St. Lawrence Centre facts for kids
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Main entrance, 2017
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| Location | Massena, New York, United States |
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| Coordinates | 44°56′56″N 74°50′28″W / 44.948824°N 74.841013°W |
| Address | 6100 St. Lawrence Centre |
| Opening date | 1990 |
| Developer | Heritage Company |
| Management | Erica Leonard |
| Owner | Shapiro Group |
| No. of stores and services | 44 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 5 (1 open, 4 vacant) |
| Total retail floor area | 548,612 square feet (50,967.7 m2) |
| No. of floors | 1 |
| Website | http://www.stlawrencecentre.com |
The St. Lawrence Centre is a shopping mall located in Massena, New York, in the New York state of the United States. It has one main department store, JCPenney, along with several smaller shops owned by local people. You can also find a post office inside.
Contents
History of St. Lawrence Centre
Building the Mall
The St. Lawrence Centre was built in 1990 by the Heritage Company. At that time, the town of Massena had a strong economy. This was thanks to several Alcoa factories in the area. Many Canadians from Cornwall, Ontario, also came across the St. Lawrence River to shop. This was called cross-border shopping. The mall cost about $50 million to build.
Changes in Ownership
In 1995, the mall was sold to AP Massena Partners. During this time, the mall faced money problems. Many stores left, and only about 75% of the spaces were filled. In September 2003, the mall was sold again for $3.6 million to the Carlyle Development Group. They hired General Growth Properties to manage the mall starting in February 2004. Under this new management, the mall started to do much better.
Anchor Stores Over Time
An "anchor store" is a large department store that attracts many shoppers to a mall. The St. Lawrence Centre has had several anchor stores.
- One large space was first used by Hills until 1998.
- Then, Ames took over until 2002.
- Later, Steve & Barry's was there from 2007 to 2008.
- After Steve & Barry's closed, the space became empty.
Before Steve & Barry's opened, the town of Massena tried to get a Wal-Mart to move into that spot in 2006. In 2009, the mall owners wanted to replace the empty space with a Target store.
Recent Challenges and Closures
In 2011 and 2012, several stores moved out of the mall. This included TJ Maxx, which was one of the original anchor stores. Sears closed its store in 2014. A smaller store called Sears Hometown Store opened in its place but closed in 2017. The mall also had an ice rink, but it closed in August 2016 because of mechanical problems. It has not reopened since.
After Payless ShoeSource closed its store in spring 2017, many people in Massena thought the mall was "dead." They believed it should be closed and torn down. This was because the local Alcoa factories were not as busy, and fewer Canadians were coming to shop.
Bringing the Mall Back to Life
Around 2017, a group of Canadian investors bought the mall. They hired Erica Leonard to be the mall's director. She immediately started making improvements to the building. She also went on a local radio station to tell people to be more positive about the mall. She wanted them to believe it could get better.
Erica Leonard started looking for local businesses to fill the empty spaces. She welcomed local artists, event planners, and specialty food stores. For example, a local member of the Mohawk Native American tribe opened a popcorn store. Other local shops sell things like chainsaw-carved wooden statues and maple syrup.
Under Leonard's guidance, local people even turned the old Sears store into a big Christmas village for the holidays. They used empty cardboard boxes to create it. The mall is also thinking about replacing the ice rink with turf for indoor sports.
While some local stores did well during the 2017 holiday season, the mall still faces challenges. Bon-Ton, another anchor store, closed in early 2018. This left JCPenney as the only remaining anchor store.
