Palisades Center
Encyclopedia
The Palisades Center Mall, often referred to as the Palisades Mall, in West Nyack
, New York
is the eighth largest shopping mall
in the United States
by total area, and sixth largest by gross leasable space. As one of the nation's most lucrative malls, the mall, which houses over 200 stores, receives 20 million visitors a year, and produces $57 million a year in taxes, including $40 million in sales tax and $17 million in property taxes.
It is located west of NY Route 303
, south of exit 12 of the New York State Thruway
(I-87
and I-287
), and north of NY Route 59
, near the intersection of the New York State Thruway
and the Palisades Interstate Parkway
, and a couple of miles from the Tappan Zee Bridge
.
Named after the nearby Palisades
, which border the Hudson River
and the eastern part of Rockland County
, the mall is operated by the Pyramid Companies, the original developer and current owner.
, and a promise to keep sales tax dollars from slipping across state lines into New Jersey. The site was selected for its proximity to the New York State Thruway and Westchester County. Its location four miles from New Jersey, where blue laws
keep the malls closed on Sundays, was also a factor. Local residents, recalling how the Nanuet Mall
nearly drew the life out of Rockland County's traditional shopping villages, about 20 years earlier, opposed the mall, predicting that it would bring crime, increased traffic, air pollution, and an economic downturn to the area's downtowns, and that the site was not properly tested for toxins. Ground was broken on the project in October 1993. The mall cost between $250 million and $280 million.
The Palisades Center was built around the Mount Moor Cemetery
, a 150-year-old cemetery for African Americans established in 1849 whose stated purpose was to provide a final resting place for people of color, including Native American
and African American veterans of American wars from the Civil War to the Korean War
. The cemetery is visible from a number of points in the mall, and was not undisturbed by construction.
The Historical Society of Rockland County placed a historical sign which reads:
The construction of the mall faced a number of environmental obstacles before it began. What was initially thought to be a mastodon
buried there turned out to be a circus elephant. Nesting grounds for a nearly extinct red-legged partridge
turned out to be a domesticated pheasant. Other problems included flooding from one of the region's glacier-dug bottom spots and runoff from three landfills on the property.
The mall opened in March 1998. From the beginning it was dogged by rumors. These included the notion that a serial rapist was attacking shoppers, that the developers were on the verge of bankruptcy, that the underground parking lot was sinking because it was built on unstable swampland, and that it would collapse under its own weight. After the 1999-2000 holiday seasons, rumors of the mall's closing abounded. On the January 6, 2000 episode of The Rosie O'Donnell Show
, host Rosie O'Donnell
, who lives in Nyack, mentioned the rumor of the building's sinking to her audience. Local police, town engineering officials and the mall's developers, however, assured the public that there was no truth to these stories, and that the mall was safe, and in no danger of closing.
site located on the property was paved over rather than cleaned, and that the mall tax receipts failed to lower the average homeowner's bill as advertised. Mall opponent Bruce Broadley commented, "Everything we said would happen happened. Go back and look at all the proposals and drawings. It's a vastly different mall that was built. It was sold as upscale. What they built is arguably one of the ugliest malls in America." These complaints were detailed in the 2008 documentary Megamall. However, Clarkstown Town Board member Shirley Lasker, who opposed the mall, acknowledged in 2008 that their concerns over traffic did not materialize. Valenti explained that the $23 million spent to fix area roads and create the mall's own exit on the Thruway prevented the predicted traffic congestion. Columnist Greg Clary argues that aesthetics are subjective, that average homeowners' bills did not go down due to continued spending on the part of elected officials, and that while the downtowns were negatively impacted by the mall, this is not unique to the area, and can be averted by town planners who represent some of the 20 million of the mall's patrons.
On November 5, 2002, voters in Clarkstown voted on whether to approve the mall's leasing out of 100,000 square feet of unoccupied space, in keeping with a 1997 covenant that Pyramid Companies signed stipulating that any additional leasing would be decided by a town referendum as part of a deal that let the mall take over three town streets. Opponents argued that Pyramid Companies has previously insisted that this space had no practical use when they had built beyond the original 1.8 million square feet they were allowed, but Pyramid insisted that they did not wish to expand beyond the limits of the mall, but to lease space already contained in the building, which would be occupied by Kids City, interactive educational and recreational center for children ages 3 to 12, but Nicole Doliner, president of the Rockland Civic Association, characterized it as a "theme park".
