Category: New York

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.

Ithaca, New York is a small college city located in upstate/western New York, about an hour and a half southwest of Syracuse. With a permanent population of only about 30,000 residents, Ithaca itself is relatively small, but the presence of two large universities–Cornell University and Ithaca College–means that there’s a constant parade of new residents in town, and causes Ithaca to act as something of an island quite different from its surrounding environs in the Fingerlakes region of New York. As the bumper stickers say, “Ithaca is Gorges!”

Ithaca also has a unique mall landscape. The city is home to no less than four enclosed malls of some shape or form, although only one of them is a traditional enclosed mall. Near downtown are two centers that we don’t have photos of: the small yet worthwhile (and, at this point, a bit shabby) Center Mall, located just off the downtown pedestrian mall, which is tenanted with a variety of small and mostly local shops, and the DeWitt Mall, a tiny center in a converted high school that is filled entirely with funky local merchants.

On the city’s north side, however, are a pair of more suburban malls that we’re going to cover here in a single post: The Shops at Ithaca Mall (known until 2009 as the Pyramid Mall) and the Triphammer Mall, located just about a block apart along Triphammer Road at the junction of route 13.

The Shops at Ithaca Mall is a classic example of one of the malls developed by the Syracuse-based Pyramid Companies. Opening in 1976, the mall was relatively typical for what Pyramid was building at the time, which is an ever-so-slightly “v” shaped, one level, 600,000 square foot mall (very similar to the Hampshire Mall in Hadley, Massachusetts, or the Aviation Mall in Queensbury, NY). There were a few details to set the Shops at Ithaca Mall apart from other malls developed by the Pyramid Cos., however, and the most notable is the very unusual second-floor balcony area in the center court, on top of the food court. The food court–named the Cafe Square–was originally built with several sit down restaurants on the second level above the main court area, although this was converted to additional seating for the food court restaurants in the mid-1980s, and is almost always closed today (I’ve visited the mall twice, in 2000 and 2006, and it was chained off both times).

The Pyramid Mall’s original anchors were JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, JW Rhodes, and Hill’s, although all four of those anchors are gone today. The mall was sold by Pyramid in 2007 or 2008 and renamed The Shops at Ithaca Mall by its new owners.

• JW Rhodes > Became The Bon-Ton, now located in an odd space accessed by several side hallways leading to the parking lot (check the directory to see what I mean).
• JCPenney > Shut in 2001 during a round of closings when they were in trouble, the space has been converted to a trio of big box stores: Dick’s Sporting Goods, Borders Books and Music, and Best Buy.
• Montgomery Ward > In 2002, the former Wards space was carved up and expanded, to house new stores for AC Moore, Old Navy, and Target. It actually appears that the mall blasts straight through the old Ward’s space, with AC Moore and Old Navy each taking half of the old Wards and Target occupying an entirely new building on the outside of the former Ward’s store. I’ve seen this done before only once, at the Mid-Hudson Mall in Kingston, NY.
• Hills > Acquired by Ames in 1999 and vacant since 2002, the space is rumored to be the future home of an expanded and relocated Regal Cinemas.

The Triphammer Mall, just south of route 13, is much more of a rarity. While it’s not a traditional mall in the classic sense, it is enclosed (although not climate-controlled). The glass-encased plaza contains a curious mixture of local and national merchants, and was chilly and eerily quiet upon our visit in October of 2006.

The western flank of the Capital Region of New York is home to two enclosed malls, and originally there was three. Of these, one is the tiny–and not really functional–Amsterdam Mall in Amsterdam, in an area that resides somewhat outside of the metropolitan area. There were two other malls serving the Schenectady area: the Mohawk Mall, an atrociously frightening grey structure that served the city’s east side and which was demolished in 2000 or 2001, and Rotterdam Square, which sits just to the west of downtown, near the city’s massive GE Plant.

Rotterdam Square is a relatively typical mid-sized, mid-tier shopping mall, although I’ve always felt it was pretty neat. Like most of the malls around Albany, it has a massive (nearly Olympic-sized!) swimming pool, it has retained lots of in-mall planters, and it has a Sears with a red logo–a true rarity.

