That is the USS Slater. It’s a WW2 Destroyer Escort opened for tours in downtown Albany. From 1998 till somewhere around 2006, they sold authentic military dog tags at Crossgates to raise money for renovation efforts. My grandparents were the couple who volunteered every Friday and Saturday night to make dog tags at the mall. I used to go there as a kid and spend Saturday nights with them.
Great video! So happy I came across it. brought back memories. I used to work at Caldor in the mid-90's so I spent a lot of time in that mall. Then I moved away from the Capital Region and haven't been back since. Nice to see what the mall looks like now.
Before starting - This mall used to be very high-end and expensive and I never went there. Now they have a very good mix of clothes, discount stores, electronics, nerd culture, entertainment options, and food. Downsides are operational things mostly... temperature is all over the place, not enough seating or water fountains, and the bathrooms are always disgusting.
The third floor of the mall was the original Hoyt's cinema 12 and when the mall expanded Hoyt's built a Cinema 18 in the current location of the theater. For about 10 years both were operated with the 3 third floor running 2nd run films at a discount.
I went there a lot in 1993 when I attended SUNY Albany. I watched "Cliffhanger" there when the projector broke, then they gave us a pass for Colonie Center theater, and we watched the movie there later that night. Do you remember the theater across from Colonie Center where Target now stands that showed old movies for $3 in the 1990's?
So much nostalgia. That photo of the movie theater, I may have been there. I literally went to Phantom Menace opening night here. The lines were throughout the entire mall. It was crazy! Thank you for this! I lived in East Greenbush right outside Albany for years in my early 20s and as a Mall Rat from birth, I spent SO much time here. Drastically less name brands and good shopping now, it seems. But it was nice to see it again.
i just found this channel today and i really love these videos. i grew up going to here, wilton, and aviation, and it’s really cool to have these walkthrough videos and get a little more insight on these places!!!
I'm with ya on this assessment too Tom, that mall seems to be doing fine, and despite some dated architecture outside, it's quite cool inside, and appesrs to be very well maintained. Thats just crazy that there were 2 theaters in the mall! I'm assuming they ran concurrently....or at least tried to anyway? Small wonder one of them closed up shop. Great content Tom, I look forward to these, and the flea market videos each week
Track23 used to be the FYE before downsizing. The dollar n things used to be the arcade. Where you said the new part of the mall started or ended is exactly where you were.
@fleabittenadventures it's a weird L shaped layout, there is an entrance from the main corridor you walked past as well. Many people will use that as a quick cut through when going in and out of the food court if heading that direction in the mall
Regarding the World War 2 dioramas, the ship in the exhibit is that of destroyer escort USS Slater which is currently docked only a few miles away from the mall on the Hudson River. So in a way, it's a bit of advertising inviting visitors to go tour the museum ship, only a few miles away. The Slater is one of only a dozen destroyer escorts from that era still around and the only one still in its wartime configuration.
I would love to see some more store walkthroughs! Sorry that the one you mentioned didn't do well. My guess is that because it had just opened, people were quicker to jump on the false idea that it was an ad.
There were 2 theaters but both were Hoyts, so they were not really competing. I think the upstairs theater (that is now closed) was the original and they shifted it to the downstairs theater sometime in the mid-90's. The theater that no longer exists started showing movies that had been out for a while at a reduced rate until they closed it down. Great video.
@fleabittenadventures I never did ( bur know people who did because they lived in the area and said it was a nice place) - other good malls were 20 miles away , this was 45 but the ads were all over Albany media.
I remember when this mall had a Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma, and of course, a Disney Store. I even remember it before Dave & Busters came in. It still looks to be the same otherwise.
And Track 23 was originally a Record Town and Dollar n Things was an arcade. The expansion can be seen in Track 23, where there’s an expansion plate running through the middle of it where the addition was put on.
This is one of the few good malls left in the area. I came during January on a Saturday and the place was hopping, so many people - it was like the good old days! I grew up going to this mall, Rotterdam Square and Wilton Mall. Sadly Rotterdam is a ghost town and poor Wilton Mall is quickly losing more and more stores which makes me so sad.
One of the Big Two malls for me (with Colonie Center). Used to be a lot cooler when Borders Books was here. Saw “Atlantis” in the third floor theater back in like 2001. Also miss the Discovery Store that used to be here.
