Queens Center Mall is an urban

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

in Elmhurst,

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, on

Queens Boulevard Queens Boulevard is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Queens connecting Midtown Manhattan, via the Queensboro Bridge, to Jamaica. It is long and forms part of New York State Route 25. Queens Boulevard runs northwest to s ...

between 57th Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard. Queens Center Mall is the largest mall in Queens. It is currently owned and managed by

The Macerich Company Macerich ( ) is a real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers. It is the third-largest owner and operator of shopping centers in the United States. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned interests in 52 properties compris ...

, who purchased the mall in the 1990s. The mall has a

gross leasable area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...

of and 198 stores. It has one of the highest returns in sales per square foot in the United States, with 2002 sales of $953 per square foot, almost triple the national average. The mall is adjacent to the Woodhaven Boulevard station () on the

IND Queens Boulevard Line The IND Queens Boulevard Line, sometimes abbreviated as QBL, is a line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Manhattan and Queens, New York City, United States. The line, which is underground throughout its entire route, contains 23 ...

of the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...

. It is across the street from the former St. Johns Hospital and the Rock Church. It is also off Exit 19 on the

Long Island Expressway Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music me ...

History

Queens Center Mall opened on September 12, 1973, on land previously occupied by a children's amusement park named Fairyland, a supermarket, and automobile parking. The original anchor tenants were

Abraham & Straus Abraham & Straus, commonly shortened to A&S, was a major New York City department store, based in Brooklyn. Founded in 1865, it became part of Federated Department Stores in 1929. Shortly after Federated's 1994 acquisition of R.H. Macy & Company ...

and

Ohrbach's Ohrbach's was a moderate-priced department store with a merchandising focus primarily on clothing and accessories. From its modest start in 1923 until the chain's demise in 1987, Ohrbach's expanded dramatically after World War II, and opened numer ...

. The mall underwent a major expansion from 2002 to 2004, nearly doubling in size as the original mall was renovated and another wing was added to the east of 92nd Street. The mall's current anchor tenants are

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 ...

and

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 ...

. In addition, it has a large food court in the basement. For a limited time during the 2006 Christmas shopping season, the Macy's location in Queens Center was open 24 hours a day, becoming the first to do so. Since then, it has had all-day operating hours during every Christmas shopping season. On March 8, 2019, the mall was evacuated when an appearance by rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie was cancelled and fans rioted and looted stores, including the

Foot Locker Foot Locker Retail, Inc. is an Americans, American sportswear and footwear retailer, with its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and operating in 28 countries. Although established in 1974, and founded as a separate company in ...

. The mall reopened the next day.

Anchors

Current

(Opened in 1989) *

(Opened in 1995)

Former

(Opened in 1973. Closed in 1987. Replaced by Steinbach) * Steinbach (Opened in 1987. Closed in 1990. Replaced by JCPenney) *

(Opened in 1973. Closed in 1995. Replaced by Macy's)

References

External links

* {{New York City Malls Macerich Shopping malls established in 1973 Shopping malls in New York City Commercial buildings in Queens, New York Tourist attractions in Queens, New York Elmhurst, Queens 1973 establishments in New York City