The Source Mall
Encyclopedia
The Mall at the Source is a shopping mall located in Westbury, New York
on Old Country Road
and Merchants Concourse (Ellison Avenue). It has many stores including Old Navy
and H&M
. It also has restaurants such as The Cheesecake Factory
and P. F. Chang's China Bistro
. The mall was named for its former anchor store Fortunoff
(which used the phrase "The Source" in advertising for the chain), which the mall was built around and which closed in June 2009.
With the closure of Fortunoff, Steve and Barry's (which closed in early 2009), and Circuit City (which closed in March 2009) since 2009 began, three large anchor stores have become vacant. With a challenging retail climate, finding new tenants to fill these spaces will be difficult. The substantial drop of foot traffic by the loss of the anchors has caused other stores, such as Forever 21
, Starbucks
, Ayhan's Shish Kebab, Ranch 1 and others, to pull out from the mall. Simon Properties and un-named co-owners of the Mall at the Source defaulted on a $124 million balloon interest-only mortgage in March 2009.
taking off on his epic trans-Atlantic flight near the site of the mall's parking garage. Roosevelt Raceway
bought the property when it expanded the harness-racing track in the 1940s for additional parking. In the early 1960s, Ohrbach's constructed a department store on leased land at north-east corner of the raceway's property. Fortunoff
built its store several years later in 1964, as they followed their customers east from the original Fortunoff location in Brooklyn. Alan Fortunoff bought the entire property north of the current boundary of Transverse Drive from Roosevelt Raceway in the early 1980s.
In the late 1980s, Alan Fortunoff planned to construct the Long Island Galleria shopping mall, one comparable to the size of the massive Roosevelt Field Mall
a few miles away but with different stores. It was to be built by the Westfield Group and include Neiman Marcus
and Nordstrom
. Community pressure over congestion concerns forced Fortunoff to scale back the size and scope of the mall. Roughly half of the property was sold to Price Club
(now Costco
), which developed their portion to include a Kmart
(now Walmart).
Aside from the internal eclecticism of the mall, it is the heart of dozens of other surrounding stores including Costco
, California Pizza Kitchen
, Best Buy
, and Sports Authority
. Off the property adjacent to the mall is a Target
, Home Depot, AMC Loews Theatres, Sprint
store, and various restaurant chains.
The mall was also the first on Long Island
to house clothing chains H&M
, Old Navy
, Nordstrom Rack, and Off 5th. It was also the first to house restaurants including The Cheesecake Factory
, P.F. Chang's China Bistro, and Rainforest Cafe
(closed on 19 October 2000).
Nordstrom Rack has announced plans to leave The Mall at the Source in late 2012 and move to The Gallery at Westbury Plaza 1/4 mile west.
The Mall at the Source is 2 floors and is shaped like an L. Because of this, the mall has separate "courts", named after the stores that anchor it (except for Center Court). Each anchor store has its own public entrance but not all have mall entrances; these stores tend to stay open later than the interior stores.
Center Court
The Center Court is the main entrance and includes a carousel and train. Some of the stores in the Center Court include, Nordstrom Rack, P. F. Chang's China Bistro
, Old Navy
, and Famous Footwear
. The center court is also where the former Steve and Barry's was; in its place is a Fortunoff Backyard Store. Cold Stone Creamery
is also in the Center Court, but unlike the other stores in the Center Court, Cold Stone Creamery does not have a mall entrance.
Off 5th Saks Court
The Off 5th Saks court is the upper tip of the L, a long hall that includes the Food Court and Saks Off 5th. The 1st floor has a Dave & Buster's
, and it also contained the former Circuit City.
Fortunoff Court
Like the Off 5th Saks Court, the Fortunoff
Court is a long hall, ending with the former Fortunoff. It also has the 2nd floor entrance to former Ayhan's Shish Kebab and The Cheesecake Factory. The 1st floor contains Golf Galaxy, David's Bridal
, Men's Wearhouse and Tux and Gymboree Play & Music. There are no elevators that provide direct access to the Fortunoff court, so one must use the Center Court, Saks Off 5th Court or the parking deck elevator to get down to the Fortunoff court. The 2nd floor features stores including Payless Shoe Source, Gap Outlet, and Pac Sun Outlet
.