Great video. Those stores awkwardly located inside the food court have been there since 2015, when I used to live in the area. Not sure if it ever was a restaurant originally
IN the 90's the DOllars and things was an arcade and the other store was a Record town? (or strawberries? i cant rememeber) (it has another entrance right to the mall as well) . They were perfect for teens at the time (like me!)
I grew up an hour and a half away in the Catskills. I remember going on the trek to Crossgates with with whole family. KB Toys and The Disney Shop were where it was at 😎
I've been in this area since this mall was built, and still frequent that every couple of weeks, it's alive and well were there anybody wants to agree or not, and it's actually decently run, clean, and has something for everybody
The mall surprisingly bounced back after the pandemic and is even better now than before the pandemic started. I just wish the Johnny Rockets came back or a similar restaurant filled that space. They're also building a Costco (the first in the area) right next to the mall. There have been at least 3 lawsuits because of the Pine Bush Reserve but they all failed and they have started construction.
I just found your channel and I’m really enjoying it. But what I don’t understand is, a big marker for you in whether a mall is dying is by the crowd level and yet you seem to keep showing up to malls during the day on Tuesday?
This mall used to have a Toysrus express & a CVS which to my knowledge didn't have pharmacy it was just a CVS which few remain in malls and few remain without the pharmacys Great video
Track 23 was an fye type store before this, I can’t remember what is called! But it was huge I use to by new cds and movies there all the time! Miss those days😢
I drove by Crossgates on the way to work everyday when it was being built. I remember going to opening day. Unfortunately over the years the police substation was put in the mall for a reason.
The Dollar store in the food court used to he a Namco Cyberstation arcade and the Track 23 used to be an FYE store (music) which moved to a smaller location.
wow the memories. the 3rd floor was a Hoyt's that was there from day 1. I saw Lethal Weapon 2 there in 1989. After the expansion in 94, the same movie theater company (which was Hoyt's until Regal took over roughly 85% of them) At that point they jad second run movies playing on the 3rd floor for a little cheaper with all the big movies new movies were in the new cinema. I can't tell you how CROWDED this mall was back in the 80's and early 90's. I mean no elbow room kind of packed. Hoyt's had their box office on the 2nd floor next to the escalators and elevator you took. The line wrapped around in a circle so bad you couldn't get through.
I worked at the original Filene’s in the mall from 1985 to 1989 when I was in college. The store was beautiful in its time, but sadly May Company took over the Filene’s chain and the new store didn’t have anywhere near the architectural beauty of the original. Filene’s was a really fun place to work and it was glamorous.
I was in Crossgates about 9 months ago and it wasn't as booming as it was in 2007-2008 when I went there the first time with my ex-girlfriend and her parents.
The area with funny bone, 110 grill, maggie mcflys, and kazan is an addition added approximately 2013 or so, when you walked past funny bone you could see the line in the floor where the old entrance was, set back maybe 150-200 feet from where it currently is
this mall is great! Go here all the time. J Street Games is the only retro games store in albany and this is the only place to find them. If I'm wrong please correct me. They've also got the best and friendliest lego store I've ever been too. Great place. Dick's recently closed down and was replaced with Going Going Gone
The area of Kazan and Maggie’s was an expansion on the mall just ten years ago. I helped removed the old portion of the building before that new section went up further expanding the mall
The third floor was the original and only movie theater for years before the expansion. I had moved out of the area when the expansion occurred so I am unsure if both movie theaters existed simultaneously for a time.
If what I heard was true before it opened, the Apex Entertainment in this mall is one of only a few places outside of New England, and the Canadian Maritimes, that has some lanes dedicated to candlepin bowling. The two shops in the food court may have been bigger restaurants. Greendale Mall in Worcester, MA (now an Amazon Warehouse sits there) had a Bertucci's, which in the last years became a DSW Shoe Warehouse. Being that I've seen that, that's my guess here. Also, the food courts aren't always an indicator of a mall's health. The Worcester Common Outlets had a full food court when the mall died, whereas Searstown/Whitney Field at it's prime never had a good food court. Most of the restaurant spaces were actually shops instead. Speaking of dying malls, you went through Cambridgeside in Cambridge, MA several months ago. I read it recently closed about 8 restaurants in it's food court, and a candlepin bowling museum in the basement also recently left.
