Opening in October 1982, the Marketplace Mall opened in the Rochester, NY suburb of Henrietta on the site of what had previously been Hylan Airport. Originally anchored by Sibley's; McCurdy's; B. Forman Co. and Sears, the mall was developed by Wilmorite company who maintains ownership to this day. A JCPenney joined as a fifth anchor in 1983. Sibley's would become Kaufmann's in 1990. Bon-Ton replaced McCurdy's in 1994. A short lived Galyan's store opened in 2001 only to be replaced by Dick's Sporting Goods three years later. Kaufman's became Macy's in 2006.
Bon-Ton left the Rochester market entirely in 2014 by this closing this location which allowed Dave & Buster's and an indoor go-kart racing track to open in its place. Macy's closed in 2017 and would be reconstructed to make way for a new Floor & Decor store in 2023. Sears would close in 2019 and be replaced by a UR Medicine campus. The entire wing leading to Sears was converted to be additional space for UR Medicine at the same time. Many stores (such as former junior anchor Old Navy) either closed or relocated off mall as a result of the conversion.
While it is clear that the mall has declined sharply, I would not call it dead or dying. Wilmorite has invested a lot of effort with various developments and even has shown future renders for what they expect the mall to look like in the future.
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| Former Bon-Ton |
Former Sears being converted into UR Medicine:
This is probably an odd detail to latch onto, but it's strange seeing that updated mall directory with the new Target, Best Buy, and JCPenney logos. It's crazy how much these "legacy" retailers have changed their image in recent years.
ReplyDeleteThe mall owners here have been pretty good at keeping things up to date. Apparently that includes logos.
DeleteI have been going in this mall 2-4 times a year for a long time and it's declined sharply compared to how it was. Lots of vacancies and very quiet on a Sunday afternoon. Go over to Eastview and it's a zoo.
ReplyDeleteThis was the last place I was aware of to have payphones, although I don't think they worked for some time before the phones themselves were removed. I believe still there in March, gone in October.
The replacement of the Macys/Kaufmanns for Floor and Decor I believe entirely demolished the old store. The new structure is not attached to the mall. Whereas it appears they kept most of the structure of the Sears.
As I said above, it is clearly struggling. While its clear this is the weakest of the Rochester malls, Wilmorite seems to know what they are doing. Time will tell, but things seem to trending in a positive direction.
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