Queens Boulevard and 59th Avenue
New York, New York (Queens Borough)
The third suburban-type shopping mall in New York City was built on a 51-acre parcel, located 7.9 miles east of Times Square, in the Elmhurst section of Queens. The site had housed the Fairyland Amusement Park between 1950 and 1968. It was accessed by the Long Island Expressway (Interstate 495) and New York City Subway's Woodhaven Boulevard-Slattery Plaza station.
Abraham & Straus and Ohrbach's became the first operational tenants, on September 12, 1973. A mall-wide dedication was held in October. All sixty-seven charter stores and services were open for business by late 1974. These included Orange Julius, Herman's World of Sporting Goods, Brentano's Books, David's Cookies and Musicland.
QUEENS CENTER originally encompassed 620,000 leasable square feet on 4 floors; the Concourse Level (or basement), First Level (or street level), Second Level and Third Level. The complex included a multilevel parking garage that could accommodate 1,450 autos.
Serving the compacted millions living in Queens, the mall became one of the most successful in the nation, with astounding sales-per-square-foot statistics. Outlying Long Island shopping centers, such as ROOSEVELT FIELD MALL or GREEN ACRES MALL provided no measurable competition. Still, by the late 1980s, QUEENS CENTER was in need of a spruce-up. A face lift remodel was done during 1990 and 1991, with a 10-bay Food Court fashioned out of an old fourth floor restaurant.
Meanwhile, Ohrbach's had been shuttered in late 1986. The store re-opened, as an Asbury Park, New Jersey-based Steinbach, on February 1, 1987. This store was replaced by J.C. Penney in 1990. The Abraham & Straus name was retired on April 30, 1995, when the QUEENS CENTER location was rebranded as a Macy's. This store had moved from a circa-1965, circular structure located one block northwest of QUEENS CENTER.
The year 1995 was also when the Santa Monica-based Macerich Company acquired QUEENS CENTER. In the summer of 2002, they initiated a 275 million dollar overhaul. The existing Macy's was expanded, to 352,300 square feet, by the construction of a fifth level. This was built on a portion of the mall's rooftop parking deck.
A 4-level East Wing was built on part of the city block east of the existing complex. The two buildings were linked by a 2-level concourse extending over 92nd Street. The addition was anchored by a 3-level (204,300 square foot) J.C. Penney, dedicated on March 26, 2004. The expansion included a 780-car capacity parking garage and the 14-bay Worlds Fare Cafes food court, which was situated in the basement (Concourse) level.
The East Wing was officially dedicated on March 27, 2004. With the original Penney's now vacant, it was possible to gut its interior and rebuild it as new inline stores. Twenty-seven existing tenants either moved into larger quarters or expanded into adjacent area. Some of the newly-enlarged stores were an (11,500 square foot) Forever 21 and (25,200 square foot) H & M.
Tenants new to QUEENS CENTER included American Eagle Outfitters, Helzburg Diamonds, Applebee's, Ashley Stewart, Cache', Casual Corner, Champs Sports, Finish Line, Guess, Kay Jewelers, New York & Company, Petite Sophistocate and Wilson's Leather.
The original mall was also given an indoor-outdoor face lift. Escalators were replaced, a large skylight installed in the Atrium and the original blue and gray tile facade resurfaced in granite. With the official dedication of the completed project, on November 19, 2004, QUEENS CENTER encompassed 963,000 leasable square feet. The retail roster now listed 150 stores and services.
In July 2009, Macerich sold a 49 percent share of QUEENS CENTER to the Toronto-based Cadillac Fairview Corporation. In January 2022, New York City's Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation bought the mall's J.C. Penney building.
Spanish fashion retailer Zara opened a 2-level (36,000 square foot) store in late 2023. Sweden's H & M chain had shuttered their 2-level (24,200 square foot) unit on January 31, 2023. A 1-level (20,000 square foot) H & M -in a different mall location- was inaugurated on October 24, 2024.
J.C. Penney downsized their store into its 2 upper levels. A (68,100 square foot) Burlington set up shop in Penney's former first level and opened on November 1, 2024. Irish fashion retailer Primark dedicated a 2-level (37,000 square foot) location on December 5, 2024.
Sources:
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Daily News
The Queens Chronicle (New York, New York)
The Times Ledger (New York, New York)
https://wanderwisdom.com
http://www.labelscar.com
http://www.macerich.com / The Macerich Company
https://www.shopqueenscenter.com (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
The Queens Chronicle (New York, New York)
The Times Ledger (New York, New York)
https://wanderwisdom.com
http://www.labelscar.com
http://www.macerich.com / The Macerich Company
https://www.shopqueenscenter.com (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
https://www.shopqueenscenter.com
https://classicnewyorkhistory.com
https://www.the-sun.com
https://qns.com
https://www.burlington.com
"Queens Center" article on Wikipedia
"Queens Center" article on Wikipedia