New York Times writer Joe Queenan
criticized the mall's Brutalist
exterior for lacking any sense of design or theme, and characterized its rectangular layout as "a series of interlocking coffins". He also criticized the visible "trash gondolas" near the Interstate 287
entrance. Queenan had kinder things to say about the mall's vast interior, likening its sprawling floors to a retail version of Centre Georges Pompidou
, analogizing its amalgamated structure to the "Gotham skyline", and lauding the bowling alley, ice rink and food court Ferris wheel for giving people an opportunity to play "adult hooky".
The mall has four levels, each of which is approximately the shape of a rectangle. The mall has between 200 and 250 stores, including 16 anchor stores. These include:
The east end of the mall includes Macy's
and an ice rink on the 3rd floor. The west end features a Best Buy
, Sports Authority
, Burlington Coat Factory
and a Target
. Other stores in the mall include JCPenney, Barnes & Noble
, Bed Bath & Beyond
, Modell's Sporting Goods, Staples
, and Dave & Buster's
.
On the fourth floor can be found an ice rink
(at the east end), a stadium-seating 21-screen AMC Theatres
, and further down toward the west end, an IMAX theater
.
In the center of each floor is a bank of four elevators. Each end of the mall also has a bank of two elevators. Although all of the mall's main elevators have access to the parking garage (Level P); one must walk to a separate bank of escalators to reach level P. The mall also has a police sub-station near the food court, with security managed by IPC International
. JCPenney, Macy's
and Lord and Taylor all have access to the parking garage via the stores main elevators and escalators.
There are numerous dining options throughout the mall. On the first floor is The Cheesecake Factory
, which replaced Rainforest Cafe
, which was the first of the mall's original twelve restaurants to close, in 2002.
On the second floor is Johnny Rockets
.
The 2,000 seat food court in the center of the third level contains in addition to over a dozen restaurants, a Ferris wheel
and Philadelphia Toboggan Company Carousel Number 15
, a carousel that was built in 1907 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 2001. In May 2009, mall management announced that the then-101-year-old carousel would be disassembled and removed the following month. In 2009, the carousel was replaced with a modern, two floor, Venetian carousel made by Bertazzon of Italy and owned by Island Carousels.
The fourth floor, also called ThEATery (a portmanteau of "theater" and "eatery"), includes several casual dining
restaurants, such as Buffalo Wild Wings
, T.G.I. Friday's
, Chili's
, East, Stir Crazy
, Outback Steakhouse
, Dave & Buster's
, Chevys Fresh Mex
, Bravo! McDonalds and Tony Roma's
. East, which serves Japanese cuisine has been praised in particular. Its selling point is a conveyor belt that moves items at eye level, which can be selected by diners, who pay for them later. The restaurant's Philadephia Roll, which is made with salmon, caviar, avocado and cream cheese, was lauded by New York Times critic Joe Queenan.
West Nyack, New York
West Nyack is a hamlet in the Town of Clarkstown Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Central Nyack; east of Nanuet; south of Valley Cottage and west of Upper Nyack. It is approximately 18 miles north of New York City...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
is the eighth largest shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by total area, and sixth largest by gross leasable space. As one of the nation's most lucrative malls, the mall, which houses over 200 stores, receives 20 million visitors a year, and produces $57 million a year in taxes, including $40 million in sales tax and $17 million in property taxes.
It is located west of NY Route 303
New York State Route 303
New York State Route 303 is a north–south state highway in eastern Rockland County, New York, in the United States. It begins at the New Jersey state line in the hamlet of Tappan and ends later at an intersection with U.S. Route 9W in Clarkstown...
, south of exit 12 of the New York State Thruway
New York State Thruway
The New York State Thruway is a system of limited-access highways located within the state of New York in the United States. The system, known officially as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway for former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, is operated by the New York State Thruway Authority and...
(I-87
Interstate 87
Interstate 87 is a Interstate Highway located entirely within New York State in the United States of America. I-87 is the longest intrastate Interstate highway in the Interstate Highway System. Its southern end is at the Bronx approaches of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in New York City...
and I-287
Interstate 287
Interstate 287 is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. It is a partial beltway around New York City, serving the northern half of New Jersey and the counties of Rockland and Westchester in New York...
