Roosevelt Field (shopping mall)

Roosevelt Field
Location East Garden City, New York, U.S.
Opening date 1956
Developer William Zeckendorf
designed by I. M. Pei
Management Simon Property Group
Owner Simon Property Group
No. of stores and services 270+
No. of anchor tenants 6
Total retail floor area 2,244,581 ft² (208,528.4 m²)
No. of floors 2 (plus mezzanine and basement)
Website Roosevelt Field

Roosevelt Field is an American shopping mall in East Garden City, Long Island, New York. It is the second-largest full price shopping mall in the state of New York (following Destiny USA in Syracuse) and ninth in the country as measured by gross leasable area at 2,244,581 square feet (208,528.4 m2). It is owned and managed by Simon Property Group.

The anchors of the 270-store mall are Bloomingdale's, JCPenney, Macy's, Nordstrom, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Neiman Marcus (expected opening: 2016). Previous anchor stores were Gimbels (succeeded by Stern's), A&S, and Alexander's (succeeded by Bloomingdale's). The original anchor store was Macy's.

Location

Satellite photo of the mall

The mall is adjacent to the Meadowbrook State Parkway, making it accessible from the Northern State Parkway and Southern State Parkway. It is a major hub of Nassau Inter-County Express, with several bus routes stopping in a terminal area near the southern parking structure.

It was constructed on the site of, and named for, Roosevelt Field, an airport and military airfield where Charles Lindbergh began his historic trans-Atlantic flight. At one time, a plaque at the north end of the mall (in the hall that now connects Dick's and JCPenney) marked the spot where Lindbergh left the ground. Today the plaque is inside the mall, near the Disney Store.

History

As an airfield, the land served as the take-off site of many famous aviators such as Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post. Charles Lindbergh's solo translatlantic flight took off from Roosevelt Field in 1927. The field was originally named Hazelhurst Field and was renamed in honor of Theodore Roosevelt's son Quentin, who died in World War I. After the airfield was closed in 1951, the site was developed by New York's William Zeckendorf and designed by I. M. Pei.

Ground was broken on the $35 million project in April 1955. The center opened with a single level and was an open-air center. It included F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10 store, Walgreen Drug, Food Fair supermarket, Buster Brown Shoes, a public auditorium, movie theater, and an outdoor ice rink. The original anchor of the mall was a 2-level 343,000 ft² (31,900 m²) Macy's which opened on August 22, 1956.

In 1962, a 250,000 ft² (2,320 m²) Gimbels store opened (today, the structure houses Dick's Sporting Goods and Bloomingdale's Furniture). With the addition, the complex held over 1,000,000 ft² (92,900 m²). A major extension was completed in 1964. Macy's had an 85,000 ft² (7,900 m²) third level added. In 1968, The Century Roosevelt Cinema began operation. At that time, the mall was enclosed.

In 1972, a second major expansion was completed which added a 3-level, 260,000 ft² (24,200 m²) J.C. Penney, which was later completely renovated in 2010, and a 2-level 31,400 ft² (2,900 m²) Alexander's. Le Petit Mall, a Tudor-style expansion was built in 1974 that architecturally reinforced the novelty of shopping indoors.

An upper level of stores and food court was established in 1993 after a major renovation which started in 1991. When Alexander's went bankrupt in 1992, Abraham & Straus gutted the building and extensively renovated it, opening in 1992. The Abraham & Straus location at Roosevelt Field only lasted until 1995, when the chain became defunct. The store was slightly renovated, and re-opened as a Bloomingdale's in 1995. The Bloomingdale's store at Roosevelt Field had a major renovation, which was finished by the summer of 2009. The Gimbels anchor was a Stern's between 1987 and 2001.

After Stern's closed, the spot was taken over by Galyan's, which opened in 2003 (later bought out by Dick's Sporting Goods in 2004). Dick's Sporting Goods occupied the eastern section and Bloomingdale's Furniture Gallery, which opened in 2004 and occupies the western half. A new, 3-story Nordstrom and a 2-story wing leading to the new Nordstrom opened in August 1997. Simon Property Group took ownership of the mall when they had acquired Corporate Property Investors in 1998.

In March 2012, it was announced that a new 100,000-square-foot building anchored by luxury department store Neiman Marcus will be added to Roosevelt Field. Estimated to be completed in February 2016, this expansion will create room for even more shops leading up to the luxury department store, and will also be accompanied by a new parking structure.[1]

In September 2014, work began on the new Neiman Marcus, the Dining District and a brand new parking garage.

The Dining District opened on January 29, 2015 and the Luxury Wing opened on September 1, 2015.

The expansion will be privately funded and will not involve any taxpayer money, according to David Simon, president and chief operating officer of Simon Property Group.

Security

From the 1970s through the end of the 1980s, security at Roosevelt Field was provided by a house security group made up of retired NYPD officers and a contract group of guards hired from K-Security Guard Corp. of Bellmore, NY. The Nassau County Police Department also had a foot post assigned to the mall—Special Post 10 (which is still there today). Security is currently provided by Simon Property Group's security contractor, AlliedBarton.

Public transportation

Roosevelt Field Mall is served by a number of NICE bus lines, including:

The bus terminal is located at the south end of the mall at Ring Road South (just north of Stewart Avenue).

Anchors

Current

Former

Dining District

Opened in 2015 to replace the traditional food court, the Dining District (located on the 2nd level of Roosevelt Field near Bloomingdale's Furniture Gallery and Dick's Sporting Goods) offers many diverse eating options in a wide-open space with skylights overhead.

References

  1. ↑ http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/09/17/roosevelt-field-mall-getting-100-million-makeover/

External links

Coordinates: 40°44′17″N 73°36′45″W / 40.73806°N 73.61250°W / 40.73806; -73.61250

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