Hudson Valley Mall is an enclosed

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located in

Ulster, New York Ulster is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 12,660 at the 2020 census. The town of Ulster is in the northeastern part of the county. The town is directly north of the city of Kingston. Ulster is partially situate ...

, north of Kingston, United States. It is the lone mall in

Ulster County Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

and is the only enclosed mall located between

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsi ...

and Albany.

Hull Property Group Hull Property Group is a shopping mall management company based in Augusta, Georgia. It was founded in 1977. The company owns, manages, and re-develops shopping malls in relatively small communities, mainly in the south and mid-west United States. ...

currently owns and operates Hudson Valley Mall. The mall opened in 1981 and has an area of on one level with 19

shop Shop or shopping refers to: Business and commerce * A casual word for a commercial establishment or for a place of business * Machine shop, a workshop for machining *"In the shop", referring to a car being at an automotive repair shop *A wood s ...

s and

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

s as well as a 12-screen Neighborhood Cinema Group

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

. As of 2023, the mall maintains a

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized as "DICK'S Sporting Goods") is an American sporting goods retail company, based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The company was established by Richard "Dick" Stack in 1948, and has approximately 854 stores an ...

, and

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

, as well as a handful of specialty stores. Adjacent to the mall is Hudson Valley Plaza, a two-tiered complex on a west-facing hill, consisting mainly of a

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

PetSmart PetSmart is a privately held American chain of pet superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors are Amazon, Walmart, ...

and a few other shops.

History

The Hudson Valley Mall opened in 1981 with a

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

Hess's Hess's was a department store chain based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company started in 1897 with one store, originally known as Hess Brothers, and grew to nearly 80 stores by its peak in the late 1980s. The chain's stores were closed or sold ...

, and a

Hoyts The Hoyts Group of companies in Australia and New Zealand includes Hoyts Cinemas and Val Morgan. Hoyts operates more than 450 cinema screens and 55,000 seats, making it Australia's second largest movie exhibitor after Event Hospita ...

six-screen theater named Cinema 6 (later expanded to 12 screens and renamed after

Regal Cinemas Regal Cinemas (also Regal Entertainment Group) is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. A division of Cineworld, Regal operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with over 7,200 screens i ...

bought the theater). An expansion during 1989 added a

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

to the east side of the mall as well as a new food court and approximately 15 other stores. In 1995 Hess's became Filene's. In spring 2000, Pyramid began a renovation of the mall's interior. Around this time it was rumored a high-end department store would join the mall.

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

joined the mall in 2000 and a

opened in 2001.

built a new store adjacent to the space, which was also opened in 2001. On September 9, 2006, Filene's became

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

. The later 2010's saw multiple classic chain anchors readjust their brick and mortar fleets after being disrupted by digital retailers in recent years. In 2016, Macy's, which maintains much larger locations around Albany and

, announced they were leaving the center. In 2018, it was announced that Sears would close.

Incidents

2005 mall shooting

On February 13, 2005, Robert Bonelli, age 24, of

Glasco, New York Glasco is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 2,013 at the 2020 census. Glasco is a community in the Town of Saugerties east of U.S. Route 9W. The community is north of Kingston. ...

, entered the mall with a semi-automatic AK-47 Variant and began firing it in the mall's Best Buy shop. Panic ensued as employees and shoppers began to flee the mall. Bonelli moved into the mall's main corridor and continued firing his weapon until he ran out of ammunition. After emptying the assault rifle, he promptly dropped it. As Bonelli dropped the weapon, a mall employee grabbed his gun, and another tackled him. The mall was evacuated and Bonelli was taken into custody. No one was killed in the shooting, but two people, a 20-year-old National Guard recruiter and a 56-year-old male shopper, were wounded. After the incident, Ulster County investigators searched Bonelli's room at the home he shared with his father, and found what Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams described as "Columbine memorabilia". Officials described the young man as being fascinated by the

Columbine High School massacre On April 20, 1999, a school shooting and attempted bombing occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, 12th grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher. ...

. Additional searches were conducted by police after videos seized at Bonelli's residence showed him exploding homemade pipe bombs with a man named Kenneth Stine and another individual. Both individuals were later arrested and charged with violating federal explosives laws. Bonelli was taken to the Ulster County jail; on March 15, 2006, Bonelli pleaded guilty and on May 20, 2006 was sentenced to 32 years in the state prison (the maximum allowed by the guilty plea). He will be eligible for parole after 26 years.

2006 murder of Sharon Inger

Some time between closing time of the Ground Round restaurant in the mall on Saturday, June 3, and the morning of Sunday around 9:00 a.m., June 4, 2006, a suspect entered the

Ground Round Ground Round Grill & Bar is an American casual dining restaurant that was founded in 1969 by Howard Johnson's. On January 17, 2010, Independent Owners Cooperative, LLC—a group originally formed of 30 franchisee owners, which is based in Free ...

and stabbed a 42-year-old employee, named Sharon Inger, approximately 33 times. Inger, who worked as a night manager of the restaurant, was found early Sunday morning when another employee arrived to open the restaurant. $4000 was missing, according to night receipts. On September 21, 2006, police named Paul David Despres as the killer of Sharon Inger. Despres had begun employment with the Ground Round just a couple of weeks earlier. Investigators believe he went to the restaurant to steal his personnel file after giving a false name to police during a traffic stop earlier on the night of the murder, at around 11:00 p.m. Police believe he had a confrontation with Inger, grabbed a knife in the kitchen, and killed her at about 12:45 a.m. Two weeks later, Despres died after jumping, while intoxicated, from a vehicle after leaving a party.

References

External links