ROTTERDAM & NISKAYUNA — Gap is closing its outlet store in Rotterdam Square mall next month and relocating to the Mohawk Commons shopping plaza in Niskayuna.
The company confirmed Wednesday the Rotterdam store will close in February and the Niskayuna store will open March 25. Although it’s unclear how many store employees there are, company spokesman Sean Piazza said Wednesday evening that employees from the Rotterdam store will relocate to the new store.
“At Gap Inc., we’re constantly re-evaluating our real estate portfolio to ensure we have the right stores in the right places to best serve our customers,” he said.
The clothing retailer is the third major retailer to leave the struggling mall in the last year. TJ Maxx left in March 2014 and Macy’s announced last week it’s planning to close. A Daily Gazette reporter counted 18 empty storefronts on a walk around the mall Friday, with at least two stores (Olympia Sports and Aeropostale) offering going-out-of-business sales.
The two remaining anchor stores — Sears and Kmart — are both owned by the financially beleaguered Sears Holding Corp., which has been announcing store closures on and off since 2011.
The mall’s new owner, Mike Kohan, was surprised to learn Wednesday evening that Gap would be closing its store come February.
“I had no idea,” he said. “We never received any word.”
Gap’s lease doesn’t expire until next year, Kohan said. He wasn’t sure if the terms of the lease stipulated any penalties if a tenant were to leave before it expired.
Kohan, of the Long Island-based Kohan Retail Investment Group, bought the mall on Campbell Road from Santa Monica-based Macerich one year ago this month.
Although not an anchor, Gap occupies one of the larger spaces in the mall, between Shoe Dept. Encore and Foot Locker, near the movie theaters.
In its new space at Mohawk Commons, Gap will fill 8,325 of 24,000 square feet left vacant by Barnes & Noble’s departure last year. A spokesman for DDR Corp., the property manager, confirmed final negotiations are underway with an additional tenant to occupy the leftover space.
Town Supervisor Joe Landry said Wednesday he was pleased to hear Gap would be coming to the outdoor shopping plaza, whose major tenants include Lowe’s, Target, Price Chopper and Bed Bath & Beyond.
“We think it’s going to be a good addition to the mall, and we’re looking forward to having them in Niskayuna,” he said.
Other clothing retailers in the plaza include Old Navy, which is owned by Gap parent company Gap Inc., Target, Marshalls, Maurices and Eastern Mountain Sports.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Six retailers to close as sales slump sends some into bankruptcy
By Eric Anderson
Updated 8:20 pm, Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Guilderland
At least half a dozen retailers, almost all of them national chains, are closing stores at Crossgates Mall and elsewhere following a holiday shopping season that saw sales fall short of expectations.
DELiA's, which markets to teenage girls, is closing its stores and website and going out of business. It filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on Dec. 8, after announcing plans to liquidate on Dec. 5. Crossgates housed its only Capital Region store.
Deb Shops, a clothing store marketing to young women, filed for Chapter 11 Dec. 4 and announced it would close its stores. In addition to Crossgates, it also has stores locally at Rotterdam Square, Aviation Mall in Queensbury, Berkshire Mall in Lanesborough, Mass., and Hudson Valley Mall in Kingston.
Ruum, a children's clothing store, is closing all of its mall stores including one at Crossgates and will convert to an online-only merchant.
Brookstone, which sells what it describes as innovative lifestyle products, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in April 2014. It closed its lone Capital Region store, at Crossgates Mall, after Christmas. Further details on the closing weren't immediately available.
Radio Shack, which has struggled financially, is liquidating its inventory at its Crossgates Mall store. A store employee said it eventually would close. Calls to Radio Shack for comment were not returned.
Meanwhile, Classical Concepts II, a beauty salon at Crossgates, has closed as its owners plan to expand Classical Concepts, its Saratoga Springs salon, instead, a reporter was told.
The closings follow a wave of store openings, including the return of Lord & Taylor to Crossgates following an absence of several years, and new designer stores such as Michael Kors and restaurants including Texas de Brazil, a steakhouse.