Westbury, New York
Westbury incorporated in 1932 as a village in Nassau County, New York in the United States. The population was 15,146 at the 2010 census.The Village of Westbury is in the Town of North Hempstead....
on Old Country Road
Old Country Road
Old Country Road is a major east–west thoroughfare through central Nassau County and extending into western Suffolk County on Long Island, New York. It serves many of the major shopping centers in central Nassau County including Roosevelt Field Mall...
and Merchants Concourse (Ellison Avenue). It has many stores including Old Navy
Old Navy
Old 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...
and H&M
H&M
H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB is a Swedish retail-clothing company, known for its fast-fashion clothing offerings for women, men, teenagers and children....
. It also has restaurants such as The Cheesecake Factory
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...
and P. F. Chang's China Bistro
P. F. Chang's China Bistro
'P. F. Chang's China Bistro, Inc. is an American restaurant chain with headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona.The chain was founded in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang. The restaurants serve American Chinese cuisine from a menu originally conceived and planned by chef...
. The mall was named for its former anchor store Fortunoff
Fortunoff
Fortunoff was a New York-based retailer of home, jewelry and furniture stores founded in 1922 by Max and Clara Fortunoff. The original Fortunoff store was on Livonia Avenue in Brooklyn, New York...
(which used the phrase "The Source" in advertising for the chain), which the mall was built around and which closed in June 2009.
With the closure of Fortunoff, Steve and Barry's (which closed in early 2009), and Circuit City (which closed in March 2009) since 2009 began, three large anchor stores have become vacant. With a challenging retail climate, finding new tenants to fill these spaces will be difficult. The substantial drop of foot traffic by the loss of the anchors has caused other stores, such as Forever 21
Forever 21
Forever 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....
, Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
, Ayhan's Shish Kebab, Ranch 1 and others, to pull out from the mall. Simon Properties and un-named co-owners of the Mall at the Source defaulted on a $124 million balloon interest-only mortgage in March 2009.
History
The site of The Mall at the Source was originally Roosevelt Field Aerodrome, with Charles LindberghCharles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
taking off on his epic trans-Atlantic flight near the site of the mall's parking garage. Roosevelt Raceway
Roosevelt Raceway
The Roosevelt Raceway motor sports race track was a Vanderbilt Cup / GP venue on New York's Long Island for the United States Grand Prix in 1936 and 1937. The original raceway was twisty and bumpy, making it not quite suited to the big-bore big-BHP racecars of the day. The 1937 layout was faster,...
bought the property when it expanded the harness-racing track in the 1940s for additional parking. In the early 1960s, Ohrbach's constructed a department store on leased land at north-east corner of the raceway's property. Fortunoff
Fortunoff
Fortunoff was a New York-based retailer of home, jewelry and furniture stores founded in 1922 by Max and Clara Fortunoff. The original Fortunoff store was on Livonia Avenue in Brooklyn, New York...
built its store several years later in 1964, as they followed their customers east from the original Fortunoff location in Brooklyn. Alan Fortunoff bought the entire property north of the current boundary of Transverse Drive from Roosevelt Raceway in the early 1980s.
In the late 1980s, Alan Fortunoff planned to construct the Long Island Galleria shopping mall, one comparable to the size of the massive Roosevelt Field Mall
Roosevelt Field Mall
Roosevelt Field is an American shopping mall. It is the largest high-end shopping mall in the state of New York and eighth in the country as measured by gross leaseable area at 2,189,941 ft² . The mall is located in East Garden City, New York part of the Town of Hempstead on Long Island...
a few miles away but with different stores. It was to be built by the Westfield Group and include Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus, formerly Neiman-Marcus, is a luxury specialty retail department store operated by the Neiman Marcus Group in the United States. The company is headquartered in the One Marcus Square building in Downtown Dallas, Texas, and competes with other department stores such as Saks Fifth...
and Nordstrom
Nordstrom
Nordstrom, Inc. is an upscale department store chain in the United States, founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin. Initially a shoe retailer, the company today also sells clothing, accessories, handbags, jewelry, cosmetics, fragrances, and in some locations, home furnishings...