The mall isn't dead or dying obviously. But it has somewhat become stagnat. It really can't physically expand anymore. And it's starting to lose more stores faster than they can get new tenants. Other problems includes poor lighting in some areas. And the mall has become a bit unsafe. To many fights have broken our and more than a few shootings. Plus throw in some tax issues for the owners and just gives a bad vibe to the place.
wow, I haven't seen a Build-A-Bear Workshop in a very long time I thought they all closed down. Plus I haven't had a Sbarro Pizza in a very long time as well.
10:54 The "destroyer" is the USS Slater, a WW2-era destroyer escort (yes, that's the type of ship it is). Currently docked in the Hudson River, near downtown Albany.
On the third floor, there was the original movie theater. Then they opened the new movie theater in the new wing. And the old movie theater used to play older movies that were no longer in the theater or just left the theater.
Third floor was the original Hoyts movie theatre. When the new one opened they kept the second running for a while playing some of the slightly older movies. New releases were in the new/big theater and after a few weeks if the draw wasnt as big anymore they would move to the old theater. They finally closed/consolidated about 2003 or so if i remember correctly. I believe it was the same time that the hoyts chain was acquired by Regal.
I try to keep the flea market videos to about 20 to 30 minutes. According to youtube, most people stop watching after about 10 minutes. The mall videos just take as long as they take for me to walk through them. Thanks for watching!
Here is something to consider. Pyramid Corp. has some of the highest mall space lease fees of any major mall owner. If one of their malls has very few vacancies, then it is generating a lot of foot traffic.
33:56 every time ive been here that black jeep has been in that same exact spot. It could just be an employees car, but its always THAT spot. it might be abandoned idk.
I've never been to the Albany area, not really much of a traveler. I think Albany is probably a 3 hour drive for me, maybe a little longer, I'm not certain. So it's not really much different than when we travel to East Monpilier Vermont every now and then. I'd visit this mall if I had the chance just to walk around in FYE. I wouldn't mind bringing home some new music cd's to replace the ones I lost over the years. I still have all of my portable cd players. 😁
Primark didn’t open in 2022, it was a year later in 2023. It also wasn’t the first in NY, the first one was at Staten Island Mall (7 years ago). REI is opening at the spot that was previously Forever 21.
It's a good mall - good highway access, great place for indoor walking & people watching, but also not the safest place to be, with a fair bit of security issues day to day. Guilderland PD presence hasn't entirely curbed the problem with the frequent teen related behavioral issues, but has helped a little. Decent selection of stores, it's always had a good variety of dining options, theater has always been popular and kept modernized over the decades. Tends to be very busy around the holidays. Was big when it first opened, and I think enlarged more for clout than anything else - trying to retain it's original 'largest mall in upstate NY' title. (permanently lost when Destiny Syracuse was built) Macy's in Colonie Center was and still is more impressive, IMO. Also the presence of Crossgates contributed to the demise of several other local shopping center's & malls.
I lived in the Albany area most of my life (booooo!) used to go here a lot in the 90s back when you would buy software at places like Babbages I moved South 4 years ago, but do know Crossgates had a lot of problems with Violence. Brawls, stabbings and a gun discharge or two. I know last spring there was a brawl with over 50 juveniles involved. I know when I still lived there, a lot of people chose to go elsewhere to shop (Like Colonie Center), not feeling safe at Crossgates . Hopefully they got rid of the riff raff and clean it up a bit, otherwise this WILL be a dead mall in the future.
If you are still enough, you actually feel the mall move slightly. I don't know if it was how the mall was built or what, but I have been to many malls doing Best Buy remodels, and this is the only mall I have ever felt that. Also surprising you didn't mention Funny Bones when you passed it. It's pretty interesting to have a comedy club in a mall.
The local police moved a satellite office there to save gas money (no joke) & the mall instated some policies regarding teens & that cut down the crime considerably.
i still frequent there. not a bad place honestly. It dos get fairly busy at peak hours later in the week. The big draws these days are the Dave and Busters and the Comic shop. There is also a sports collectables store there that Hosts card game tournaments. Food there can be pricey but its good eats mainly.
also, the mall technically extends to another area. There basically a strip mall section that you need to drive to that has a Walmart and some other stores. They're separate from the main mall but are usually considered pat of the mall by the locals.
