Lesso Home New York is a planned mixed-use development center located in
Westbury, New York
The Incorporated Village of Westbury is a Village (New York), village in the North Hempstead, New York, Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York (state), New York, United States. It is located a ...
, on
Old Country Road
Old Country Road is a major east–west thoroughfare through central Nassau County and extending into western Suffolk County on Long Island, New York. It serves many of the major shopping centers in central Nassau County including Rooseve ...
and Merchants Concourse (Ellison Avenue), currently owned by Lesso Mall Development Long Island Inc. The center is being built inside the mostly unoccupied Mall At The Source, which was named for its former anchor store
Fortunoff
Fortunoff is a New York-based retailer of outdoor furniture and jewelry.
The company started as a home, jewelry and furniture retailer founded in 1922 by Max and Clara Fortunoff. After being sold to private equity companies in 2005 and 2009, t ...
(advertised as "The Source") operated until June 2009.
The mall opened in 1997, under the management of
Simon Property Group
Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers, and community/lifestyle centers. It is the largest owner of shopping malls in the United States and is headquartered in Indian ...
. With the 2009 closures of Fortunoff,
Steve and Barry's, and
Circuit City
Circuit City is an American consumer electronics retail company, which was founded in 1949 by Samuel Wurtzel as the Wards Company, operated stores across the United States, and pioneered the electronics superstore format in the 1970s. After m ...
, three large anchor stores had become vacant. The drop of foot traffic by the loss of the anchors has caused other stores – the three aforementioned sub-anchor chains, plus
Saks Off 5th Saks can refer to:
*Saks (surname)
*Saks, Alabama, a community in the United States
*Saks, Inc., holding company of Saks Fifth Avenue
*Saks Fifth Avenue, U.S. luxury department store
See also
*
*
*Sachs
*Sachse (disambiguation)
*Sacks (surname)
*Sa ...
, &
Forever 21
Forever 21 is a multinational fast fashion retailer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. Originally founded as the store Fashion 21 in Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1984,Forever 21History & Facts, n.d. Retrieved 27 April 2014 ...
– and the entire food court – including
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
,
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain.
As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...
, Ranch 1 – to pull out from the mall. Simon Property Group and unnamed co-owners of the Mall at the Source defaulted on a $124 million balloon interest-only mortgage in March 2009. It was purchased by a European pension fund in August 2012 and auctioned.
In November 2016, it was announced that the Mall at the Source would be sold and could be demolished to make way for a new mixed use development.
In May 2017, Lesso Mall Development Long Island Inc. (a subsidiary of the Hong Kong listed LESSO Group) purchased the mall for $92 million.
On October 21, 2017, it was announced that the Mall At The Source would be redeveloped into a decoration hub for Lesso Home, which was originally scheduled to open in the fall of 2018, but has been delayed. A few retailers,
The Cheesecake Factory
The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated is an American restaurant company and distributor of cheesecakes based in the United States. The company operates 219 full-service restaurants: 206 under The Cheesecake Factory brand and 13 under the Grand Lux ...
,
Dave & Buster's
Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's has a full-service restaurant and a video arcade. As of October 2022, the company has 151 locations in the United States and two i ...
, and a Fortunoff outdoor furniture and jewelry store remain open during renovations.
History
Proposal and construction (1964–1997)
The site of The Mall at the Source was originally
Roosevelt Field
Roosevelt Field is a former airport, located east-southeast of Mineola, Long Island, New York. Originally called the Hempstead Plains Aerodrome, or sometimes Hempstead Plains field or the Garden City Aerodrome, it was a training field (Hazel ...
airport, with
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...
taking off on his epic trans-Atlantic flight near the site of the mall's parking garage.
Roosevelt Raceway
Roosevelt Raceway was a race track located just outside the village of Westbury on Long Island, New York. Initially created as a venue for motor racing, it was converted to a ½-mile harness racing facility (the actual circumference was 100 fee ...
bought the property when it expanded the harness-racing track in the 1940s for additional parking. In the early 1960s,
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 ...
constructed a department store on leased land at north-east corner of the raceway's property.
