Crossgates Commons

Inside of Walmart at Crossgates Commons, the largest Walmart in the
United States

Crossgates Commons is a large shopping plaza in Albany, New York. It is owned by The Pyramid Company, but may be sold in the near future.^[1] Crossgates Commons is located on Washington Avenue Extension and is roughly across the street from Crossgates Mall, which is also managed by Pyramid. The shopping center has a split-level design with stores on the upper level accessible from the front and stores on the lower level accessible from the rear. It opened in 1994 and has 1,300,000 square feet (120,000 m²) of retail space. Although Crossgates Commons is relatively young, it has already undergone an expansion, and some locations have had high turnover rates.

When the shopping center first opened in 1994, it had six original tenants: Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Home Depot, Media Play, Old Navy, and MJ Designs.

The Wal-Mart located at Crossgates Commons became the largest Wal-Mart in the United States (and the largest outside of China) in 2008, when it expanded into a Wal-Mart Supercenter, now occupying 260,000 square feet (24,000 m²) over two floors.^[2]

Tenants

(left to right)

Upper level

• The Home Depot
• Sports Authority
• Golf Galaxy
• Panera Bread (part of expansion project)
• Party City (part of expansion project)
• Wal-Mart--2nd Floor (department store floor)

Lower level

• Wal-Mart—1st Floor (supermarket floor).^[3]
• Petsmart
• Jeepers!
• Planet Fitness
• Michaels

Former tenants

• Sam's Club (Closed unexpectedly on May 1, 2006 due to lack of membership, and the location has now become part of the new Wal-Mart Supercenter)
• Mars Music (2000-2003) (lower level) Still vacant
• General Carpet Outlet (lower level) Now Planet Fitness.
• The Big Party (1996-2000) (upper level) Now Party City.
• Kids "R" Us (1996-2004) (Moved from Northway Mall in 1996 to the upper level of Crossgates Commons. Location was occupied by "Giant Book Sale" temporarily). Now occupied by Golf Galaxy.
• Media Play (original tenant on upper level when Crossgates Commons opened in 1994, closed in 1997.) Later became Homeplace.
• Homeplace (upper level) Moved into former Media Play in 1997 and closed after only 11 months in the shopping center. Later became Bob's Stores (1998-2004).
• Bob's Stores (upper level) Location now occupied by Sports Authority.
• MJ Designs (1994-1999) (original tenant). Now Michaels.
• Tweeter (2001-2007) Closed in a wave of underperforming stores.
• Old Navy (1994-2008) Original tenant on upper level, and one of the first in the entire chain, closed in favor of existing branch at Crossgates Mall.
• Circuit City (2000?-2009) Part of expansion project on upper level. Closed on March 8, 2009, when the chain shuttered all of its American stores. Replaced by Ultimate Electronics.^[4]
• Ultimate Electronics (July 2010 - April 2011) - remains vacant.

Square footage

• The Home Depot (103,000 sq ft.)
• Michael's (35,000 sq ft.)
• The Sports Authority (48,000 sq ft.)
• Wal-Mart (260,000 sq ft.)

References

1. ^ WGY Story
2. ^ Biggest U.S. Wal-Mart Supercenter opening in May-in Albany, N.Y. - The Business Review (Albany):
3. ^ TU Story
4. ^ "Circuit City counts down days to oblivion", Paul Grondahl, Albany Times Union, March 1, 2009.

External links

• Crossgates Commons (Pyramid Company web site)
• Crossgates Commons (Crossgates Mall web site)
• Times Union article about Crossgates Commons' expansion
• Crossgates Mall

Coordinates: 42°41′49″N 73°50′51″W / 42.69694°N 73.8475°W / 42.69694; -73.8475