The Shops at Atlas Park is an open-air

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 ...

at Cooper Avenue and 80th Street in the

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia * Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre *Glendale, Queensland, ...

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 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 ...

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 territorie ...

. The Shops at Atlas Park was opened in April 2006 by ATCO Properties, encompassing the site of the former Atlas Terminals industrial park, both of which were named after bodybuilder

Charles Atlas Charles Atlas (born Angelo Siciliano; October 30, 1892 – December 24, 1972) was an Italian-born American bodybuilder best remembered as the developer of a bodybuilding method and its associated exercise program which spawned a landmark advert ...

who resided in nearby Middle Village.

History

What is now Atlas Park began as of farmland between Cooper Avenue and Dry Harbor Road (present-day 80th Street). In June 1902, the American Grass Products Company purchased the land and constructed a brick factory, and in 1903 a power plant was constructed. In 1922, Henry Hemmerdinger (whose family operates ATCO Properties) purchased a warehouse in the area, which would evolve Atlas Terminals. In its heyday in the 1950s, the industrial park housed companies such as

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

Kraft The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arra ...

, Westinghouse, and

New York Telephone The New York Telephone Company (NYTel) was organized in 1896, taking over the New York City operations of the American Bell Telephone Company. Predecessor companies The Telephone Company of New York was formed under franchise in 1876. The princi ...

. Freight operations to and from the terminal were facilitated by the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk Co ...

's Montauk Branch at the park's south end. It was redeveloped in the 2000s after years of struggling to find tenants. Four of the buildings ranging in size from 13,000 to 93,000 square feet were renovated as part of the center, and sixteen buildings in the vicinity of Cooper Avenue and 80th Street were demolished and replaced by a landscaped park. The shops were opened in late April 2006. Major tenants in the center include

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 ...

, TJ Maxx,

ULTA Ulta Beauty, Inc., formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and before 2000 as Ulta3, is an American chain of beauty stores headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Ulta Beauty carries both high-end and low-end cosmetics, fragra ...

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 ...

California Pizza Kitchen California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) is an American casual dining restaurant chain that specializes in California-style pizza. The restaurant was started in 1985 by attorneys Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax in Beverly Hills, California, United States. ...

Chili's Chili's Grill & Bar is an American casual dining restaurant chain. The company was founded by Larry Lavine in Texas in 1975 and is currently owned and operated by Brinker International. History Chili's first location, a converted postal statio ...

Johnny Rockets } The Johnny Rockets Group Inc. is an American restaurant franchise whose themed decor is based upon 1950s diner-style restaurants. Décor includes Coca-Cola advertising, featuring nearly life-size cardboard illustrations of women in World War II ...

White House Black Market White House Black Market is an American women's clothing retailer headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida. The multichannel brand, founded in 1985, specializes in upscale clothing. White House Black Market owns and operates various clothing and acc ...

, and

New York Sports Club Town Sports International Holdings (or TSI Holdings) is an operator of fitness centers in Florida and in Puerto Rico. Its current brands include Liv Fitness Clubs, Palm Beach Sports Clubs, and Christi's Fitness. Former brands include New York ...

. Beginning on February 19, 2009, Atlas Park went into foreclosure, with control going to lenders Caylon Bank and Société Générale (both based in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

). The complex was sold to

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 comprisi ...

in February 2011 for $54 million.

Transportation

The mall is served by the bus routes. The reroutings of the Q54 and what was then the Q45 (now the southern half of the Q47) to serve the mall in 2007 and 2008, respectively, were controversial because MTA Chairman H. Dale Hemmerdinger was also the president of ATCO Properties. The closest

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 2 ...

station to the shops, the

Middle Village–Metropolitan Avenue station The Middle Village–Metropolitan Avenue station is a terminal station of the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is located at the intersection of Metropolitan Avenue and Rentar Plaza in Middle Village, Queens. The station i ...

(served by the ), is away.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shops At Atlas Park Shopping malls established in 2006 Macerich Shopping malls in New York City Commercial buildings in Queens, New York 2006 establishments in New York City Glendale, Queens