), and north of NY Route 59
New York State Route 59
New York State Route 59 is an east–west state highway in southern Rockland County, New York, in the United States. The route extends for from NY 17 in Hillburn to U.S. Route 9W in Nyack. In Suffern, it has a concurrency with US 202 for . NY 59 runs parallel to the New...
, near the intersection of the New York State Thruway
New York State Thruway
The New York State Thruway is a system of limited-access highways located within the state of New York in the United States. The system, known officially as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway for former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, is operated by the New York State Thruway Authority and...
and the Palisades Interstate Parkway
Palisades Interstate Parkway
The Palisades Interstate Parkway is a long limited-access highway in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. The parkway is a major commuter route into New York City from Rockland and Orange counties in New York and Bergen County in New Jersey...
, and a couple of miles from the Tappan Zee Bridge
Tappan Zee Bridge
The Governor Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge, usually referred to as Tappan Zee Bridge, is a cantilever bridge in New York over the Hudson River at one of its widest points; the Tappan Zee is named for an American Indian tribe from the area called "Tappan"; and zee being the Dutch word for "sea"....
.
Named after the nearby Palisades
New Jersey Palisades
The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson Palisades are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in northeastern New Jersey and southern New York in the United States. The cliffs stretch north from Jersey City approximately 20 mi to near...
, which border the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
and the eastern part of Rockland County
Rockland County, New York
Rockland County is a suburban county 15 miles to the northwest of Manhattan and part of the New York City Metropolitan Area, in the U.S. state of New York. It is the southernmost county in New York west of the Hudson River, and the smallest county in New York outside of New York City. The...
, the mall is operated by the Pyramid Companies, the original developer and current owner.
History
According to the the mall's sponsoring partner, Thomas Valenti, it took 16 years it took to get the mall approved and built. The 130-acre site was purchased by The Pyramid Companies for about $3 million and promised to clean up the two landfills, which were filled with incinerator ash and garbage. The 875,000-square-foot mall was proposed in 1985 with a goal of luring upscale retailers like Lord & TaylorLord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor, colloquially known as L&T, or LT, based in New York City, is the oldest upscale, specialty-retail department store chain in the United States. Concentrated in the eastern U.S., the retailer operated independently for nearly a century prior to joining American Dry Goods...
, and a promise to keep sales tax dollars from slipping across state lines into New Jersey. The site was selected for its proximity to the New York State Thruway and Westchester County. Its location four miles from New Jersey, where blue laws
Blue Laws
The Blue Laws of the Colony of Connecticut, as distinct from the generic term "blue law" that refers to any laws regulating activities on Sunday, were the initial statutes set up by the Gov. Theophilus Eaton with the assistance of the Rev. John Cotton in 1655 for the Colony of New Haven, now part...
keep the malls closed on Sundays, was also a factor. Local residents, recalling how the Nanuet Mall
Nanuet Mall
The Nanuet Mall is a Simon operated mall located at the intersection of Route 59 and Middletown Road in Nanuet, New York. The Nanuet Mall opened in 1969 and the original two anchor stores were Bamberger's and Sears...
nearly drew the life out of Rockland County's traditional shopping villages, about 20 years earlier, opposed the mall, predicting that it would bring crime, increased traffic, air pollution, and an economic downturn to the area's downtowns, and that the site was not properly tested for toxins. Ground was broken on the project in October 1993. The mall cost between $250 million and $280 million.
The Palisades Center was built around the Mount Moor Cemetery
Mount Moor African-American Cemetery
Mount Moor African-American Cemetery, also known as Mount Moor Cemetery, is a historic African American cemetery located at Palisades Center, West Nyack in Rockland County, New York. It was established in 1849 and contains approximately 90 known graves....
, a 150-year-old cemetery for African Americans established in 1849 whose stated purpose was to provide a final resting place for people of color, including Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
and African American veterans of American wars from the Civil War to the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. The cemetery is visible from a number of points in the mall, and was not undisturbed by construction.