The 900,000 sqft Rotterdam Square is owned by the Macerich Company, the same management firm responsible for Wilton Mall, and sports Sears, TJMaxx, Sony-Loew’s Cinemas, Macy’s, and Kmart as anchors. From what I’ve been able to glean, this roster has been mostly static since the mall’s opening (at a date I can’t quite pin down, but I would estimate at the early to mid 1980s), with one notable exception. The current Macy’s space had been a Filene’s until the May-Federated merger, and prior to 1995 was a Hess’s department store.

Like Wilton Mall, Rotterdam Square seems to mostly get by due to its relative isolation from the region’s two powerhouse malls: Crossgates Mall and Colonie Center.

To finish out the northern stretch of Albany malls, I offer to you the Wilton Mall at Saratoga (commonly referred to simply as the Wilton Mall), the largest and newest of the malls stretching along the Northway from Albany.

Of course, as you’ll see from these photos, I encountered the worst enemy of every mall photographer: an RV show. As a result, my pictures completely stink. At least you can see the fountains.

Of course, Wilton Mall isn’t terribly entertaining, due to its recent vintage. Wilton Mall opened in 1990 on route 50, off I-87, with Addis & Dey’s, JCPenney, and Sears as anchors, and Steinbach would join not long thereafter. Today’s roster includes JCPenney and Sears, but The Bon-Ton has replaced Addis & Dey’s and Steinbach was replaced by Dick’s Sporting Goods. The mall is a large, bright, sprawling one-level center, highlighted by a large fountain in the center court–a relatively unique feature for a mall built as late as this one. Original plans for the mall originally called for a fifth anchor, rumored to be Montgomery Ward, who had an existing store at the adjacent (and smaller) Saratoga Mall. That store was never built, though, leaving a “ghost anchor” space at the Wilton Mall that still exists today, although rumor has it that JCPenney will relocate their store to that vacant space on the mall’s south side soon.

Of course, even if Wilton Mall didn’t rob the tinier Saratoga Mall of its Montgomery Ward, it did seem to rob it of its soul. The Saratoga Mall, which featured Jamesway and Service Merchandise (in addition to Montgomery Ward) as anchors in its lifetime, was squashed in the late 1990s by this behemoth, as I have illustrated in this intuitive diagram:

Now it’s a big box center, of course. According to the website of the contractor who built the current center, the ol’ Saratoga Mall was ground up and turned into fill on which the new center was built. Ouch.

Today’s Macerich Company-managed Wilton Mall isn’t anything monumental, in part because scenic downtown Saratoga Springs–a tourist town, and one of the most desirable cities in the area–hosts many of the more upscale national chains, including Borders, The Gap, and Banana Republic. The Gap, as a result of their recent financial troubles, chose to close the store at the Wilton Mall rather than their store in downtown Saratoga Springs, which is saying a lot. As a result, the mall feels strangely lesser than it should, given that it’s clearly the major shopping destination for the entire populous (and relatively affluent) stretch of towns along the Northway from Albany.

The city of Glens Falls, New York is only arguably within the Capital Region metropolitan area at all, given that its 40 minutes or so to the north of Albany. However, something about the entire area has always felt contiguous to me, which is why I included the Aviation Mall within the Albany malls case study a few weeks back.

The Aviation Mall is the lone mall serving the Glens Falls-Lake George area. The mid-sized metropolitan area is somewhat unique, in that it includes a traditional, older northern industrial city (Glens Falls) as well as a large tourist area (Lake George, which also serves as the gateway to the Adirondack Mountains) and is located on the same commercial strip as some major tourist attractions (Six Flags is just a few miles away). Developed by the Pyramid Cos. in 1976, the mid-sized mall is relatively standard for what Pyramid was setting forth at the time: straight-forward, linear one-level malls with a slight bend in the middle, giving them a subtle “V” shape. Nothing about the decor is terribly exciting, and the 50-store mall is basically what you’d expect to find in a smaller, more isolated metropolitan area. The current anchors are Sears, JCPenney, The Bon-Ton, Target, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
A few interesting facts:

