upscale–its four anchor stores today are Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, and Lord & Taylor.

First of all, no discussion of the Walt Whitman Mall would be complete without addressing the center’s amusingly awkward name. Walt Whitman was originally from Huntington, and there’s a historic site at the house he was born located relatively close to the mall. However, the notion of a mall named for Walt Whitman is more than a bit silly. There’s a site that’s dedicated to the sheer ridiculousness of it, and they speak about this at length:

Is there any American writer whose work has less to do with shopping than Walt Whitman? He was an unwashed iconoclast, a rebel who loved to offend polite society, and an in-your-face sensualist homosexual back when nobody had the nerve to come out in public. He was so offensive, even Ralph Waldo Emerson balked at inviting him over for dinner, and it was Ralph Waldo Emerson whose endorsement of Leaves of Grass made Whitman a famous poet.

It’s hard to disagree, honestly, and the silliness only continues. In a somewhat misguided homage, the exterior of the mall contains quotes from Leaves of Grass etched into the stone facade, the stanzas organized in the shape of leaves. Sheesh!

Unfortunately, I don’t know a ton about the history of the Walt Whitman Mall, beyond that the modern-day Macy’s was once an Abraham & Straus store and that there used to be a McCrory’s here. The mall opened in 1962 as the first fully-enclosed shopping mall on Long Island, although at least three of Long Island’s malls (Roosevelt Field Mall, Green Acres Mall, and Broadway Mall) are actually older because they began life as outdoor shopping centers. What makes it sort of cool–apart from today’s upscale anchor roster–is the swooping ceiling lines, which change height at random and create several airy, spacious courts, especially in front of the Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s stores. These things are easy to miss, but a mall connoisseur can notice the unmistakeable bones of an old mall. For a comparison to see this place’s former glory, check out our friends at MallsofAmerica, who have a great shot of the court in front of the old A&S (modern-day Macy’s) and another shot in front of the old Macy’s (possibly the current Bloomingdale’s?), both of which are unmistakeably the same place, even if it is a bit duller now.

A year ago, there were some rumors that owner Simon was interested in adding a second-level expansion to the 1,034,747-square-foot mall, increasing its square footage by 200,000 square feet and adding a food court, although there are no signs presently that this will be moving forward.

Awhile back in our roundup of Albany Malls I never got around to discussing the main event, the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland. Part of this is because despite its size, Crossgates is relatively typical of a Pyramid Cos.-developed mall of its vintage. (For an example, look no further than the Silver City Galleria in Taunton, Massachusetts, another Pyramid-developed mall that opened in 1992 and shares almost the exact same interior decor theme as Crossgates). Really, this is just a long-winded way for me to say that it’s kind of boring. And it’s cramped, too, but it is big, and it is the beast that’s responsible for the decline of most other malls within an hour radius of Guilderland.

Crossgates Mall opened in 1984 as a significantly smaller mall than it is today, anchored by Caldor, Jordan Marsh, Filene’s, and JCPenney. The original section of the mall stretches from the JCPenney (which is the only anchor still located in its original location) to the present day Best Buy/H&M anchor. Crossgates was then substantially expanded in size in October 1994 to approximately 1.7 million square feet, with room for 250 stores and restaurants–effectively doubling the size of the mall. During this expansion, Lord & Taylor, Regal Cinemas, and a new Filene’s store opened as anchors, and the old Filene’s space was partially filled by Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Obviously, there were many changes in this roster over the years, with Macy’s replacing Jordan Marsh in 1996 when the entire Jordan Marsh name was retired, and similarly Macy’s replacing Filene’s in 2006 when the same occurred again. Today, the former Jordan Marsh (and original Macy’s) space is vacant while Macy’s occupies the last home of Filene’s in the mall. Similarly, Caldor went out of business in 1999, and their space was carved between Best Buy on the second level and H&M on the first. Interestingly, this anchor has a third level located above it, and this space was until 2005 home of a second movie theatre within the mall, and which shut due to declining popularity. You can still trek up to the third floor, however, since the restrooms and security office are there, and it’s worth the trip simply because it seems to be the only part of the mall that has retained its original 1984 decor. Unfortunately, because the security office is RIGHT THERE and Pyramid tends to be big on rule enforcement, it’s pretty tough to get any good pictures up there.

Lord & Taylor closed their store here (along with so many others) in 2005. There were also other chains that came and went during the mall’s existence, ranging from ones that are long gone (Nobody Beats the Wiz, Klein’s All Sports) to ones that just shuffled around or closed these particular locations (DSW Shoe Warehouse, TJMaxx).

Cohoes Fashions also relocated their store from its historic location in downtown Cohoes, NY to the mall in 1999, but in 2007 their parent company, Burlington Coat Factory, closed many of the Cohoes locations and renamed most of the rest Burlington Coat Factory, including this one. I got these pictures just in time, apparently, but it’s sort of sad to see Cohoes go since they were one of the last small regional department stores in the New York and New England area.