The transition to entertainment venues & restaurants is a last ditch effort to preserve the mall. It’s in better shape financially from that, but that’s not going to last forever. Stores very often close early. Usually security is supposed to note that to fine tenants, but I asked a guard about if they were, & he told me he thought they should be. Implying that currently there's no policy on that. That's a bad sign.
it used hoyts theater it was the same theater one was an older style theater i was one of the only employees towards the ends of hoyts and the begging of regal to work both the theater one was 12 and the was 18
Not to offend you but if you do your research on mall development, many malls of the 1960s and 1970s in the early development of mall interior design usually featured tropical plants because they can survive easily in lower light areas. Exotic plants like palm trees and other tropical plants we refer to as house plants were used in malls for easier care. Ficus trees were very popular in the 1970s and 1980s but they too are tropical plant trees. Palm trees are used in malls that are usually more upscale as they give an exotic flair. Palm trees go back to Victorian European upscale venues. They were used in the Crystal Palace in London. And in restaurants in Paris. You are correct these plants are not natural to the region but they are not meant to be. If you look over all the plants in malls many are tropical like the palms. I guess you are more comfortable with leafy trees like the ficus (but many malls no longer use them as they are not easy to care for and are more sensitive to light conditions).
I just love this mall! ❤ it's a beautiful mall, not at all a dead mall! Long may it thrive and live. ❤
My hometown mall!! Love this place. Definitely not dead ❤
I agree!
Kind of is. It’s busy but a lot of stores don’t make it.
That is the USS Slater. It’s a WW2 Destroyer Escort opened for tours in downtown Albany. From 1998 till somewhere around 2006, they sold authentic military dog tags at Crossgates to raise money for renovation efforts. My grandparents were the couple who volunteered every Friday and Saturday night to make dog tags at the mall. I used to go there as a kid and spend Saturday nights with them.
Great video! So happy I came across it. brought back memories. I used to work at Caldor in the mid-90's so I spent a lot of time in that mall. Then I moved away from the Capital Region and haven't been back since. Nice to see what the mall looks like now.
Great Video! Glad to see Crossgates Mall still doing well!
Thanks!
Great job! My wife was a security and operations manager at a regional shopping center in the Rochester, NY area. She really enjoyed the video.
Before starting - This mall used to be very high-end and expensive and I never went there. Now they have a very good mix of clothes, discount stores, electronics, nerd culture, entertainment options, and food. Downsides are operational things mostly... temperature is all over the place, not enough seating or water fountains, and the bathrooms are always disgusting.
Good thing I didn't have to use the bathroom! Thanks for watching!
Especially the bathroom near the Old Navy. That one is horrible and has a urinal that you can see from outside the bathroom. 😂
Great video and very nice mall! Wait, Apex Bowling has candlepin bowling? I gotta go there! LOL Thanks for the video.
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
The third floor of the mall was the original Hoyt's cinema 12 and when the mall expanded Hoyt's built a Cinema 18 in the current location of the theater. For about 10 years both were operated with the 3 third floor running 2nd run films at a discount.
I went there a lot in 1993 when I attended SUNY Albany. I watched "Cliffhanger" there when the projector broke, then they gave us a pass for Colonie Center theater, and we watched the movie there later that night. Do you remember the theater across from Colonie Center where Target now stands that showed old movies for $3 in the 1990's?
So much nostalgia. That photo of the movie theater, I may have been there. I literally went to Phantom Menace opening night here. The lines were throughout the entire mall. It was crazy! Thank you for this! I lived in East Greenbush right outside Albany for years in my early 20s and as a Mall Rat from birth, I spent SO much time here. Drastically less name brands and good shopping now, it seems. But it was nice to see it again.
i just found this channel today and i really love these videos. i grew up going to here, wilton, and aviation, and it’s really cool to have these walkthrough videos and get a little more insight on these places!!!
I'm with ya on this assessment too Tom, that mall seems to be doing fine, and despite some dated architecture outside, it's quite cool inside, and appesrs to be very well maintained. Thats just crazy that there were 2 theaters in the mall! I'm assuming they ran concurrently....or at least tried to anyway? Small wonder one of them closed up shop. Great content Tom, I look forward to these, and the flea market videos each week
Thanks for watching! I appreciate it.
Track23 used to be the FYE before downsizing. The dollar n things used to be the arcade. Where you said the new part of the mall started or ended is exactly where you were.
Thanks for the confirmation. I wasn't sure.
@fleabittenadventures it's a weird L shaped layout, there is an entrance from the main corridor you walked past as well. Many people will use that as a quick cut through when going in and out of the food court if heading that direction in the mall
I'm gonna look at that dollar n things so differently now... A tragedy that I missed out on that.