• In the mid-1990s, JCPenney decided to expand into a larger store than what they’d been occupying, which was originally a Denby’s location. They built a new store on the outside of their original store, and turned the old store into new mall space (and today, part of this space is occupied by Dick’s Sporting Goods). Most of the former JCPenney/Denby’s that was turned into mall space has not done well, for the most part, and despite being the newest and cleanest part of the mall also seems to host most of its vacancy.
• The Target store was added in 2004, and did not replace an existing anchor.
• In 1998, Pyramid unveiled a plan to expand Aviation Mall to bring its size to be comparable with Albany’s Crossgates Mall (which is a whopping 1.7 million square feet). Pyramid even went so far as to buy some adjacent properties to accommodate the expansion, but ultimately abandoned much of the project.
• The Bon Ton occupies a space occupied from the early ’80s to 1999 by Caldor. The court in front of The Bon Ton, which is set off to the side of the main mallway, has not been renovated, and is a massive treat (and truly, the only reason to make a special trek to see this mall):

You can also check out a picture of the court back in its Caldor days at DeadMalls. You may notice that this particular Caldor appears to have never received the jazzy, red ’90s vintage logo, and lived out its days with the blocky, orange logo instead.

Anyone who’s been paying attention–and that likely includes most of the regular readers of this here blog–knows that malls aren’t actually in trouble. Sure, a good many individual malls are in trouble, and far more are closing than opening. But the species itself isn’t troubled; it’s just that why people go to malls has changed.

With our busy schedules and long American workweeks, big box centers make sense. You can swing in, grab what you need, and get home. The functional enclosed mall serves less and less purpose for this reason, but anyone who’s traipsed around to see a lot of malls all over the country (and we’re certainly guilty as charged) will agree that the top-tier malls, the biggest and most dominant centers in every area, are doing better than ever. Why is this? The really large centers are actually shopping destinations on their own, and Americans still love to shop.

That’s why I feel the need to give some kudos to the current, in-progress renovation and repositioning of the Colonie Center, the older of the two mega-malls serving the Capital Region of New York. The larger and more dominant Crossgates Mall, which opened in 1984 just a mile or so away, draws people from over 60 miles in every direction. In the time since, Colonie Center has soldiered on with a different set of tenants, but new owners Feldman Mall Properties have decided to aggressively re-position and retenant the aging center. Here’s the deal:

Colonie Center opened in 1966 as the first enclosed mall in the Albany area, with a strategic location between Albany, Troy, and Schenectady, right near the intersection of I-87 and I-90, and along US-5. Sears and Macy’s were initial anchor stores. For twenty years, the mall was the dominant center in the region, pulling shoppers from all over east-central New York. Even the 1984 opening of Crossgates Mall didn’t seem to dent its success. Colonie Center’s management was proactive during most of the center’s existence, and in 1992 expanded the mall substantially, adding a Steinbach department store in the center of the mall and expanding the length of the main concourse to the north along Wolf Road. At this time, Macy’s moved to the 300,000 square-foot, grand brick facade store (their old one was swallowed up by mall space) that they still occupy today. Steinbach closed in 1995, but was replaced by Boscov’s. Macy’s, Boscov’s, and Sears remain as the 1.2 million-square-foot mall’s three primary anchor tenants today, and they were joined in the late 1990s/early 200s by Christmas Tree Shops and Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear, respectively.

In 2005, the mall was sold to Feldman Mall Properties, and they are attempting to rebrand the mall–which had clearly been suffering at least some amount due to Crossgates–as an entertainment-oriented destination. The front of the mall is abuzz with construction activity, which will add a large, tall Regal Cinemas to be cantilevered over the mall as well as Barnes & Noble and L.L. Bean as new anchor stores, while also bringing new restaurants. The plan? According to the placards placed in the mall, they want Colonie Center to be “Downtown Albany” (a bit presumptuous, but I support the concept); a place to gather, browse, eat, drink, and be entertained. The interior of the mall, which was in good shape to begin with, was given yet another facelift that dressed the mall in an Adirondack theme, complete with working fireplaces, television lounges, and living room style arrangements. I’ve seen much of this at other malls, but it was more well done here.

