Crossgates Mall

This article is about the American shopping mall. For other uses, see Crossgates.

Crossgates Mall

Crossgates Mall's logo
Location	Albany, New York
Opening date	March 4th, 1984
Developer	The Pyramid Companies
Management	The Pyramid Companies
No. of stores and services	250+
No. of anchor tenants	11
Total retail floor area	1,700,000 sq ft (160,000 m2)
No. of floors	2 plus mezzanine level in center court
Website	Crossgates Mall

Crossgates Mall is a shopping mall located in Albany, New York, United States, not far from Schenectady. The mall opened on March 4, 1984, and in October 1994 underwent a large expansion that nearly doubled its size. 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. Crossgates Mall is the largest shopping mall in upstate New York and the third largest in the state, after Roosevelt Field Mall and Palisades Center. The Pyramid Companies owns and manages this mall as well as the Carousel Center in Syracuse and Crossgates Commons, a shopping plaza located on an adjoining property.

Anchors

Crossgates Mall

• Bally Total Fitness
• Best Buy
• Burlington Coat Factory
• Dick's Sporting Goods
• DSW Shoe Warehouse
• Forever 21
• H&M
• J.C. Penney
• Macy's
• Regal Stadium 18

Former anchors

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

• Borders Books & Music: Closed in 2011 due to bankruptcy of the chain.
• Caldor: Opened 1984, closed in 1999 when the chain went bankrupt.
  • Store became Best Buy on the upper level.
  • Store became H&M on the lower level.
• Cohoes: Opened 1999, renamed Burlington Coat Factory in 2007.
• Dick's Sporting Goods: Opened 1994, closed 2009 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 Jordan Marsh acquisition. Store is now vacant.
• 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 location.
• Nobody Beats the Wiz: Opened 1995, closed in 1997, 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. Store is now Borders Books & Music.

Dining

Crossgates Mall is home to several eateries and a food court on the second level with a variety of outlets.

• Houlihan's (closed)
• Johnny Rockets
• Ruby Tuesday
• The Standard- formerly Bugaboo Creek Steak House
• The Melting Pot- formerly Hooters
• Uno Chicago Grill

Square footage

• Best Buy (50,000 sq ft; 1 floor)
• Burlington Coat Factory (63,000 sq ft; 1 floor)
• H & M (53,000 sq ft; 1 floor)
• JCPenney (180,000 sq ft; 2 floors)
• Macy's (200,000 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.^[1] A variety of problems, including local opposition, caused the expansion to not materialize. ^[2]

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.^[3] 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).^[4] This policy has since been instituted in other Pyramid malls.

See also

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

References

1. ^ Moore, Debra (May 1, 1998), "Pyramid builds on plans to lure tourists to mall", The Business Review (Albany), http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/1998/05/04/story8.html 
2. ^ "MOST OPPOSE EXPANDING ALBANY-AREA MALL, POLL SAYS", The Buffalo News, October 12, 1998, http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BN&p_theme=bn&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAF9B2F5679D277&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM 
3. ^ Wood, Robin (March 6, 2003), "Crossgates Mall drops trespass charge for anti-war T-shirt", The Business Review (Albany), http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2003/03/03/daily41.html 
4. ^ Marshall, Rick. "Under 18? Stay Home". Online Metroland. http://www.metroland.net/back_issues/vol28_no31/features.html. 

External links

• Crossgates Mall Official Site
• Crossgates Mall (Pyramid Companies web site)
• Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce History of Area Malls
• Woodruff, Cathy (March 22, 2009), "Loved, hated and thriving", The Times Union (Albany)

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