Crossgates Mall

Crossgates Mall is built is within the Albany Pine Bush, one of the largest of the world's 20 inland pine barrens. It was formed thousands of years ago, following the drainage of Lake Albany.[1] When Europeans arrived in the early 17th century, the Pine Bush was in use as hunting grounds and firewood supply of the Mohawk nation of the Haudenosaunee to the west along the Mohawk River, and the Mahican to the east, along the Hudson River.

In the 1970s, Syracuse-based Pyramid Management Group, Inc. (Pyramid) began purchasing lands within the Pine Bush with the intent to develop a shopping mall, but it wasn't until 1978 that their plans were revealed to the public. The initial proposal called for a $50 million mall on a 175-acre lot with six anchor stores, 100 vendors, a food court, and direct access from the Adirondack Northway. [2] Opposition from residents and environmentalists was rapid and widespread. The first public hearing on the project was attended by more than 300 speakers, the majority of whom opposed the projects on the grounds that it would destroy a large swath of the unique and ecologically sensitive Pine Bush, would contribute to the continuing urbanization of Guilderland, would cause traffic congestion, and would not provide the claimed economic benefits, among other objections.[3] Despite widespread opposition, a petition from a citizen's group known as the Concerned Citizens Against Crossgates, and an embattled town board, the project was approved rapidly. In opposition, the town supervisor at the time stated: "Taking into consideration that the majority of the correspondence I got was opposed to the Crossgates, and (a) feeling that I have that, in the future that part of town will just be a conglomeration of traffic, I am forced to vote in the negative."[4] The decision was the cause of at least one town official's resignation.[5] During the four years following the unveiling of the proposal, the town board only voted unanimously on one aspect of the project: that the town should receive its full share of the resulting tax revenue.[6]

The mall opened on March 4, 1984. Although Pyramid had initially planned for a 1.3 million square footprint with six anchors, at opening it occupied only 975,000 square feet and had four anchors: a Caldor, Jordan Marsh, Filene's, and JCPenney. Of the roughly 170 smaller vendor spaces, 80 were occupied.[7] It was the seventh enclosed shopping mall built by Pyramid, part of a nationwide boom in shopping center openings that peaked at 2,600 in 1985.[8] The opening was attended by thousands of prospective customers from across the Capital District. The vast majority of these came by car, leading to backups and delays on Western Avenue, indicative of the transportation issues that would dominate discussions and negotiations between Pyramid, residents, and the town for years to come.

Throughout the 1980s, Pyramid sought to expand the mall into the footprint originally envisioned, but were repeatedly rebuffed by the Town. In October 1988, while standing in Town Hall, the Guilderland Town Supervisor told a reporter with the Altamont Enterprise:

"Every once in a while a representative of Pyramid will come in here and say, 'we want to expand'. And our response has always been, 'if you want to expand, you've got to do something about the traffic on Route 20.' What we're talking about is a direct connection between Crossgate's ring road and the Northway, which is a multi-million dollar project."[9]

In October 1994 the mall underwent an expansion nearly doubling its footprint to almost 1.7 million square feet and providing space for up to 250 stores. Following this expansion, Lord & Taylor, Hoyts Cinemas, and a new Filene’s store opened as anchors. The original Filene’s space was partially occupied by a Dick’s Sporting Goods. This expansion has been cited as a contributing to the decline of other Capital District shopping centers in the 1990s.[10] In 1996, anchor Jordan Marsh was replaced by Macy's when the Jordan Marsh brand was retired.

In 1998, Pyramid attempted to double the mall footprint to 3.6 million square feet for a new recreation facility, and sought to raze a nearby residential neighborhood for an 8-story hotel. Following widespread citizen protests, the Guilderland Town Board rejected the required zoning changes.[11]

In 1999, Cohoes Fashions relocated their store from their historic location in downtown Cohoes, New York. In 2007 their parent company, Burlington Coat Factory, closed many of the Cohoes locations and branded those that remained as Burlington Coat Factory. Caldor went out of business the same year. Their space at the mall's center court was split between a Best Buy on the second floor and an H&M on the first.

Beginning in the early 2000s, brick-and-mortar stores had begun steadily ceding market share to online retailers. Department stores and smaller retailers were increasingly under fiscal strain. In 2003, the owner of the Lord & Taylor brand announced the closure of their anchor store, which had first opened following the 1994 expansion.[12] The brand reopened at the mall in 2014, under a different parent company.[13] In October 2019, Forever 21 announced the shuttering of the Crossgates location, as part of a bankruptcy-initiated closure of 170 locations across the country.[14]

In an effort to limit financial risk created by competition from online retailers, Pyramid began to diversify the mall's interior tenants in the mid-2010s. They moved away from retail and toward live entertainment and restaurants.[15] By 2017 they have shifted up to 20% of the vendor spaces to non-retail by opening such venues as a comedy club, an escape room,[16][17] and concert halls.

In August 2017 Pyramid announced a plan to construct a hotel in partnership with Hilton chain. The hotel opened in 2018, achieving a strategic goal Pyramid had held since at least the late 1990s. It opened under the Homewood Suites, aimed at long-term stays, and the Tru brand, focused on providing lower-priced rooms aimed at younger travelers. Both brands are owned by Hilton.[18]

On the heels of the hotel opening, Pyramid announced a plan to develop three sites adjacent to mall.[19] Initially, this called for 222 residential units and a Costco. The latter was to be developed on a lot that would require demolition of a "ghost neighborhood", consisting of homes Pyramid had purchased in the preceding two decades.[20] Within a month, local environmental watchdog group Save the Pine Bush, residents, and other groups sued Pyramid alleging that clearcutting of the Costco site had occurred in violation of the SEQRA and the 14th Amendment.[21] The suit was later dismissed.[22]

In March 2020, Crossgates was one of several Capital District shopping centers whose owners reduced their hours amid the COVID-19 pandemic[23] and then shuttered following a Governor mandate. Although some of the tenants were deemed "essential" and stayed open during the pandemic, such as Best Buy, the mall interior was dark for nearly three months. Crossgates reopened mid-July 2020, when the Capital District entered Phase 4.[24] On August 2, 2020, it was announced that Lord & Taylor would be closing their store at Crossgates Mall on December 29, 2020, after it and its parent company, Le Tote, declared bankruptcy.[25] Seeking to cut costs and recoup losses, Pyramid sued the Town of Guilderland to halve their tax assessment,[26] as well as ten tenants for back rent totaling $1.9M.[27][28][29] The Town has requested the tax assessment suit be dismissed.[30]

Despite losses caused by COVID-19 and financial woes at their Syracuse properties, Pyramid maintained their plan to develop an adjacent complex and a Costco.[31]

On October 5, 2020, Cineworld announced it would close all Regal, Cineworld, and Picturehouse Cinemas locations in the US, UK, and Ireland indefinitely, beginning October 8. CEO Mooky Greidinger specifically cited that the continued reluctance of New York to allow cinemas to open was the main factor, as well as the lack of tentpole Hollywood films (referring to the delay of No Time to Die from November to April 2021 as being the "last straw") due to the high cost of operating a cinema without new releases. Mooky argued that the studios were holding off on new releases until New York cinemas reopen (accusing Governor Andrew Cuomo of being inflexible, despite having allowed other forms of indoor businesses to resume operations), and that the company only planned to reopen its cinemas once it is confident there is a "clear" and "solid" lineup of new releases.[32][33][34]