The Historical Society of Rockland County placed a historical sign which reads:
The construction of the mall faced a number of environmental obstacles before it began. What was initially thought to be a mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...
buried there turned out to be a circus elephant. Nesting grounds for a nearly extinct red-legged partridge
Red-legged Partridge
The Red-legged Partridge is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. It is sometimes known as French Partridge, to distinguish it from the Grey or English Partridge....
turned out to be a domesticated pheasant. Other problems included flooding from one of the region's glacier-dug bottom spots and runoff from three landfills on the property.
The mall opened in March 1998. From the beginning it was dogged by rumors. These included the notion that a serial rapist was attacking shoppers, that the developers were on the verge of bankruptcy, that the underground parking lot was sinking because it was built on unstable swampland, and that it would collapse under its own weight. After the 1999-2000 holiday seasons, rumors of the mall's closing abounded. On the January 6, 2000 episode of The Rosie O'Donnell Show
The Rosie O'Donnell Show
The Rosie O'Donnell Show is an Emmy Award-winning American daytime television talk show hosted and produced by actress and comedian Rosie O'Donnell. It aired for six seasons from 1996 to 2002...
, host Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell
Roseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an American stand-up comedian, actress, author and television personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family...
, who lives in Nyack, mentioned the rumor of the building's sinking to her audience. Local police, town engineering officials and the mall's developers, however, assured the public that there was no truth to these stories, and that the mall was safe, and in no danger of closing.
Opposition and critical reception
Opponents of the mall have stated that their predictions prior to the mall's construction have come to fruition, complaining that the SuperfundSuperfund
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
site located on the property was paved over rather than cleaned, and that the mall tax receipts failed to lower the average homeowner's bill as advertised. Mall opponent Bruce Broadley commented, "Everything we said would happen happened. Go back and look at all the proposals and drawings. It's a vastly different mall that was built. It was sold as upscale. What they built is arguably one of the ugliest malls in America." These complaints were detailed in the 2008 documentary Megamall. However, Clarkstown Town Board member Shirley Lasker, who opposed the mall, acknowledged in 2008 that their concerns over traffic did not materialize. Valenti explained that the $23 million spent to fix area roads and create the mall's own exit on the Thruway prevented the predicted traffic congestion. Columnist Greg Clary argues that aesthetics are subjective, that average homeowners' bills did not go down due to continued spending on the part of elected officials, and that while the downtowns were negatively impacted by the mall, this is not unique to the area, and can be averted by town planners who represent some of the 20 million of the mall's patrons.
On November 5, 2002, voters in Clarkstown voted on whether to approve the mall's leasing out of 100,000 square feet of unoccupied space, in keeping with a 1997 covenant that Pyramid Companies signed stipulating that any additional leasing would be decided by a town referendum as part of a deal that let the mall take over three town streets. Opponents argued that Pyramid Companies has previously insisted that this space had no practical use when they had built beyond the original 1.8 million square feet they were allowed, but Pyramid insisted that they did not wish to expand beyond the limits of the mall, but to lease space already contained in the building, which would be occupied by Kids City, interactive educational and recreational center for children ages 3 to 12, but Nicole Doliner, president of the Rockland Civic Association, characterized it as a "theme park".
New York Times writer Joe Queenan
Joe Queenan
Joe Queenan is a humorist, critic and author from Philadelphia who graduated from Saint Joseph's University. He has written for numerous publications, such as Spy Magazine, TV Guide, Movieline, The Guardian and the New York Times Book Review...
criticized the mall's Brutalist
Brutalist architecture
Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement.-The term "brutalism":...
exterior for lacking any sense of design or theme, and characterized its rectangular layout as "a series of interlocking coffins". He also criticized the visible "trash gondolas" near the Interstate 287
Interstate 287
Interstate 287 is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. It is a partial beltway around New York City, serving the northern half of New Jersey and the counties of Rockland and Westchester in New York...
entrance. Queenan had kinder things to say about the mall's vast interior, likening its sprawling floors to a retail version of Centre Georges Pompidou
Centre Georges Pompidou
Centre Georges Pompidou is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais...
, analogizing its amalgamated structure to the "Gotham skyline", and lauding the bowling alley, ice rink and food court Ferris wheel for giving people an opportunity to play "adult hooky".
