From the Daily News:A struggling Glendale shopping mall is shooting for a comeback, and nothing would make nearby residents happier.
The Shops at Atlas Park is being re-energized. Its owner has added a grassy 10,000-square-foot courtyard, and has been reaching out to the community, offering free outdoor movies, concerts and even a fireworks show.
But skeptical Glendale residents — who watched the airy, upscale mall go bankrupt several years ago — say the only thing that counts is filling the vast empty storefronts.
On Tuesday morning, contractors were putting the finishing touches on the outdoor parking lot, reconfigured to get shoppers closer to stores including the soon-to-open Forever 21.
“That will help enormously,” said Peter DeLucia Jr., marketing manager for the center, which was snapped up by mall giant Macerich in 2011 for $54 million.
DeLucia refused to divulge the names of new shops poised to move in, but rumors have included a Modell’s sporting goods site and cosmetics giant Sephora.
“We’re trying to get the community back,” said DeLucia, who noted hundreds of people have already responded to an email campaign that asks them to compile a wish list of stores for the site.
18 comments:
"hundreds of people have already responded to an email campaign that asks them to compile a wish list of stores"
They probably need a bigger email list to start. Today "hundreds of replies" is a drop in the bucket.
How is this new format going to help all of the dying retail shops? Of course people will attend the FREE concerts...
It's the neighborhood surrounding Atlas that barely has any discretionary income to shop there...and PAY for parking. Back to the drawing board.
The Atlas Park location needs to have parking that is temporarily free for it to succeed. It should be free for, say, the first three hours and THEN have a fee.
Even the big, newish shopping complex (the one with the Target I believe) in downtown Flushing has done something like this to lure customers in.
Downtown Flushing has huge concentrations of people, several bus lines running through it AND the 7 train.
If Downtown Flushing needs to do this to get shoppers in, then Atlas Park ought to face reality. Compared to Downtown Flushing with its crush of humanity and numerous mass transit options, Atlas Park may as well be in Nome, Alaska.
And for the last time, the Atlas Park location is NOT like Queens Center. All you have to do is stroll around both places (or look at an MTA map) to see the rather apparent differences.
Don't know if you read this blog, Macerich, but if you do, you should listen. A reconfigured courtyard and different mix of stores isn't going to cut it without some sort of offer of free parking. Without this perk, the success of your mall is just wishful thinking. It is so frigging obvious.
It's a beautiful space. Too bad we can't have anything nice in Flooshing!
OR...3 strikes you're out!
So their big plan to fix the economic situation at the mall is was to... spend millions on changing the landscaping.
Not to mention, the landscaping that was there was actually very nice. Shame they took down all those lovely birch trees.
is parking free now? why would i drive there to pay for parking?
I believe, and I may be wrong, That Hemmerdinger still owns the garages & parking lots...
That might be why there will be no free parking at the doomed white elephant of a mall
Parking is free up to 1 hour.
Free parking to begin. How about making it an outlet mall??? Instead of driving way out to Long Island or upstate or another state - an outlet mall in the middle of Queens would make a whole lot of people happy.
Queens pretty much is one big outlet mall.
Macerich--the irony is that this mall is around the corner, literally, from Archie Bunker's house. Wise up. Free parking, affordable stores, or anything will fail there. Oh, and the configuration of the flagship store space required you to go down an escalator to get in, with no other alternatives. That made NO sense.
An Outlet mall is being floated over by the Aqueduct / Resorts Casino . That would be a perfect location for one.
How many stores and malls does one borough actually NEED? When is enough enough?
Boring change. Next !
They have bench seating for only a few dozen people.
Look at the socioeconomic level of the area.
Discount stores would be successful with free parking for a few hours!
Don't kid yourselves. You have 10 banks on Metropolitan Ave.,plenty on Woodhaven Blvd and Myrtle Avenue. There is tons of money in the area. You need a reason to go to a mall and the current owner didn't figure out how to get anyone interested in going there yet.
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