The mall also is adding new escalators and expanding to accommodate two new restaurants. Crossgates officials did not return a call for comment.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
malls will disappear as we know them....I'm not a politician,,,,,all we need to do is look at the horizon....we can't stay as we are but do we want to be swallowed by a dirty city...
sure, cities are fun to visit but I don't want to live in one.....
AGAIN.....WE HAVE NO FU(KING DECENT COMP PLAN WITH STYLE.....it's left to those who are retiring to run off with the $$ and leave sh!t behind for their posterity
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Level the mall. Locate the steel company from the Alco to there. Thats after the steel company gets "evicted" to make way for more Alco Devl. The roundabout will make it more difficult for the steel companys trucks to get in/out anyway. So with the proximity to 890 that localtion would be most fitting for them. But zoning may be an issue as that area seems to want to get away from industrial.
Level the mall. Locate the steel company from the Alco to there. Thats after the steel company gets "evicted" to make way for more Alco Devl. The roundabout will make it more difficult for the steel companys trucks to get in/out anyway. So with the proximity to 890 that localtion would be most fitting for them. But zoning may be an issue as that area seems to want to get away from industrial.
The mall is not zoned for light industrial or industrial use. I can't imagine ever getting approval to change the zoning to industrial.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Level the mall. Locate the steel company from the Alco to there. Thats after the steel company gets "evicted" to make way for more Alco Devl. The roundabout will make it more difficult for the steel companys trucks to get in/out anyway. So with the proximity to 890 that localtion would be most fitting for them. But zoning may be an issue as that area seems to want to get away from industrial.
sts will not be 'evicted' so to say. don't make sts a victim. they have been 'active' in this plan from the beginning. things are not always as they appear.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
You can't imagine? Rottendam is the poster child of the Northeast for illegal spot zoning . .
^5....
I can tell you this...I have met MANY folks in my line of work who LAUGH at Rotterdam because we can't even get out of our own septic tanks....
"Rotterdam? I've had to deal with them and they are crazy in that public office. All they worry about is the heat or air conditioning when they are at work."
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
I think that Rotterdam Square Mall should become a property like the Clifton Country Mall has become with a small enclosed mall complex, several retail stores, a hotel, walmart supercenter etc. I seriously think Kohan is just letting everything go and letting it it die because in essence they win either way. I am betting they make a fortune if they turn the whole thing into luxury condos and apartments. I have noticed that just about everything is closing even mall mainstays like Aeropostale, and Olympia...
I think that Rotterdam Square Mall should become a property like the Clifton Country Mall has become with a small enclosed mall complex, several retail stores, a hotel, walmart supercenter etc. I seriously think Kohan is just letting everything go and letting it it die because in essence they win either way. I am betting they make a fortune if they turn the whole thing into luxury condos and apartments. I have noticed that just about everything is closing even mall mainstays like Aeropostale, and Olympia...
I think that Rotterdam Square Mall should become a property like the Clifton Country Mall has become with a small enclosed mall complex, several retail stores, a hotel, walmart supercenter etc. I seriously think Kohan is just letting everything go and letting it it die because in essence they win either way. I am betting they make a fortune if they turn the whole thing into luxury condos and apartments. I have noticed that just about everything is closing even mall mainstays like Aeropostale, and Olympia...
luxury with the scent of the sh!tbeds above wafting down..... train whistles..... scent of river stink..... scent of GE......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Whatever happens best be done EXCLUSIVELY at the expense of owner. NO TAX MONEY, NOT ONE DIME!
Better to have an empty mall property than to have our home values drop and have empty houses as people leave like what happened in the city of Schenectady. The city and plex should NEVER have given handouts from the taxpayers to billionaires. What would have been better? Empty buildings downtown with a high tax base and lower property taxes? Or lavish palaces downtown causing a falling tax base with ever increasing taxes resulting in the wild uncontrolled spreading of empty houses in the neighborhoods? Naturally the leaders opted for the second option.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
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