. Community pressure over congestion concerns forced Fortunoff to scale back the size and scope of the mall. Roughly half of the property was sold to Price Club
Price Club
Price Club was the pioneer of the warehouse store. Founded by Sol Price in San Diego, California in 1976, the company charged shoppers a $25 annual membership fee to purchase bulk products at discount prices in a no-frills warehouse setting. Price Club's high sales volume enabled Price to give his...
(now Costco
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States. it is the third largest retailer in the United States, where it originated, and the ninth largest in the world...
), which developed their portion to include a Kmart
Kmart
Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...
(now Walmart).
Aside from the internal eclecticism of the mall, it is the heart of dozens of other surrounding stores including Costco
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States. it is the third largest retailer in the United States, where it originated, and the ninth largest in the world...
, California Pizza Kitchen
California Pizza Kitchen
California Pizza Kitchen , known within the food industry as CPK, is a casual dining restaurant chain that specializes in California-style pizza...
, 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...
, and 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...
. Off the property adjacent to the mall is 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...
, Home Depot, AMC Loews Theatres, Sprint
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
store, and various restaurant chains.
The mall was also the first on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
to house clothing chains H&M
H&M
H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB is a Swedish retail-clothing company, known for its fast-fashion clothing offerings for women, men, teenagers and children....
, Old Navy
Old Navy
Old 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...
, Nordstrom Rack, and Off 5th. It was also the first to house restaurants including The Cheesecake Factory
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...
, P.F. Chang's China Bistro, and 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,...
(closed on 19 October 2000).
Nordstrom Rack has announced plans to leave The Mall at the Source in late 2012 and move to The Gallery at Westbury Plaza 1/4 mile west.
Layout
Center Court
The Center Court is the main entrance and includes a carousel and train. Some of the stores in the Center Court include, Nordstrom Rack, P. F. Chang's China Bistro
P. F. Chang's China Bistro
'P. F. Chang's China Bistro, Inc. is an American restaurant chain with headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona.The chain was founded in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang. The restaurants serve American Chinese cuisine from a menu originally conceived and planned by chef...
, Old Navy
Old Navy
Old 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...
, and Famous Footwear
Famous Footwear
Famous Footwear is a nationwide chain of retail stores in the United States dealing in branded footwear, generally at prices discounted from manufacturer's suggested prices. Established in 1960 as a single store, "Famous" is regarded as both a forerunner and champion of the trend towards the...
. The center court is also where the former Steve and Barry's was; in its place is a Fortunoff Backyard Store. Cold Stone Creamery
Cold Stone Creamery
Cold Stone Creamery is an American-based ice cream parlor chain. The company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is owned and operated by Kahala Franchising, L.L.C. The company's main product is premium ice cream, or ice cream made with approximately 12-14% butterfat, that is made on location and...
is also in the Center Court, but unlike the other stores in the Center Court, Cold Stone Creamery does not have a mall entrance.
Off 5th Saks Court
The Off 5th Saks court is the upper tip of the L, a long hall that includes the Food Court and Saks Off 5th. The 1st floor has a 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...
, and it also contained the former Circuit City.
Fortunoff Court
Like the Off 5th Saks Court, the Fortunoff
Fortunoff
Fortunoff was a New York-based retailer of home, jewelry and furniture stores founded in 1922 by Max and Clara Fortunoff. The original Fortunoff store was on Livonia Avenue in Brooklyn, New York...
Court is a long hall, ending with the former Fortunoff. It also has the 2nd floor entrance to former Ayhan's Shish Kebab and The Cheesecake Factory. The 1st floor contains Golf Galaxy, David's Bridal
David's Bridal
David's Bridal is a clothier in the United States that specializes in wedding dresses, prom gowns, and other formal wear. It is the largest American bridal-store chain.David's Bridal currently operates more than 300 stores in 45 states, Canada and Puerto Rico...
, Men's Wearhouse and Tux and Gymboree Play & Music. There are no elevators that provide direct access to the Fortunoff court, so one must use the Center Court, Saks Off 5th Court or the parking deck elevator to get down to the Fortunoff court. The 2nd floor features stores including Payless Shoe Source, Gap Outlet, and Pac Sun Outlet
Pacific Sunwear
Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc. is a US based retail clothing brand rooted in the youth oriented culture and fashion vibe of California. The company sells lifestyle apparel, along with footwear and accessories designed for teens and young adults. As of late 2011, the company operated over 800...
.