The Westchester

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The Westchester is a 890,000 s.f., upscale shopping mall owned and operated by Simon Property Group [1]. It is located just east of downtown White Plains, New York. It is home to some of today's most fashionable and well-known retailers, many with their only location in affluent Westchester County, New York. It is anchored by Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom.

Opened in 1995, The Westchester was built on the site of one of the first suburban branch department stores in the United States, a B. Altman & Co. store which opened in 1930, as well as a New York, Westchester and Boston Railway train terminal. B. Altman's was located where Nordstrom is now situated. The mall was built adjacent to the (once) freestanding location of Neiman Marcus, which originally opened in 1972 as the only out-of-town location of its sister chain, New York-based Bergdorf Goodman. An interesting feature of the mall is that an old fountain, once located in the original Altman store in New York, is featured in one of the lobbies leading from the parking garage into the mall.

Some of its tenants include The Apple Store, Michael Kors, Theory, Burberry, a large Coach store (one of only 25 to carry the full Coach collection), J. Crew, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Armani Exchange, Brooks Brothers, Lacoste, Cole Haan, Abercrombie & Fitch, and the largest Hollister Co. store in the world. In addition, The Westchester is located within proximity to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, The Source at White Plains, The White Plains Pavilion, White Plains City Center, and the Galleria at White Plains. The mall is situated in a 10-story parking garage. The mall is located on Levels R1(P3), R2(P5), R3(P7), and FC(R4-Food Court)(P9). Nordstrom has entrances to levels P1-2, P4, and P6(P4,P6 Stairs and Elevator only, P1-2 Escalator and Elevator only). It also has an elevator-only entrance to Paulding Street. Neiman Marcus has only 1 entrance to the Parking Deck(P2,NMLL), because the store was built before the mall. There are only 2 elevators that go to the food court. Those elevators go from P2-3, and skip P4,6,8. They stop on P5,7, and 9, but label them as R2-R4(FC). There are also a separate bank of 2 elevators that one must take to P10. Those elevators go from levels P1-P10. The are also another 2 banks of 2 elvators. 1 of which goes to P2, P3(Where P.F. Chang's is located), and R2-3. The 4th bank of elevators go from P1-P9, and have lobbies that lead into R1-R3.

The mall's Santa Claus has been played for many years by "professional RVer" Jimmy Long. There is a Q&A with Long, as St. Nick, here.

[edit] Anchors

Neiman Marcus (148,196 sq. ft. on 4 levels; opened 1972 as Bergdorf Goodman)
Nordstrom (295,197 sq. ft.on 3 levels; opened 1995 on former site of B. Altman and Company)