Fortunoff
Fortunoff is a New York-based retailer of outdoor furniture and jewelry.
The company started as a home, jewelry and furniture retailer founded in 1922 by Max and Clara Fortunoff. After being sold to private equity companies in 2005 and 2009, t ...
built its store several years later in 1964, as they followed their customers east from the original Fortunoff location in Brooklyn. Alan Fortunoff bought the entire property north of the current boundary of Transverse Drive from Roosevelt Raceway in the early 1980s.
In the late 1980s, Alan Fortunoff planned to construct the Long Island Galleria shopping mall, one comparable to the size of the massive
Roosevelt Field Mall
Roosevelt Field is a shopping mall in East Garden City, New York and Uniondale, New York. It was designed by I. M. Pei and is the largest shopping mall on Long Island, in the state of New York, and the eighth largest shopping mall in the United ...
a few miles away but with different stores. It was to be built by the
Westfield Group
Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio; ...
and include
Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...
and
Nordstrom
Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and ...
as anchor stores. Community pressure over congestion concerns forced Fortunoff to scale back the size and scope of the mall. Roughly half of the property was sold to
Price Club (now
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation (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 retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...
), which developed their portion to include 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 ...
(now
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 ...
). The mall was instead built by
Simon Property Group
Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers, and community/lifestyle centers. It is the largest owner of shopping malls in the United States and is headquartered in Indian ...
, and they continued to manage and co-own the mall until August 2012.
The Mall At The Source (1997–2017)
The mall was also the first on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
to house clothing chains
H&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 ...
,
Nordstrom Rack
Nordstrom Rack is an American off-price department store chain founded in 1973. It is a sister brand to the luxury department store chain Nordstrom.
As of 2021, Nordstrom Rack operates 352 stores in 41 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces ...
, and
Saks Off 5th Saks can refer to:
*Saks (surname)
*Saks, Alabama, a community in the United States
*Saks, Inc., holding company of Saks Fifth Avenue
*Saks Fifth Avenue, U.S. luxury department store
See also
*
*
*Sachs
*Sachse (disambiguation)
*Sacks (surname)
*Sa ...
. It was also the first to house restaurants including
The Cheesecake Factory
The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated is an American restaurant company and distributor of cheesecakes based in the United States. The company operates 219 full-service restaurants: 206 under The Cheesecake Factory brand and 13 under the Grand Lux ...
,
Dave & Buster's
Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's has a full-service restaurant and a video arcade. As of October 2022, the company has 151 locations in the United States and two i ...
,
P.F. Chang's China Bistro
P. F. Chang's China Bistro is an American-based, casual dining restaurant chain founded in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang that serves Asian fusion cuisine. Centerbridge Partners owned and operated Chang's until acquired by the private e ...
, and
Rainforest Cafe
Rainforest Cafe is a jungle-themed restaurant chain owned by Landry's, Inc., of Houston. It was founded by Steven Schussler. The first location opened in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, on February 3, 1994. By 1997, the chain co ...
(closed on October 19, 2000). The Mall at The Source is also adjacent to many other shopping complexes and restaurants.
![Mall at The Source empty](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Mall_at_The_Source_empty.jpg)
2009 saw the shuttering of all three anchor stores — Fortunoff, Steve & Barry's, and Circuit City — crippling foot traffic and resulting in a steady abandonment by its remaining tenants (outside of its restaurants, which maintained their standalone customers). On August 9, 2012, it was announced that the property was to go up for auction by the end of the month; by then, the mall was under 50% occupancy. The opening of the nearby Gallery at Westbury Plaza in late 2012 prompted Nordstrom Rack, Old Navy, and Saks Off 5th to move away, leaving the future of the mall uncertain.
On August 28, an auction was held, but was unsuccessful in attracting buyers. Lenders then took ownership of the mall, and
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank was hired for management.
