St. Lawrence Centre is a

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 ...

in Massena, New York,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It includes one anchor store,

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 ...

History

The mall was built in 1990 by the Heritage Company. At that time the Massena economy could support it, with a strong manufacturing base built around several local Alcoa plants and heavy

cross-border shopping Border trade, in general, refers to the flow of goods and services across the border between different jurisdictions. In this sense, border trade is a part of the normal trade that flows through the ordinary export/import legal and logistical fram ...

by Canadians from the area of

Cornwall, Ontario Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, situated where the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the state of New York converge. It is the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry and is Ontario's easternmost city ...

, just across the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

. The cost of construction was $50 million. In 1995 it was sold to AP Massena Partners. During this time the mall went through serious financial troubles, falling to just a 75% occupancy rate. In September 2003, the mall was sold for $3.6 million to the Carlyle Development Group who hired

General Growth Properties GGP Inc. (an initialism of General Growth Properties) was an American commercial real estate company and the second-largest shopping mall operator in the United States. It was founded by brothers Martin, Matthew and Maurice Bucksbaum in Ceda ...

to manage it beginning February 2004. One anchor, originally occupied by

Hills A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as ...

until 1998,

Ames Ames may refer to: Places United States * Ames, Arkansas, a place in Arkansas * Ames, Colorado * Ames, Illinois * Ames, Indiana * Ames, Iowa, the most populous city bearing this name * Ames, Kansas * Ames, Nebraska * Ames, New York * Ames, Ok ...

until 2002 and Steve & Barry's from 2007 to 2008, is vacant. Before Steve & Barry's opened, the town of Massena had attempted to use

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

to replace the Hills/Ames with a

Wal-Mart 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 ...

in 2006. In 2009, the mall owners circulated a petition to replace the former Hills/Ames/Steve & Barry's building with a

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, f ...

. Several tenants moved out of the mall in 2011 and 2012, including original anchor store

TJ Maxx TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American department store chain, selling at prices generally lower than other major similar stores. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in ...

. Sears closed its store at the mall in 2014 and was replaced with Sears Hometown Store but closed in 2017. The mall's ice rink closed in August 2016 due to mechanical problems and has yet to reopen. After

Payless ShoeSource Payless (formerly known as Payless ShoeSource Inc.) is an international discount footwear chain. Established in 1956 by cousins Louis and Shaol Pozez, Payless was a privately held company owned by Blum Capital, and Golden Gate Capital. In 1961, ...

closed its store in the mall in spring 2017, many residents of the Massena area, where the Alcoa now only runs one of its former plants and Canadians no longer come in their former numbers, believed the mall was now

dead Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

and called for it to be closed and demolished. Erica Leonard, the mall's director, hired by a group of Canadian investors who bought the mall around that time and made immediate physical improvements, went on a local radio station to urge people to stop being so negative and seeing the mall's decline as irreversible. "I just stopped listening to them," she later told ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. Leonard began to find local businesses to fill the spaces vacated by national retailers, and made it clear to those engaging in criminal activity on the premises that they were not welcome. New tenants have included North Country Showcase, a local company which sells products by local artists; an

event planner Event management is the application of project management to the creation and development of small and/or large-scale personal or corporate events such as festivals, conferences, ceremonies, weddings, formal parties, concerts, or conventions. ...

; a specialty popcorn store run by a local member of the

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans * Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people * Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, tribal nation, or similar concept is any extant or historical clan, tribe, band, nation, or other group or community of Native Americans in the Unit ...

, and other local merchants who sell chainsaw-carved wooden statues and bourbon maple syrup. Under Leonard's direction, local residents converted the former Sears space into an elaborate Christmas village for the holidays using empty cardboard refrigerator boxes. While sales at some of the local stores were better than expected during the 2017 holiday season, the mall still faces other challenges.

Bon-Ton Bon-Ton Holdings Inc. is an American online retailer and former department store chain founded in 1898. After rapid expansion in the 1990s and early 2000s, the original company had financial troubles, ultimately filing for bankruptcy in 2018 ...

closed in early 2018 leaving

as the only anchor left.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Lawrence Centre Shopping malls in New York (state) Indoor ice hockey venues in the United States Buildings and structures in St. Lawrence County, New York Tourist attractions in St. Lawrence County, New York 1990 establishments in New York (state) Shopping malls established in 1990

History

See also

References

External links