Most importantly, Feldman seems to “get it:” They understand that the malls of the future will be places people want to spend leisure time, not places targeted towards the convenience-oriented consumer. Plenty of people will still want to get out of the house, to be able to have dinner and browse stores and see a movie. Tenants like Barnes & Noble and L.L. Bean–lifestyle brands that offer leisure products people actually enjoy pawing at and browsing–will thrive in this arrangement. Similarly, mid-sized metropolitan areas like Albany–cities that are substantially-sized but which lack the in-town shopping or entertainment offerings of larger cities–will likely embrace changes like the one underway at Colonie Center.

Here are the placards detailing Feldman’s plans for Colonie Center:

In addition, one of Colonie Center’s new tenants as a result of its repositioning is a men’s formalwear shop called Spector’s, that I include a picture of due to their store’s blatant nod towards mid-century retail design. Could it foretell a trend?

Perhaps the most disappointing find on my recent trip out to Albany was the current state of the Clifton Park Center, long one of my favorite malls in the area. It’s sadly fallen prey to the “lifestyleing” disease. Seriously, what does such a halfhearted, faux-Main Street set up really offer, anyway?

I first visited Clifton Park Center–then Clifton Country Mall–in March of 2000. At the time, the mall was deeply troubled with vacancies, with very few of its many storefronts occupied. The mall, which probably had around 700,000 or 800,000 square feet of floor space at the time, was sprawled out in a bizarre one-level layout. The northern, older part of the mall (constructed in 1974) was a “C” shape, connecting Steinbach and JCPenney at each end, with a Marshall’s store in the center. In 1984, a long wing was added to the south of the existing mall. This included a wing that snaked around the Marshalls, adding a food court behind the Marshalls store itself, giving an entrance to both the front and rear of the store. In addition, behind the Marshall’s was a large court with a fountain and movie theatre, and this wing continued to the rear of the center where it ended in a large court with a Caldor store. Of course, by 2000, both Caldor and Steinbach were already gone, leaving the mall with only JCPenney and Marshall’s as anchors, and it felt sad and deserted. Still, the decor and layout of the mall were golden–enough to solidify it as one of my favorites. A return visit in 2001 found it mostly unchanged, except that the Caldor store had mercifully been replaced by a large, two-level Boscov’s store, and this seemed to be breathing some new life into the mall–several mid-line chains like American Eagle, Aeropostale, and Bath & Body Works set up shop during this time. I’ve attempted to approximate the floorplan below, although I think it’s sort of confusing (which, frankly, is accurate: it was confusing):

Like many of the malls in the Albany area, Clifton Park Center seemed to have fallen prey to overmalling, as Crossgates Mall in Guilderland stole most of the area’s traffic. Even though Clifton Park Center is located in the center of a relatively modern and affluent suburban area, and is surrounded by almost every form of major box retail, it seems as though it was always somewhat secondary in the Albany area. In addition, it’s not far from the newer Wilton Mall in Saratoga, nor the older (and equally troubled) Latham Circle Mall in Latham.

Fast forward to 2007, and Clifton Park Center is changed dramatically. The oldest portion of the long-struggling mall has been demolished to make way for a boulevard and an outdoor, lifestyle portion, which is currently as empty as the mall ever was. This cut the JCPenney off from the enclosed portion of the mall entirely, along with the still-vacant (after almost a decade) Steinbach store. The remaining “mall” portion is essentially the 1984 addition, which roughly connects Marshall’s and Boscov’s and houses the food court and movie theatres.

I was there last Saturday (February 10th) and to be honest, my pictures sort of stink because there was–surprisingly–quite a few people in the mall. Sadly, they weren’t here to shop. Rather, they were here to see some tie-dyed hippie band (probably from Vermont, which is nearby) playing children’s music. The kids seemed to enjoy boppin’ along, but it encouraged me to not linger for long.