Another great video Tom, I love to watch your mall videos,thank you.😊👏🏻👍🏻
Glad you like them! Thanks!
Regarding the World War 2 dioramas, the ship in the exhibit is that of destroyer escort USS Slater which is currently docked only a few miles away from the mall on the Hudson River. So in a way, it's a bit of advertising inviting visitors to go tour the museum ship, only a few miles away. The Slater is one of only a dozen destroyer escorts from that era still around and the only one still in its wartime configuration.
Cool! Good to know. Thanks
I would love to see some more store walkthroughs! Sorry that the one you mentioned didn't do well. My guess is that because it had just opened, people were quicker to jump on the false idea that it was an ad.
That could be the reason. Hard to say. Maybe people are looking for more famous names like Macy's, etc.
I vote for a Primark walkthrough! 🗳️
There were 2 theaters but both were Hoyts, so they were not really competing. I think the upstairs theater (that is now closed) was the original and they shifted it to the downstairs theater sometime in the mid-90's. The theater that no longer exists started showing movies that had been out for a while at a reduced rate until they closed it down. Great video.
It’s BillyBees now
I went to college in the area from 1985 to 89 and remember seeing ads for this mall on Albany tv stations.
I would have loved to see this mall back in the 1980s.
@fleabittenadventures I never did ( bur know people who did because they lived in the area and said it was a nice place) - other good malls were 20 miles away , this was 45 but the ads were all over Albany media.
Yeah ok, it is a Dump
I remember when this mall had a Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma, and of course, a Disney Store. I even remember it before Dave & Busters came in. It still looks to be the same otherwise.
And Track 23 was originally a Record Town and Dollar n Things was an arcade. The expansion can be seen in Track 23, where there’s an expansion plate running through the middle of it where the addition was put on.
This is one of the few good malls left in the area. I came during January on a Saturday and the place was hopping, so many people - it was like the good old days! I grew up going to this mall, Rotterdam Square and Wilton Mall. Sadly Rotterdam is a ghost town and poor Wilton Mall is quickly losing more and more stores which makes me so sad.
This mall looks great, and ain't that the cutest third floor you've ever seen?
I remember when the original movie theater was on the third floor!
@@jenniferburchill3658 Cool, but two theaters is a lot for one mall. lol
@@avgjoeavglife Before the first theater closed, it functioned as a second run venue for a bit. It didn’t last long, though.
@@jenniferburchill3658 Ah, OK.
It sure is tiny! I'll bet a lot of people don't even know it's there.
One of the Big Two malls for me (with Colonie Center). Used to be a lot cooler when Borders Books was here. Saw “Atlantis” in the third floor theater back in like 2001. Also miss the Discovery Store that used to be here.
I was working for H&M at the time. I traveled to Crossgates to help close down the old location and set up the new one :)
I like this mall, my favorite feature is the angled glass canopy over the escalators, nice to see a Primark too, we have them here in the UK
Yes, the skylights are impressive! I think Primark came to the USA in about 2017 or so... I have yet to go inside one.
Great video. Those stores awkwardly located inside the food court have been there since 2015, when I used to live in the area. Not sure if it ever was a restaurant originally
Nice update❤
IN the 90's the DOllars and things was an arcade and the other store was a Record town? (or strawberries? i cant rememeber) (it has another entrance right to the mall as well) . They were perfect for teens at the time (like me!)
Awwww. This is my mall. Still going strong.
I grew up an hour and a half away in the Catskills. I remember going on the trek to Crossgates with with whole family. KB Toys and The Disney Shop were where it was at 😎
I've been in this area since this mall was built, and still frequent that every couple of weeks, it's alive and well were there anybody wants to agree or not, and it's actually decently run, clean, and has something for everybody
wow so cool big mall i like it was you there in Nov or Dec cost showing christmas?? ty for video
Thanks for watching!
The mall surprisingly bounced back after the pandemic and is even better now than before the pandemic started. I just wish the Johnny Rockets came back or a similar restaurant filled that space. They're also building a Costco (the first in the area) right next to the mall. There have been at least 3 lawsuits because of the Pine Bush Reserve but they all failed and they have started construction.
Nice mall video
Thanks!
Been to this mall in 2021. It's really good.
It looked pretty nice.
I just found your channel and I’m really enjoying it. But what I don’t understand is, a big marker for you in whether a mall is dying is by the crowd level and yet you seem to keep showing up to malls during the day on Tuesday?
