Colonie Center is a shopping mall located in Colonie, just outside Albany, at the intersection of Central Avenue, Wolf Road, and Interstate 87. Opening in 1966, it was the first enclosed shopping mall in New York's Capital Region. The mall has successfully updated its tenant mix, image, and look on an ongoing basis to keep up with the times, as can be seen from the list of stores on the mall's website. The two-story mall has an area of about 1,300,000 square feet (120,000 m2) and contains approximately 120 stores as well as a food court. Colonie Center is owned by Heitman Value Partners as of June 2009.
While the mall found itself in danger of possibly becoming a dead mall in the 1990s after the opening of rival mall Crossgates and then its expansion in 1994, vacant space never reached critical levels. However, the opening of Boscov's and Christmas Tree Shops in 1998 rejuvenated the mall, and the 2007 redesign increased traffic even further to the point where it rivals Crossgates Mall.
According to a local newspaper article, at the time the 2007 expansion was announced, the mall was at 73% occupancy. Since the expansion, occupancy has generally continued to increase.
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