Time will tell if this incarnation of Clifton Park Center will be effective, but my gut says that the mall would’ve made more sense as a genuine mid-level mall serving the immediate area than the configuration it’s currently in. The “lifestyle” portion here is among the more laughable that I’ve encountered, not only because the faux-Main Street decor is forced, but also because it’s visibly not really designed for pedestrians, as witnessed by how difficult it was to cross from one side to the other without walking through landscaping or parking areas. There aren’t even crosswalks or curb cuts to make it easier to cross from the mall side to the area where the former Steinbach is (and where there’s currently some chainy noodle house, whose food looked pretty appetizing).

The Capital Region of New York, with a metropolitan area population of around 800,000, has an awful lot of enclosed shopping malls. There was 11 at one point, but there’s fewer than that now. It also has a big Pyramid mall that brought on the decline or closure of several of them. Let me explain.

Back in October, we offered a similar study of Syracuse malls, which painted a portrait of another upstate New York city where a very large mall developed by the Pyramid Companies–in that case, Carousel Center–caused nearly every other mall within the metropolitan area to shut or go into decline. Syracuse-based Pyramid has employed similar strategies in other cities in New York, including Buffalo, Poughkeepsie, Middletown, and Springfield, Mass.; where a shiny, new, too-large mall opened near perfectly fine existing malls and wiped them away.

Of course, Pyramid can’t exactly be blamed either. From my own experience, trends favor of a move towards these larger, destinational, super-regional malls, and away from older and smaller malls in the first place, so they were merely riding the wave. Still, it’s sad to see the carnage.

Even with the 1.7 million square foot Crossgates Mall, the Capital Region has quite a few remaining enclosed malls, and interesting ones at that. We’ll be posting about these in much more detail in the coming weeks, but I wanted to offer a bit of an introduction:

