Description and History
The mall is owned by General Growth Properties of Chicago, Illinois. It has 200 stores employing approximately 3,000 people. Anchor tenants include J. C. Penney, Macy's, and Sears.
Prior to the construction of the mall, the land was occupied by the Staten Island Airport, which opened in 1941. The site was sold in 1955 with a shopping and amusement center, known as the Staten Island Center, envisaged. Construction, however, did not commence until 1970 and while the grand opening was in 1973, some stores (such as E. J. Korvette and a supermarket) opened on the site much earlier. Korvette's and other stores in the shopping center were in full operation as early as the summer of 1970, probably earlier. Anchor tenants in later years included Macy's, and Sears. The mall's original developer was Feist and Feist Realty Corp. When the Rouse Company acquired the mall in 1980 they remodeled the mall by adding additional escalators to the six that were working at the time the mall opened, plus additional trees and several new fountains throughout the mall.
The last major renovation and expansion of the mall was in 1993 when the JCPenney wing was completed. It has currently a two-story mall shaped like a letter "T", with a gross leasable area (GLA) of 1,274,000 square feet (114,000 m²) and a tenant GLA of 622,000 square feet (58,000 m²).
The music video for the New Radicals 1999 hit single "You Get What You Give" was filmed in the mall.
On April 16, 2009, Chicago based General Growth Properties, the owner of the Staten Island Mall and over 200 other malls in 44 states filed for bankruptcy amid sharply reduced revenues and a crippling debt burden of over $25 billion. The company's stock price has plummeted 97% over the past year, most recently trading at just $1.05. It is likely that the company's strategy for reorganization will include the sale of properties. It was unclear whether the Staten Island Mall would be included as one of those properties. However, General Growth has since re-emerged from bankruptcy, and Staten Island Mall continues to be owned and operated by General Growth.
In 2008 and 2009, following the US economic meltdown, several stores, including some open for many years, closed down and discount or non-national retailers took their places. Other spaces sat vacant, with their windows being used to display other stores' merchandise. However by mid-2010, higher-end shops such as Michael Kors, Pandora and Armani Exchange opened for business, and presently in 2011 numerous new brands (Teavana, Adidas, Love Culture, etc.) are relocating or updating their looks while new tenants continue to revive the mall's image.
Read more about this topic: Staten Island Mall
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