Well, I can only get to these malls that are far from my home when I'm on pto from work, so going during the week is only time I can get there.
@@fleabittenadventures Sure, but malls do typically pick up on the weekend when more people are free from obligations.
This mall used to have a Toysrus express & a CVS which to my knowledge didn't have pharmacy it was just a CVS which few remain in malls and few remain without the pharmacys
Great video
Thanks! I don't think I've heard of Toys R Us Express.
@@fleabittenadventures it was a prototype I think or something similar I don't think many malls had this idk
@@fleabittenadventuresToys R Us Express is a small copy of Toys R Us, usually in outdoor malls.
Track 23 was an fye type store before this, I can’t remember what is called! But it was huge I use to by new cds and movies there all the time! Miss those days😢
I drove by Crossgates on the way to work everyday when it was being built. I remember going to opening day.
Unfortunately over the years the police substation was put in the mall for a reason.
Went to this mall when it first opened in the eighties when I was a teenager. Always seems to do well.
The Dollar store in the food court used to he a Namco Cyberstation arcade and the Track 23 used to be an FYE store (music) which moved to a smaller location.
There was a music venue called "Skyloft" in the mall. It closed for good when COVID hit.
Where was that located? Thanks for watching!
I used to work at Best Buy and that music venue sucked for us with all bass banging through the walls. Lol
wow the memories.
the 3rd floor was a Hoyt's that was there from day 1.
I saw Lethal Weapon 2 there in 1989.
After the expansion in 94, the same movie theater company (which was Hoyt's until Regal took over roughly 85% of them)
At that point they jad second run movies playing on the 3rd floor for a little cheaper with all the big movies new movies were in the new cinema.
I can't tell you how CROWDED this mall was back in the 80's and early 90's. I mean no elbow room kind of packed.
Hoyt's had their box office on the 2nd floor next to the escalators and elevator you took. The line wrapped around in a circle so bad you couldn't get through.
Nice video
Thanks!
I worked at the original Filene’s in the mall from 1985 to 1989 when I was in college. The store was beautiful in its time, but sadly May Company took over the Filene’s chain and the new store didn’t have anywhere near the architectural beauty of the original. Filene’s was a really fun place to work and it was glamorous.
One big thing that drives business is the SUNY Albany campus. There's a few bus lines that go between here, Walmart, and the school bus stop
I remember how the JCPenney's was there when the mall first opened in 1984.
Is JCPenney the only original store there?
@fleabittenadventures Could be, but not certain.
I was in Crossgates about 9 months ago and it wasn't as booming as it was in 2007-2008 when I went there the first time with my ex-girlfriend and her parents.
The area with funny bone, 110 grill, maggie mcflys, and kazan is an addition added approximately 2013 or so, when you walked past funny bone you could see the line in the floor where the old entrance was, set back maybe 150-200 feet from where it currently is
this mall is great! Go here all the time. J Street Games is the only retro games store in albany and this is the only place to find them. If I'm wrong please correct me. They've also got the best and friendliest lego store I've ever been too. Great place.
Dick's recently closed down and was replaced with Going Going Gone
The area of Kazan and Maggie’s was an expansion on the mall just ten years ago. I helped removed the old portion of the building before that new section went up further expanding the mall
I worked in that mall before the expansion with Radio Shack. We were the first to walk through the expansion before it evern opened.
The third floor was the original and only movie theater for years before the expansion. I had moved out of the area when the expansion occurred so I am unsure if both movie theaters existed simultaneously for a time.
I worked at the Kay Bee Toys store in this mall back in the last 1990's. Christmas season in the mall was nuts back then.
If what I heard was true before it opened, the Apex Entertainment in this mall is one of only a few places outside of New England, and the Canadian Maritimes, that has some lanes dedicated to candlepin bowling.
The two shops in the food court may have been bigger restaurants. Greendale Mall in Worcester, MA (now an Amazon Warehouse sits there) had a Bertucci's, which in the last years became a DSW Shoe Warehouse. Being that I've seen that, that's my guess here.
Also, the food courts aren't always an indicator of a mall's health. The Worcester Common Outlets had a full food court when the mall died, whereas Searstown/Whitney Field at it's prime never had a good food court. Most of the restaurant spaces were actually shops instead.