• Colonie Center – The second-largest mall in the region, the 1.3 million square foot Colonie Center has managed to mostly hold its own over the years, despite its proximity to Crossgates (which may corroborate the seemingly-counterintuitive Freakonomics theory that things like this do better when clustered together to create destinations, versus spread widely to offer convenience). Opening in 1966 and expanded in 1991, Colonie Center is the oldest mall in the region and hosts Macy’s, Sears, and Boscov’s (formerly Steinbach) as primary anchors, with Christmas Tree Shops and Steve & Barry’s as junior tenants. Mall owner Feldman Retail Properties is currently in the middle of an extensive renovation and repositioning of the center that will add Barnes & Noble, L.L. Bean, and Regal Cinemas as additional anchors while adding more dining and lifestyle options.
• Latham Circle Mall – This older mall (which was originally constructed as a plaza in the 1950s and enclosed in the early 1970s) is struggling against its larger competition, and was partially big-boxed with the addition of a Lowe’s store in 2003. Current anchors are JCPenney, Burlington Coat Factory, and Lowe’s.
• Mohawk Mall – This shockingly ugly mid-sized mall opened in the 1970s to serve the eastern suburbs of Schenectady. Upon my first visit in late 1999, it had only two tenants remaining: a Media Play and a Marshalls both located at the mall’s center court. The remainder of the long, carpeted concourse was completely barren, and the mall would be demolished completely in 2001 to be replaced by a big box center. Mohawk Mall was once home to Bradlees and Montgomery Ward, and Deadmalls has a rather complete photo set of it pre-demolition. Go see the photos there, because I don’t have any.
• Rotterdam Square – A mildly dated but successful mid-sized, mid-tier mall directly serving the Schenectady area and points west, Rotterdam Square is isolated enough from the area’s main retail centers that it is able to survive. It counts Sears, Macy’s, Kmart, and a movie theatre as anchor tenants.
• Amsterdam Mall – While this 300,000 sqft mall may have at one point functioned as an actual shopping mall, it now houses almost nothing but offices. I’m guessing it was built in the early 1970s, as part of a horrific urban renewal project that demolished most of downtown Amsterdam and replaced it with this unloveable two-story center, which once housed local merchants Carl Company and Present Company as anchors. Amsterdam is an old industrial city along the Erie Canal corridor that functions quite separately from the Capital Region itself, and it seems unlikely this mall ever had any serious chance of being a major retail destination. I wasn’t able to make a visit this time around (I wasn’t even sure it’d be open on the weekends, and it’s somewhat off the way) but Deadmalls also has a few photos of this one.
• Clifton Park Center (formerly Clifton Country Mall) – At one point, Clifton Park Center was one of my favorite malls in the area, with its unusual layout and dated mid-80s decor. The mall opened in phases, with the northern, “C” shaped part of the center opening in the 1970s, and the long southern “tail” wing opening in the middle 1980s. At various points the mall hosted Caldor, Steinbach, JCPenney, Marshalls, and Regal Cinemas as anchors. Despite anchoring a major retail area in a large and somewhat affluent suburb, the mall reportedly never did terribly well. An unfortunate 2006 renovation tore down half of the mall (the original mall, minus the mid-80s expansion which remains) and replaced it with a rather cheap-looking lifestyle portion that is currently more vacant than the mall ever was. Current anchors are Boscov’s, JCPenney, Marshalls, and Regal Cinemas.
• Wilton Mall – This large and somewhat bland 1-level mall opened in 1990 to serve the affluent Saratoga Springs area. Current anchors are the Bon Ton, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Sears, and JCPenney.
• Saratoga Mall – The original enclosed mall serving the Saratoga Springs area, this two-level center was completely demolished in 1999. Immediately adjacent to the large Wilton Mall, the center stood very little chance once its neighbor opened. One of two malls in the area I never got to see firsthand, it opened in 1974 and was anchored by Montgomery Ward, Barker’s (later King’s, and then Jamesway), Carl Company, and Service Merchandise. There’s a bit more about it at Deadmalls.
• Aviation Mall – A mid-sized, Pyramid-owned mall serving the Glens Falls/Lake George area. It’s relatively non-descript but successful. Current anchors include Sears, Target, JCPenney, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and The Bon Ton (replacing a former Caldor).
• Crossgates Mall – The regional behemoth, this 1.7 million square-foot center originally opened in 1984 and was more than doubled in size in 1994. Located at the crux of I-87 and I-90, the center pulls shoppers from most of the eastern half of upstate NY as well as western Massachusetts and southern Vermont. The third largest mall in New York, it is today anchored by Best Buy, Cohoes, Borders, Dick’s Sporting goods, DSW, H&M, JCPenney, Macy’s, and Old Navy, but also hosts several anchor vacancies, most notably the former Lord & Taylor and Jordan Marsh/Macy’s spaces.
• Northway Mall – Upon my first visit in 1999, this mall was already gone. Located directly across US5 from Colonie Center and only a few miles from Crossgates, this small mall was likely far more valuable as a site for big box, which is what it does today (as you’ll see in the below pictures). Beyond Montgomery Ward, I’m not even sure what the original anchors were. However, behind the mall is the remains of a large (and now heavily-vandalized) Lechmere store that closed when the chain folded in 1997, and was never replaced. I really miss Lechmere, who had a heck of a lot more personality (and much wider offerings) than contemporary superstore chains like Best Buy. There is also an abandoned cinema complex near the Lechmere, which is equally heavily vandalized. Bizarrely, the original Northway Mall pylon still remains, a decade or so after the mall closed, reportedly due to some skirmishes with the Colonie Planning Board. The big box center that replaced the Northway Mall still has no signage of its own!

And if you want even more, the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce has written a history of Crossgates and Colonie Center with some more details.
And here’s a fun bonus: Some photos from the former Cohoes Commons located in downtown Cohoes, NY, near Troy and Latham. Cohoes is an off-price department store very similar to Kohl’s in format, and the historic building seen here is their original flagship store, which shut sometime in the early 2000s. For a period, Cohoes liked to build small enclosed malls attached to their sporadic locations, and I even remember a similar mall to this one attached to their Cranston, RI store in the Garden City Center (I believe it was called Post Office Square, and I can remember almost nothing about it–can you?). This downtown Cohoes location was dictated by history moreso than strategy, and as a result was terrible for retail; it’s located away from through roads and in the middle of a Hudson Valley town whose best years appear to be behind it. It couldn’t have helped that Cohoes also opened a store at Crossgates, and that malls of this size (probably less than 100,000 square feet) never seem to fare well. It’s still an interesting artifact, even though it now houses state offices and appears to have been reconfigured.