It has always been a draw. I was there when the new store opened in 1991, and it was truly a Macy’s branch, not a Kaufmann’s or Filene’s converted to a Macy’s.

The Boscov’s store there is also very well organized and stocked. I hope that Boscov’s pulls out of its current financial woes.

And to answer AJS’ question, the new theater is on a newly constructed third level above where the food court is.

In my mind, Colonie Center was clearly the superior of the two malls, for the reasons listed below:

*The indoor design of Colonie looked absolutely magnificent, whereas the pastel color scheme of Crossgates’ interior looked quite dated. Additionally, Colonie has plenty of comfortable seating areas spread throughout the mall, while Crossgates just offers hard benches to sit on.

*The middle to upper class clientale found at Colonie was quite a contrast to some seedy types who happened to be shopping at Crossgates. (In fairness, however, there were plenty of middle class shoppers at Crossgates as well.)

*As I mentioned before, Colonie has zero anchor vacancies while Crossgates has two of them. And, I consider the anchor selection of Sears and Boscov’s to be superior to JCPenney.

*While both malls each have a Macy’s, the Macy’s at Colonie is far nicer and bigger than the one at Crossgates. (Although I have been very critical of Macy’s for the terrible housekeeping found in many of their stores, their store at Colonie is absolutely beautiful. Also, I want to state that the Sears at Colonie is incredibly nice looking as well.)

*I find the “mini-anchors” at Colonie–Barnes & Noble, Christmas Tree Shops, and L.L. Bean–to be preferable to the Best Buy, Borders, Burlington Coat Factory, and Dick’s Sporting Goods found at Crossgates Mall.

It should be noted, however, that I still enjoyed my time at Crossgates Mall. After all, Crossgates has at least three things going for it: its immense size (it was truly a very long walk from one end of the mall to the other), far more dining options than Colonie, and the presence of two stores I really like–Harry & David and Williams Sonoma–that are not found at Colonie.

Before I conclude this post, I just want to mention that according to Wikipedia, the size of each of the anchor’s at Colonie Center is as follows:

*Macy’s: 300,000 sq. ft.
*Sears: 246,000 sq. ft.
*Boscov’s: 228,000 sq. ft.

Note that the mall’s first Macy’s store was only 180,000 sq. ft. And, back when Steinbach was an anchor, it building measured a mere 80,000 sq. ft. Because of the small size of the Steinbach building, Boscov’s decided to tear down that structure and construct a new store on site.

My thoughts on this mall is a bright star where lifestyle centers roam. By sprucing up by adding pleasant sidewalks around the mall and adding new restaurants and whatnot, they are creating a new area without destroying a perfectly good mall.

As a youngster, I remember visiting this mall…this was before the construction that expanded the mall. I remember at each end of the mall, there was a carpeted stairwell with a fountain underneath each. Each fountain (both were kind of small) had about 6 jets and red and blue lights…very cool. The mall was a little dark and the 1st construction seems to have brightened the place up.

This mall is also at a great location and its remerchandising will definitely make it a unique place to shop in the Albany area.

Just for the record, there used to be a stand-alone cinema behind Colonie Center, long-gone. If you see the kinds of crowds that go to the 18-screen cinema at Crossgates, you can see what kind of traffic that drives into that end of the mall, so I’ve always felt Colonie Center, whose scale I like much better, was missing out by not having a cinema.