Speaking of dying malls, you went through Cambridgeside in Cambridge, MA several months ago. I read it recently closed about 8 restaurants in it's food court, and a candlepin bowling museum in the basement also recently left.
Interesting! Thanks for the info.
The mall isn't dead or dying obviously. But it has somewhat become stagnat. It really can't physically expand anymore. And it's starting to lose more stores faster than they can get new tenants.
Other problems includes poor lighting in some areas. And the mall has become a bit unsafe. To many fights have broken our and more than a few shootings. Plus throw in some tax issues for the owners and just gives a bad vibe to the place.
wow, I haven't seen a Build-A-Bear Workshop in a very long time I thought they all closed down. Plus I haven't had a Sbarro Pizza in a very long time as well.
I think Sbarro is more common in New York and New Jersey, from what I've seen. We seem to have a lot of Build a Bears in my area. Thanks for watching!
10:54 The "destroyer" is the USS Slater, a WW2-era destroyer escort (yes, that's the type of ship it is). Currently docked in the Hudson River, near downtown Albany.
Track 23 used to be an FYE and dollar and things used to an arcade! My home town!
#1 sign that a mall is doing well .....all the escalators are working 😂😂😂
Pretty much. Thanks for watching!
On the third floor, there was the original movie theater. Then they opened the new movie theater in the new wing. And the old movie theater used to play older movies that were no longer in the theater or just left the theater.
Is the food court on the second floor?😮
Third floor was the original Hoyts movie theatre. When the new one opened they kept the second running for a while playing some of the slightly older movies. New releases were in the new/big theater and after a few weeks if the draw wasnt as big anymore they would move to the old theater. They finally closed/consolidated about 2003 or so if i remember correctly. I believe it was the same time that the hoyts chain was acquired by Regal.
I wish your videos at flea markets were as long as the time you spend on dead malls. Id rather watch you browse the flea markets. 😊
I try to keep the flea market videos to about 20 to 30 minutes. According to youtube, most people stop watching after about 10 minutes. The mall videos just take as long as they take for me to walk through them. Thanks for watching!
Seem like a very live mall to me a very maintained Mall for a 40-year-old Mall it looks like they were well maintained
Definitely!
So the mall is better on the weekends and its super busy. If you go during the middle of the week in the morning you won't see many people.
You should do Mckinley Mall in Buffalo NY!!
Here is something to consider. Pyramid Corp. has some of the highest mall space lease fees of any major mall owner. If one of their malls has very few vacancies, then it is generating a lot of foot traffic.
It does seem to be in a very good location for a mall. Thanks for watching!
33:56 every time ive been here that black jeep has been in that same exact spot. It could just be an employees car, but its always THAT spot. it might be abandoned idk.
Looks like a good mall to visit.
I think so. Thanks
I've never been to the Albany area, not really much of a traveler. I think Albany is probably a 3 hour drive for me, maybe a little longer, I'm not certain. So it's not really much different than when we travel to East Monpilier Vermont every now and then. I'd visit this mall if I had the chance just to walk around in FYE. I wouldn't mind bringing home some new music cd's to replace the ones I lost over the years. I still have all of my portable cd players. 😁
Primark didn’t open in 2022, it was a year later in 2023. It also wasn’t the first in NY, the first one was at Staten Island Mall (7 years ago). REI is opening at the spot that was previously Forever 21.
Thanks for the info. I guess Wikipedia was wrong. Not surprised.
It's a good mall - good highway access, great place for indoor walking & people watching, but also not the safest place to be, with a fair bit of security issues day to day. Guilderland PD presence hasn't entirely curbed the problem with the frequent teen related behavioral issues, but has helped a little. Decent selection of stores, it's always had a good variety of dining options, theater has always been popular and kept modernized over the decades. Tends to be very busy around the holidays. Was big when it first opened, and I think enlarged more for clout than anything else - trying to retain it's original 'largest mall in upstate NY' title. (permanently lost when Destiny Syracuse was built)
Macy's in Colonie Center was and still is more impressive, IMO. Also the presence of Crossgates contributed to the demise of several other local shopping center's & malls.
I lived in the Albany area most of my life (booooo!) used to go here a lot in the 90s back when you would buy software at places like Babbages I moved South 4 years ago, but do know Crossgates had a lot of problems with Violence. Brawls, stabbings and a gun discharge or two. I know last spring there was a brawl with over 50 juveniles involved. I know when I still lived there, a lot of people chose to go elsewhere to shop (Like Colonie Center), not feeling safe at Crossgates . Hopefully they got rid of the riff raff and clean it up a bit, otherwise this WILL be a dead mall in the future.
