Rego Center is a shopping mall bordered by 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 men ...

Junction Boulevard Junction Boulevard, originally Junction Avenue, is a two-mile north-south route that runs through the neighborhoods of Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst, and Rego Park in Queens, New York City. It continues as 94th Street in East Elmhurst and ...

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 ...

, 63rd Drive, and 99th Street in the Rego Park neighborhood of

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 most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

History

The property was originally the only Queens location of

Alexander's Alexander's is a real estate investment trust that owns 7 properties in New York metropolitan area, including 731 Lexington Avenue, the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P. It is controlled by Vornado Realty Trust. It was founded by George Farkas and ...

, a New York City department store.

Caldor Caldor, Inc. was a discount department store chain founded in 1951 by husband and wife Carl and Dorothy Bennett. Referred to by many as the Bloomingdale's of discounting, Caldor grew from a second story "Walk-Up-&-Save" operation in Port Ches ...

had bought up the location and was in the processes of opening their store in the fall of 1995 but those plans were stalled when the chain filed for bankruptcy that year.

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 ...

later opened in 1996. Rego Center in Rego Park, Queens, New York

Phase II of the mall, which is an annex to the already open Phase I, opened on March 3, 2010 with of retail space.

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (Trade name, doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only Big-box store, big-box retail stores (warehouse c ...

with , At Home with , and T.J. Maxx have opened. Retailers also include Bed Bath and Beyond,

Marshalls Marshalls is an American chain of off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and Puerto Rico, and 61 stores in Canada. M ...

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

and

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with i ...

in Phase I. An

Aldi Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when ...

supermarket also opened on level 1 in February 2011. The nearest competitor malls are

Queens Center Queens Center Mall is an urban shopping mall in Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, on Queens Boulevard between 57th Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard. Queens Center Mall is the largest mall in Queens. It is currently owned and managed by The Macerich ...

and Queens Place Mall. ,

Vornado Realty Trust Vornado Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust formed in Maryland in 1982, with its primary office in New York City. The company invests in office buildings and street retail in Manhattan. Investments Notable properties owned by the ...

, the mall's owner, is developing a 24-story, 314-unit residential tower named The Alexander on top of the mall's phase II, due to a surge in young professionals moving into the area. About 20% of the units are studio apartments, with the rest being one- and two-bedroom apartments. On January 4, 2017, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 150 stores nationwide. The store closed in April 2017. A year later, in March 2018,

Toys "R" Us Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1957; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters loc ...

announced that it would close all of its US stores, including the location at Rego Center. The site was then occupied by a toy store called Toy City, operated by

Party City Party City Holdco Inc. is an American publicly traded retail chain of party stores founded in 1986 by Steve Mandell in East Hanover, New Jersey. Party City’s parent organization is Party City Holdings Inc. Based in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, the comp ...

. On January 13, 2019, Kohl's announced that its store at Rego Center would be closing along with 3 other stores nationwide. The store closed on April 13, 2019. In September 2019, IKEA announced plans to convert the former Sears into its third New York City location. It opened on January 11, 2021. However, on October 26, 2022, it was announced that IKEA would be closing this location on December 3. On April 24, 2020, it was announced that At Home would be opening in the former Kohl's space in 2021. On September 10, 2020, it was announced that Century 21 would be closing its location as part of a plan to close all 38 stores nationwide. One month later, Century 21 permanently closed its Rego Park store.

Withdrawals

The Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement re ...

withdrew from the rental deal with Vornado in late 2008 due to drop in profit. The space vacated by Home Depot was replaced by

. This is Costco's fifth location in

and second in Queens. In 2005,

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 ...

had been dropped as a potential tenant, as an early part of its bid to open a store within New York City. Opposition by various groups killed the plan. In October 2022, it was announced that IKEA would be closing its Rego Center location.

Layout

The following layout of retail space is taken from Vornado's Property website. * Level 3: Lenora Furniture, T.J. Maxx, Bed Bath and Beyond,

* Level 2:

* Street Level: Dallas BBQ,

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic ( T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland ( T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobil ...

, Mandee, The Vitamin Shoppe,

, Subway,

Panera Bread Panera Bread is an American chain store of bakery-café fast casual restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which are in the United States and Canada. Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri. The company operates as Saint Loui ...

, Marshalls * Lower Level:

References

External links

* *
Rego Park Center

Department of City Planning Resolution 27 July 2005

PlanNYC-Rego Park II

PlanNYC-Archival Search for Rego Park Mall II

Rego Center details at Vornado Realty Trust website

Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects project profile page
{{New York City Malls Shopping malls in New York City Shopping malls established in 2010 Tourist attractions in Queens, New York Commercial buildings in Queens, New York 2010 establishments in New York City