In 2013, a
Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor was the oldest brick and mortar department store in the United States, in business from 1826 to 2020. The brand was purchased during former owner Le Tote's 2020 liquidation bankruptcy and relaunched by new owner, Saadia Group, as ...
outlet store and the Jewelry Emporium and Mall opened in the former Nordstrom Rack and Off 5th, respectively. However, these stores failed to increase foot traffic at the mall, and the vacancy rate continued to increase.
In 2014, Dick's Sporting Goods closed a substantial portion of its Golf Galaxy stores, including its store in the Mall at the Source. David's Bridal moved to the nearby Roosevelt Raceway Shopping Center in June 2015, leaving the Fortunoff court almost completely vacant.
Lesso Home New York Market (2018–present)
In May 2017, Lesso Mall Development Long Island Inc. (a subsidiary of the Hong Kong listed LESSO Group) purchased the mall for $92 million.
On October 21, 2017, it was announced that the Mall At The Source would be redeveloped into a Decor Hub for Lesso Home; redevelopment had been originally scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2018, but has since been delayed. It will include showrooms for many manufactures for home furnishings, decor, walkable markets, etc. The format will be much similar to the Italy-based
Eataly
Eataly is a chain of large format/footprint Italian marketplaces (food halls) comprising a variety of restaurants, food and beverage counters, bakery, retail items, and a cooking school. Eataly was founded by Oscar Farinetti, an entrepreneur for ...
.
The firm aims to recast the long-ailing retail center as a home-furnishings marketplace for design professionals, contractors and retail buyers—with a big food and entertainment component for local shoppers.
Former layout
The Mall at the Source had two floors and is shaped like an L. Because of this, the mall had separate "courts", named after the stores that anchor it (except for Center Court). Each anchor store had its own public entrance but not all have mall entrances; these stores tend to stay open later than the interior stores.
Center Court
The Center Court is the main entrance and includes a carousel and train. Some of the stores in the Center Court included
P. F. Chang's China Bistro
P. F. Chang's China Bistro is an American-based, casual dining restaurant chain founded in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang that serves Asian fusion cuisine. Centerbridge Partners owned and operated Chang's until acquired by the private e ...
and
Lord & Taylor Outlet. The center court is also where
Steve and Barry's was; in its place is a Fortunoff Backyard Store.
Nordstrom Rack
Nordstrom Rack is an American off-price department store chain founded in 1973. It is a sister brand to the luxury department store chain Nordstrom.
As of 2021, Nordstrom Rack operates 352 stores in 41 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces ...
,
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 Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th relocated to the neighboring Gallery at Westbury Plaza. The carousel has since been removed.
Off 5th Saks Court
The Off 5th Saks court is the upper tip of the L, a long hall that includes the Food Court and the former Saks Off 5th. The 1st floor has a
Dave & Buster's
Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's has a full-service restaurant and a video arcade. As of October 2022, the company has 151 locations in the United States and two i ...
, the only tenant left in the court. It also contained the former
Circuit City
Circuit City is an American consumer electronics retail company, which was founded in 1949 by Samuel Wurtzel as the Wards Company, operated stores across the United States, and pioneered the electronics superstore format in the 1970s. After m ...
.
Fortunoff Court
Like the Off 5th Saks Court, the
Fortunoff
Fortunoff is a New York-based retailer of outdoor furniture and jewelry.
The company started as a home, jewelry and furniture retailer founded in 1922 by Max and Clara Fortunoff. After being sold to private equity companies in 2005 and 2009, t ...
Court is a long hall, ending with the former Fortunoff. It also has the 2nd floor entrance to the former Ayhan's Shish Kebab and
The Cheesecake Factory
The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated is an American restaurant company and distributor of cheesecakes based in the United States. The company operates 219 full-service restaurants: 206 under The Cheesecake Factory brand and 13 under the Grand Lux ...
. The court also used to contain
Gymboree Play & Music,
Famous Footwear,
Golf Galaxy
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
, and
Men's Wearhouse & Tux.
References
{{New York City Malls
Shopping malls in Nassau County, New York
Shopping malls established in 1997
Shopping malls in the New York metropolitan area
1997 establishments in New York (state)