Crossgates Mall
- This is for the American shopping mall. For the English conurbation, see Cross Gates.
Crossgates Mall is a shopping mall in Guilderland, New York, not far from the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady. The mall, which opened in March 1984 and underwent an expansion nearly doubling its size in October 1994, has an area of 1,600,000 foot2 with two floors and 250 shops and restaurants as well as an 18-screen Regal Cinema theater.
The mall is owned and managed by The Pyramid Companies, a group who also owns and manages other shopping malls such as the Carousel Center in Syracause, a mall which the group is currently planning to expand to the largest mall in the country as part of the DestiNY USA project.
Anchors
Current anchors are as follows
- Macy's (currently in a 170,000foot2 location, to move into the 210,000 foot2 location currently occupied by Filene's, key anchor of the 1994 addition, in mid-2006)
- J.C. Penney (key tenant in the original 1984 wing)
- Dick's Sporting Goods (upper level, original wing)
- Cohoes (lower level, original wing below Dick's)
- Borders Books & Music (upper level, opening Summer 2006)
- Best Buy (upper level, new wing]]
- H&M (lower level, new wing)
- DSW Shoe Warehouse (lower level, old wing)
- Old Navy (lower level, old wing)
- Bally Total Fitness (two level location in new wing adjacent to Regal Cinema and current Filene's/future Macy's)
- Regal 18 Cinemas (lower level in new wing, adjacent to Bally's and current Filene's/future Macy's)
Former Anchors
- Lord & Taylor (110,000 foot2 location in new wing, vacant since Feburary 2005)
- Jordan Marsh (opened July 1985 in current locations of Dick's and Cohoes, became Filene's after group buyout in 1991)
- Nobody Beats the Wiz (closed 1998, replaced by Cohoes)
- Caldor (a rare 2-level location in the space now occupied by Best Buy and H&M)
- TJ Maxx (closed September 2004, space will be filled by new Borders)
- The original movie theater, located on the third level above the Caldor/Best Buy space, closed in Spring 2005.
- Klein's All-Sports (local chain with location in new wing, closed 2005)
Controversies
In recent years, two well-publicized controversies have taken place regarding mall policies.
- At the dawn of the Iraq War in March 2003, the mall became the center of a free speech controversy when Selkirk resident Stephen Downs was arrested for wearing an anti-war T-shirt in the mall. After much objections, the mall dropped the charges[1].
- In July 2005, the mall adopted a curfew policy (since made standard for all Pyramid malls) for people under the age of 18 on Friday and Saturday evenings, disallowing them from entering the mall unless accompanied by a parent or guardian over the age of 21. Aside from the affected consumers, complaints came from organizations which saw the actions of the mall being hypocritical given that many stores survive on the under-18 market[2].