The 'Galleria at White Plains' is a large enclosed urban
shopping mall located in the
downtown area of
White Plains, New York, a large commercial and residential suburb, 20 miles north of
New York City and the county seat of
Westchester County, New York.
Built in 1981 by Canadian developer, the
Cadillac Fairview, the 900,000 s.f. four level mall is located on two large city blocks of former urban renewal land, and features anchor stores
Macy's and
Sears, both which were relocated to the mall from nearby locations to replace original anchor stores,
Abraham & Straus and
J.C.Penney in 1995 and 2004 respectively. The mall was constructed adjacent to a large two-block long parking garage which is connected directly to the mall at various levels.
Similar to a sister project in nearby
Stamford,
Connecticut (the
Stamford Town Center mall), the center's architectural character appears fortress-like and overwhelms even the recent high density urban quality of its downtown environment. Considering the general architectural design of most enclosed shopping malls, it does not have much opportunity to create an interactive streetscape along its surrounding sidewalk areas. A late 1990s enhancement tried to correct some of these physical flaws, but recent retail tenant fit-outs on the sidewalk level have closed off much of this design effort.
In recent years, the mall has experienced competition from the developemnt of nearby, and more upscale, retail developments such as
The Westchester mall and
The Source At White Plains. A late 1990s promotional ad featured the tag line "Shopping for the real world", a subtle jibe at the more upscale and affluent clientele and stores at The Westchester about a half a mile away.
The Galleria is now owned and operated by
The Mills Corporation.
Anchors
★
H & M (23,511 sq. ft.)
★
Macy's (328,599 sq. ft.) formerly
Abraham & Straus
★
Old Navy (15,438 sq. ft.)
★
Sears (227,316 sq. ft.) former
JC Penney, which closed in
2001
External links
★
Galleria at White Plains official website