Roosevelt Field Mall

Infobox shopping mall
shopping_mall_name =Roosevelt Field Mall


image_width =
caption =
location =East Garden City, New York and Garden City, New York
opening_date =1956
developer =I. M. Pei
manager =
owner =Simon Property Group
number_of_stores =270+
number_of_anchors =6
floor_area =2,189,941 sq ft. (203,452 m²)
floors =2 and a small concourse
parking =
website = [http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=102 Simon.com]

Roosevelt Field Mall is one of the largest shopping malls in the state of New York and eighth in the country as measured by gross leaseable area at 2,189,941 sq ft. (203,452 m²). The Mall is located in East Garden City, New York, an unincorporated area of the Town of Hempstead, just to the east of the Village of Garden City on Long Island. The office buildings, on the west side of the mall property, are located in the Village of Garden City. The anchors of the 270 store mall are: Bloomingdale's, JCPenney, Macy's and Nordstrom. Previous anchor stores were Gimbel's (succeeded by Stern's) A&S, and Alexander's (succeeded by Bloomingdale's). The original anchor stores were Macy's and Gimbel's. The specialty stores cover a wide range of genre and include: Coach, Betsey Johnson, Free People, Abercrombie & Fitch, Wild Pair, Hot Topic and Sephora. Other stores include the Disney Store, Brookstone, & FYE. In addition to the food court, located on the second floor, there are several high-scale/sit-down restaurants located on the premises, including Houston's, Legal Sea Foods, The Grand Lux Cafe, Akbar Restaurant, Gasho Japan, The Panino Cafe and Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

Location

The mall is located off of the Meadowbrook State Parkway, making it easily accessible from the Northern State Parkway, and Southern State Parkway. It is a major hub of MTA Long Island Bus, with several bus routes stopping in a terminal area next to the southern parking structure.

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

History

Before the mall was constructed, the land was used for the take-off flights of many famous aviators such as Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post. Charles Lindbergh's solo translatlantic flight took off from here in 1927. The field originally titled Curtiss field was renamed in honor of Theodore Roosevelt's son, Quentin who died in combat in World War 1. After, the site was no longer used to for planes, the land was used to build Roosevelt Field Mall.

ecurity

From the 1970s through the end of the 1980s security at Roosevelt Field Mall was provided by a house security group that was 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).

Anchors

*Bloomingdale's (270,000 sq. ft.)
*Dick's Sporting Goods (250,000 sq. ft.)
*JCPenney (260,000 sq. ft.)
*Macy*s (425,000 sq. ft.)
*Nordstrom (225,000 sq. ft.)

Former anchors

* Gimbels - occupied by Stern's - later Galyan's, now Dick's Sporting Goods & Bloomingdale's Furniture Gallery
* Woolworth
* Alexander's - occupied by A&S, now Bloomingdale's

External links

* [http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=102 Roosevelt Field Mall]