Poughkeepsie Galleria facts for kids
The Poughkeepsie Galleria in December 2019
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| Location | Poughkeepsie, New York, United States |
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| Coordinates | 41°37′34″N 73°55′14″W / 41.626241°N 73.920653°W |
| Opening date | August 1, 1987 |
| Management | The Pyramid Companies |
| Owner | The Pyramid Companies |
| No. of stores and services | 105 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 7 (5 open, 2 vacant) |
| Total retail floor area | 1,100,000 square feet (100,000 m2) |
| No. of floors | 2 |
| Parking | 2000 spaces |
The Poughkeepsie Galleria is a shopping center on U.S. 9 in the Town of Poughkeepsie, New York, located just north of Wappingers Falls, and is the largest shopping center in Dutchess County. The Galleria has an area of 1,100,000-square-foot (100,000 m2) with two floors containing 123 shops and restaurants as well as a 16-screen, stadium-seating Regal Cinemas theater.
The Galleria is owned and managed by The Pyramid Companies, a group who also owns and manages regional sister mall the Palisades Center in West Nyack, NY. The Galleria has adopted the Pyramid corporate "MB-18" teenage curfew policy on Friday and Saturday evenings, a policy that began in September 2005. Anchor stores include Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Macy's, and Target.
History
Expansion & Policies
In the early 1980s, a proposal for a two-story indoor mall in Poughkeepsie, New York was submitted. Despite much conflict and many protests, the proposal was submitted, and the mall opened on August 1, 1987 as the Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall.
Upon opening, the mall had five anchor stores: G. Fox & Co., Jordan Marsh, Lechmere, Filene's, and JCPenney. Due to underperformance, the Filene's store closed in 1989 and was replaced with Steinbach, which relocated from South Hills Mall next door. Sears also announced plans to relocate from South Hills Plaza at the same time. Steinbach closed in 1995 and became Dick's Sporting Goods and DSW Shoe Warehouse the same year. Filene's returned to the mall in 1993 by taking over the defunct G. Fox chain, while Sears ultimately opened at the mall after Jordan Marsh was vacated. Montgomery Ward also moved into the mall in the early 1990s, becoming the sixth anchor and replacing an existing store in Poughkeepsie.
In 2004, both DSW and Dick's moved to new locations vacated by Montgomery Ward, while the former Filene's and Lechmere building was converted to Best Buy and Target.
During January 2005, the mall announced it would enact and begin enforcing the Pyramid Companies' "MB-18" teenage curfew policy beginning in September 2005, following a large fight involving young teenagers in front of then-Filene's. Due to the size of the incident, local police were called, and several arrests were made. Filene's was converted to Macy's in 2006.
On February 8, 2020, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 39 stores nationwide. The store closed on April 11, 2020.
On June 23, 2020, it was announced that JCPenney would also be closing as part of a plan to close 155 stores nationwide. The store closed on October 18, 2020.
The Justice store closed in August 2020 after parent company Ascena Retail filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 Pandemic
As a result of an executive order to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Galleria announced they would close the interior portion of the mall effective 8:00pm on March 19, 2020. This effectively shuttered all businesses without an exterior entrance of their own. Some anchors with external entrances such as Target remained operational as they were considered an essential business. On July 10, 2020, the interior portion of the mall reopened with reduced hours as part of Governor Cuomo's Phase 4 economic reopening plan. This was allowed so long as certain conditions were met, such as the presence of enhanced air filtration technologies which could trap virus particles. The mall has continued to operate with reduced hours since reopening. On October 5, 2020, Cineworld announced it would close all Regal, Cineworld, and Picturehouse Cinemas locations in the US, UK, and Ireland indefinitely, beginning October 8. CEO Mooky Greidinger specifically cited that the continued reluctance of New York to allow cinemas to open was the main factor, as well as the lack of tentpole Hollywood films (referring to the delay of No Time to Die from November to April 2021 as being the "last straw") due to the high cost of operating a cinema without new releases. Mooky argued that the studios were holding off on new releases until New York cinemas reopen (accusing Governor Andrew Cuomo of being inflexible, despite having allowed other forms of indoor businesses to resume operations), and that the company only planned to reopen its cinemas once it is confident there is a "clear" and "solid" lineup of new releases.
