Crossgates Mall

Crossgates Mall is a shopping mall located in the town of Guilderland, New York in Albany County, New York, United States, not far from Schenectady and just right outside of Albany. The mall opened on March 4, 1984, and in October 1994 underwent a large expansion that nearly doubled its size. Before it opened Albanians were limited to Colonie Center a low end enclosed mall and the outdoor mall Westgate Plaza. After opening, both these retail malls have fallen on hard times but still have retail tenants.

It now has a gross leasable area of 1,700,000 sq ft (160,000 m²) with two floors including 250 shops and restaurants as well as an 18-screen Regal Cinema theater. The mall is anchored by Lord & Taylor, Macy's, and JCPenney, along with junior anchors including Best Buy, Burlington Coat Factory, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Forever 21. In the fall of 2014, Lord & Taylor opened a new store at Crossgates, returning to the mall after nearly a decade's absence.

Crossgates Mall is the second-largest shopping mall in Upstate New York and the fourth-largest in the state, after Destiny USA, Roosevelt Field Mall and Palisades Center. The Pyramid Companies owns and manages this mall as well as Destiny USA in Syracuse and Crossgates Commons, a shopping plaza located on an adjoining property.

Retailers

Crossgates Mall

Anchors & Majors

• Bally Total Fitness
• Best Buy
• Burlington Coat Factory
• Dave & Buster's
• Dick's Sporting Goods
• DSW Shoe Warehouse
• Forever 21
• Finish Line
• H&M
• Old Navy
• Regal Stadium 18 & IMAX
• J.C. Penney
• Lord & Taylor
• Macy's

Former anchors

The newer wing at Crossgates Mall, which opened in 1994.

• Borders Books & Music: Closed in 2011 due to bankruptcy of the chain, then occupied by Kids For Less & XSRE in 2012, now GlowGolf & FanZone since 2013.
• Caldor^[1] — now Best Buy
• Cohoes: Opened 1999, renamed Burlington Coat Factory in 2007.
• Dick's Sporting Goods: Opened 1994, closed 2010 to move to new two-floor store at other end of mall. Location is now a Forever 21.
• Filene's: Two separate locations:
  • First location: Opened 1985, closed 1994 to move to newly constructed section of mall. Split between Dick's Sporting Goods on the upper level and Nobody Beats the Wiz on the lower level.
  • Second location: Opened 1994, converted to Macy's in 2006 after merger with Federated Department Stores.
• Jordan Marsh: Opened 1985, converted to Macy's in 1996 due to their buyout and closure of Jordan Marsh.
• Kids For Less: opened March 2012, closed in January 2013. Location is now GlowGolf
• Lord & Taylor: Opened 1994, closed 2005 after 2003 reconstruction. Store is now a new two-floor Dick's Sporting Goods.
• Macy's Opened 1996, closed 2006 to move to former Filene's; Texas de Brazil and a new Lord & Taylor are planned to open here in 2014.
• Nobody Beats the Wiz: Opened 1995, closed in 2001, when the chain decided to focus exclusively on the NYC/New Jersey Metro (entire chain now defunct). Store became Cohoes Fashions.
• TJ Maxx: Opened 1994, closed 2004. later Borders^[2]
• H&M: Closed in October 2011 to move to smaller 2-floor store in the mall. Location to be Latitude 360.
• XSRE Opened in 2013, closed 2014. Location is now FanZone

Dining

Crossgates Mall is home to several eateries and a food court on the second level with a variety of outlets. In December 2013, Crossgates announced a small expansion, in what used to be a common area between Dick's Sporting Goods and the food court, of 20,000 feet consisting of 2 restaurants and 2 entertainment options.

• Auntie Anne's
• Candy Express
• Dave & Busters
• Dunkin Donuts
• Funny Bone Comedy Club- opening summer 2015
• Fresh Healthy Café
• Great American Cookies
• Johnny Rockets
• Latitude 360 - opening May 2015
• Orange Julius
• Pretzel Maker
• Ruby Tuesday
• Starbucks
• The Melting Pot- formerly Hooters
• The Standard- formerly Bugaboo Creek Steak House
• Texas de Brazil
• Uno Chicago Grill
• World of Beer (formerly Houlihan's, then J&A Prep Kitchen)

The Food Court

• Sbarro
• Little Tokyo
• Subway
• Taco Bell
• Cajun Cafe
• Wendys

Square footage

• Best Buy (50,000 sq ft; 1 floor)
• Burlington Coat Factory (63,000 sq ft; 1 floor)
• Dave & Buster's (36,000 sq ft; 1 floor)
• Dick's Sporting Goods (80,000 sq ft; 2 floors)
• Forever 21 (63,000 sq ft; 1 floor)
• Latitude 360 (former H & M, then GlowGolf) (53,000 sq ft; 1 floor)
• Lord & Taylor (100,000 sq ft; 2 floors)
• JCPenney (180,000 sq ft; 2 floors)
• Macy's (210,000 sq ft; 2 floors)

Cancelled 1998 expansion

Shortly after the 1994 expansion, Pyramid planned another expansion that would have added 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m²) to the mall with big-box stores, ice skating, bowling, mini-golf, and indoor soccer.^[3] A variety of problems, including local opposition, caused the expansion to not materialize. ^[4]

2015 mini expansion

More retail space was added when construction started in fall 2014 and by summer 2015 new retail space is anticipated for retail tenants.

Controversies

In recent years, two well-publicized controversies have taken place regarding mall policies.

• At the beginning of the Iraq War in March 2003, the mall became the center of a free speech controversy when Selkirk resident (and director of the Albany Office of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct) Stephen Downs was arrested by the Guilderland Police after he refused to leave the mall or remove the T-shirt he had just purchased, which read "Peace on Earth". After an immediate protest of over 100 local residents who went to the mall the next day wearing anti-war t-shirts of their own, the mall dropped the charges.^[5] A few days later, a larger protest was held at the mall, with many of the protesters sporting anti-war clothing.

• In July 2005, the mall adopted a curfew policy known as "MB-18" for people under the age of 18 on Friday and Saturday evenings. This policy prohibits minors from entering the mall unless accompanied by a parent or guardian over the age of 21 (it does not apply to the movieplex).^[6] This policy has since been instituted in other Pyramid malls.

Crime, gunfire in parking lot

Recent gunfire has broken out - last time on April 24, 2015. Another gunfire incident at the parking lot occur in February.

See also

• Washington Avenue Extension- One of the major roads by which Crossgates Mall is accessible

References

1. ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1917&dat=19840301&id=lwshAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VnMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2641,64531
2. ↑ Daily Gazette, The. February 25, 2007 http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SDGB&p_theme=sdgb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=1178D80D9688BCE0&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
3. ↑ Moore, Debra (May 1, 1998), "Pyramid builds on plans to lure tourists to mall", The Business Review (Albany) 
4. ↑ "MOST OPPOSE EXPANDING ALBANY-AREA MALL, POLL SAYS", The Buffalo News, October 12, 1998 
5. ↑ Wood, Robin (March 6, 2003), "Crossgates Mall drops trespass charge for anti-war T-shirt", The Business Review (Albany) 
6. ↑ Marshall, Rick. "Under 18? Stay Home". Online Metroland. 

External links

• Crossgates Mall Official Site

Coordinates: 42°41′30″N 73°51′02″W / 42.691789°N 73.850677°W / 42.691789; -73.850677