Layout
- Barnes & NobleBarnes & NobleBarnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
- Bed, Bath & Beyond
- Best BuyBest BuyBest Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
- Burlington Coat FactoryBurlington Coat FactoryBurlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation is a national department store retailer focusing on clothing and shoes, with over 450 stores in 45 states and Puerto Rico.. In 2006, it was acquired by Bain Capital, LLC in a take-private transaction...
- BJ's Wholesale ClubBJ's Wholesale ClubBJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. , commonly referred to simply as BJ's, is a membership-only warehouse club chain operating on the United States East Coast, as well as in the state of Ohio...
- DSW Shoe Warehouse
- Forever 21Forever 21Forever 21 is an American chain of clothing retailers with branches in major cities in The United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East that offers fashion and accessories for young women and men....
- H & M
- Home Depot
- JCPenney
- Lord & TaylorLord & TaylorLord & Taylor, colloquially known as L&T, or LT, based in New York City, is the oldest upscale, specialty-retail department store chain in the United States. Concentrated in the eastern U.S., the retailer operated independently for nearly a century prior to joining American Dry Goods...
- Macy'sMacy'sMacy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
- Modell’s
- Old NavyOld NavyOld Navy is an American clothing brand as well as a chain of stores owned by Gap, Inc., with corporate operations in San Francisco and San Bruno, California. It is one of the first major corporations to house headquarters in the new Mission Bay district of San Francisco.Gap, Inc. was run by...
- Sports AuthoritySports AuthorityThe Sports Authority, Inc. is one of the largest sporting goods retailers in the United States. It is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, and operates more than 460 stores in 45 U.S...
- StaplesStaples, Inc.Staples Inc. is a large office supply chain store, with over 2,000 stores worldwide in 26 countries. Based in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States, the company has retail stores, serving customers under its original name in Austria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Norway,...
- TargetTarget CorporationTarget Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
The east end of the mall includes Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
and an ice rink on the 3rd floor. The west end features a Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
, Sports Authority
Sports Authority
The Sports Authority, Inc. is one of the largest sporting goods retailers in the United States. It is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, and operates more than 460 stores in 45 U.S...
, Burlington Coat Factory
Burlington Coat Factory
Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation is a national department store retailer focusing on clothing and shoes, with over 450 stores in 45 states and Puerto Rico.. In 2006, it was acquired by Bain Capital, LLC in a take-private transaction...
and a Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
. Other stores in the mall include JCPenney, Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
, Bed Bath & Beyond
Bed Bath & Beyond
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. was formed in 1971 and today operates a chain of domestic merchandise retail stores across United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. They feature mostly medium-ranged, but also a limited selection of high quality, domestic merchandise: items for the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen,...
, Modell's Sporting Goods, Staples
Staples, Inc.
Staples Inc. is a large office supply chain store, with over 2,000 stores worldwide in 26 countries. Based in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States, the company has retail stores, serving customers under its original name in Austria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Norway,...
, and Dave & Buster's
Dave & Buster's
Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Each D&B has a full-service restaurant and a video arcade. As of July 1, 2009, the company had 57 locations across the United States and two in Canada. The company also licenses the D&B concept...
.
On the fourth floor can be found an ice rink
Ice rink
An ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...
(at the east end), a stadium-seating 21-screen AMC Theatres
AMC Theatres
AMC Theatres , officially known as AMC Entertainment, Inc., is the second largest movie theater chain in North America with 5,325 screens, second only to Regal Entertainment Group, and one of the United States's four national cinema chains AMC Theatres (American Multi-Cinema), officially known as...
, and further down toward the west end, an IMAX theater
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
.
In the center of each floor is a bank of four elevators. Each end of the mall also has a bank of two elevators. Although all of the mall's main elevators have access to the parking garage (Level P); one must walk to a separate bank of escalators to reach level P. The mall also has a police sub-station near the food court, with security managed by IPC International
IPC International
IPC International Corporation provides security services to shopping malls, lifestyle center properties, and various other retail venues...
. JCPenney, Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
and Lord and Taylor all have access to the parking garage via the stores main elevators and escalators.
