The Medley Centre Doesn't Have Any Melody

The Medley Centre, located in the Rochester, NY suburb of Irondeqouit, was built in 1990 with the idea in mind as being Rochester's major shopping mall. It was previously known simply as Irondeqouit Mall. Being the newest mall in the area and located only 2 miles from downtown Rochester, you'd expect it to be healthy right? Well, you're DEAD wrong, literally. This mall is dead. 

Former main mall entrance. Wilmorite, the Rochester-based developer of all Rochester malls was known for this style of architecture. The food court entrance for Shoppingtown Mall, which is a dying mall over near Syracuse, was also designed as part of an expansion to that mall by Wilmorite. That is also another post for another time.

Former Ruby Tuesday.

Plant life is overtaking the black top.

Other secondary mall entrances.

Former Sibley's and Bon Ton

Former JCPenney and Steve & Barry's.

The population shift from downtown city living to suburban life spelled the doom of this mall. As a result, 99% of its stores closed and/or relocated to the newly expanded, more convenient to the suburbs, Eastview Mall. I'll probably end up doing a series of posts for that mall in the future as it is quite large. I say 99% of the stores closed because one lone store still remains at the Medley Centre and that is none other than Sears: 

Notice the "WE ARE OPEN" sign here.

I mentioned in a REIT post that this was one of the properties in the Twin Tiers coverage area included as a part of the Strategic Growth company package. Sears did own this store until then, which is probably the reason it hasn't closed yet. If I would had more time when I visited here, I probably would of went inside Sears to see what I could find.

UPDATE: Apparently Sears did not include this store as a part of REIT deal. The Rochester store included instead was the Sears at Greece Ridge Mall.

Surprisingly, Macy's actually operated here for about four years with no mall access before ultimately closing in 2014 itself:

2013 photo showing Macy's, formerly Kaufman's, still in operation. For reference, mall access closed to the public in 2009.

2015 photo showing Macy's closed.

Despite the decline, Target did open a location in the mall's parking lot closest to the former Macy's anchor. The two did coexist for a time though.

Because the interior is blocked of public access, I do not have any interior photos. Though if you really want to see what the inside looks like from a January 2014 look click here. You can also get some historical photos and a historical timeline of the mall's decline over time from that link. Labelscar also did a post on this mall. I hope those two additional links will provide for even more information on this particular dead mall.