Really? I didn't know anything about the violence when I was there. It was pretty empty during visit, but it felt safe.
If you are still enough, you actually feel the mall move slightly. I don't know if it was how the mall was built or what, but I have been to many malls doing Best Buy remodels, and this is the only mall I have ever felt that. Also surprising you didn't mention Funny Bones when you passed it. It's pretty interesting to have a comedy club in a mall.
The local police moved a satellite office there to save gas money (no joke) & the mall instated some policies regarding teens & that cut down the crime considerably.
Nice job on this video hope you had fun there i would love too see more mall. Videos
Thanks! I've got a lot more mall videos coming!
i still frequent there. not a bad place honestly. It dos get fairly busy at peak hours later in the week. The big draws these days are the Dave and Busters and the Comic shop. There is also a sports collectables store there that Hosts card game tournaments. Food there can be pricey but its good eats mainly.
also, the mall technically extends to another area. There basically a strip mall section that you need to drive to that has a Walmart and some other stores. They're separate from the main mall but are usually considered pat of the mall by the locals.
The traffic is impossible around the holidays!
My understanding is the CBL owns JCP and keeps them open to help their mall business. Do you know if this is true?
This mall is a great mall. I do go there often. I did go to Colonie Center the other day. And the Sears wing on the 2nd floor is vacant.
It definitely seems like the best mall in the area. I have a video on Colonie Center coming up shortly
The transition to entertainment venues & restaurants is a last ditch effort to preserve the mall. It’s in better shape financially from that, but that’s not going to last forever.
Stores very often close early. Usually security is supposed to note that to fine tenants, but I asked a guard about if they were, & he told me he thought they should be. Implying that currently there's no policy on that. That's a bad sign.
I have fond memories of getting leather coin purses shaped like animals in Filenes.
The Caldor was two floors when I was in the mall.
hey tom just to let you known you are gonna miss 16 department stores that are new to cross gates mall ,Also there is a bestbuy .
I saw the Best Buy. Are there new stores opening?
@@fleabittenadventures i think so check their website
The third floor was the original movie theater. Hoyts Cinema 12
yes i worked at one point both 18 and 12
the mall has change so much since i worked there at the movie it became regal in 200102
Wow a mall food court that actually still has its Taco Bell and Wendys..Didn't think such a thing existed anymore
no kidding it’s not dead it’s thriving.
The third floor was at one point an army recruitment center
can you do colnie mall in ny
Coming soon
it used hoyts theater it was the same theater one was an older style theater i was one of the only employees towards the ends of hoyts and the begging of regal to work both the theater one was 12 and the was 18
I noticed the narrow walkway on the second floor between the stores its kind of scary if your afraid of heights 🥶😦
How 'bout a walkthrough of Spencer's?🤔
Ok. Someday
Track23 was an FYE and I used to ONLY go there for that and then get some free samples of orange chicken.
Track 23 was where FYE used to be before they downsized.
Do some Thrift Store walk throughs.
I'll see what I can do
@@fleabittenadventures No worries if you can’t . Just a thought. Really enjoy the stuff you put out.
Well, you also have to think, there's a Walmart not too far from this mall
16:00 Track23 used to be Tower Records in the 90's
Not to offend you but if you do your research on mall development, many malls of the 1960s and 1970s in the early development of mall interior design usually featured tropical plants because they can survive easily in lower light areas. Exotic plants like palm trees and other tropical plants we refer to as house plants were used in malls for easier care. Ficus trees were very popular in the 1970s and 1980s but they too are tropical plant trees. Palm trees are used in malls that are usually more upscale as they give an exotic flair. Palm trees go back to Victorian European upscale venues. They were used in the Crystal Palace in London. And in restaurants in Paris. You are correct these plants are not natural to the region but they are not meant to be. If you look over all the plants in malls many are tropical like the palms. I guess you are more comfortable with leafy trees like the ficus (but many malls no longer use them as they are not easy to care for and are more sensitive to light conditions).
This mall reminds me a bit of Buckland Hills in terms of its layout.
I agree!
Track 23 looks like an old hooters lol
Does it?
@@fleabittenadventures hooters at my mall has or had the same storefront in the exact location
It definitely was not, but funnily enough, there was a Hooters at one point on the first floor.