Dining
The Cheesecake Factory
The Cheesecake Factory, Inc. is a restaurant company in the United States. The company operates 165 upscale, casual, full-service dining restaurants: 151 under The Cheesecake Factory mark, 13 under the Grand Lux Cafe mark and one under the RockSugar Pan Asian Kitchen mark...
, which replaced Rainforest Cafe
Rainforest Cafe
Rainforest Cafe is a themed restaurant chain owned by Landry's Restaurants, Inc. of Houston, Texas. It was founded by entrepreneur Steven Schussler. The first location opened in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota on February 3, 1994. In 1997, the chain consisted of only six restaurants,...
, which was the first of the mall's original twelve restaurants to close, in 2002.
On the second floor is Johnny Rockets
Johnny Rockets
Johnny Rockets is an American restaurant franchise whose concept is to create a classic American restaurant atmosphere. The theme is the diner-style restaurant that had become a common sight by the 1950s...
.
The 2,000 seat food court in the center of the third level contains in addition to over a dozen restaurants, a Ferris wheel
Ferris wheel
A Ferris wheel is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with passenger cars attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, the cars are kept upright, usually by gravity.Some of the largest and most modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on...
and Philadelphia Toboggan Company Carousel Number 15
Philadelphia Toboggan Company Carousel Number 15
Philadelphia Toboggan Company Carousel Number 15 is a historic carousel formerly located at the Palisades Center, West Nyack in Rockland County, New York. It was built in 1907 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company and moved to this site in 1997. It measures 48 feet in diameter and has a 26 foot...
, a carousel that was built in 1907 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 2001. In May 2009, mall management announced that the then-101-year-old carousel would be disassembled and removed the following month. In 2009, the carousel was replaced with a modern, two floor, Venetian carousel made by Bertazzon of Italy and owned by Island Carousels.
The fourth floor, also called ThEATery (a portmanteau of "theater" and "eatery"), includes several casual dining
Casual dining
This is a list of casual dining restaurant chains around the world, arranged in alphabetical order. A casual dining restaurant is a restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual atmosphere...
restaurants, such as Buffalo Wild Wings
Buffalo Wild Wings
Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar is a casual dining restaurant and sports bar franchise in the United States that is known for its Buffalo wings.-History:...
, T.G.I. Friday's
T.G.I. Friday's
T.G.I. Friday's is an American restaurant chain focusing on casual dining. The company is a unit of the Carlson Companies. Its name is taken from the expression TGIF...
, Chili's
Chili's
Chili's Grill & Bar is a restaurant chain founded by Larry Lavine. The chain has more than 1400 casual dining restaurants, mostly located in the United States and Canada...
, East, Stir Crazy
Stir Crazy (restaurant)
Stir Crazy is a restaurant chain based in Chicago, Illinois that specializes in Asian-style stir fry food and other Asian-themed dishes. Stir Crazy features a Market Bar or "build your own stir fry" menu, where the customer creates a custom stir fry dish from about 30 different vegetables, spices,...
, Outback Steakhouse
Outback Steakhouse
Outback Steakhouse is an American casual dining restaurant chain based in Tampa, Florida with over 1200 locations in 22 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It was founded in February 1988 in Tampa by Bob Basham, Chris T...
, Dave & Buster's
Dave & Buster's
Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Each D&B has a full-service restaurant and a video arcade. As of July 1, 2009, the company had 57 locations across the United States and two in Canada. The company also licenses the D&B concept...
, Chevys Fresh Mex
Chevys Fresh Mex
Chevys Fresh Mex is a chain of Mexican-style casual dining restaurants located in the United States. The chain was founded in 1981 by Warren Simmon, Sr. and Warren "Scooter" Simmon, Jr. in Alameda, California. The chain's headquarters are currently located in Cypress, California. The chain is owned...
, Bravo! McDonalds and Tony Roma's
Tony Roma's
Tony Roma's is a casual dining chain restaurant specializing in baby back ribs . The first location was established in 1972 in North Miami, Florida, by the founder, and today there are roughly 260 locations in 27 countries comprising 32 territories...
. East, which serves Japanese cuisine has been praised in particular. Its selling point is a conveyor belt that moves items at eye level, which can be selected by diners, who pay for them later. The restaurant's Philadephia Roll, which is made with salmon, caviar, avocado and cream cheese, was lauded by New York Times critic Joe Queenan.