Broadway Mall

Broadway Commons, better known by its former name Broadway Mall, is a large shopping mall located in Hicksville, New York, United States. Originally an open-air shopping center called the Mid-Island Shopping Plaza, Broadway Mall is currently a regional enclosed shopping center comprising 98 stores, as well as a food court and movie theater. The mall's anchor stores are IKEA, Target, Blink Fitness, and Round 1 Entertainment. There is 1 vacant anchor store that was once Macy's.

Broadway Commons
LocationHicksville, New York, U.S.
Address358 N. Broadway
Opening dateOctober 25, 1956
OwnerPacific Retail
No. of stores and services98
No. of anchor tenants5 (4 open, 1 vacant)
Total retail floor area1,200,000 sq ft (110,000 m2)
No. of floors1, with a food court and cinema located on a second floor (2 in IKEA, 6 in former Macy's)
ParkingLighted Lot
Public transit access Nassau Inter-County Express: n20H, n48, n49
Long Island Rail Road:
at Hicksville (via bus)
Websiteatbroadwaycommons.com

History
Gertz department store in Mid-Island Plaza in 1957

The Mid Island Shopping Plaza held its Grand Opening on October 25, 1956 on the site of a former boys orphanage and a dairy and vegetable farm operated by the Catholic Church. It cost $40,000,000 to construct[1] and was built to accommodate more than 40,000 shoppers daily. It opened just as the population of Nassau County, Long Island surged and the area became a major suburban population center. On September 28, 1960, Vice President Richard Nixon, then running for President, made a stop at the Mid Island Shopping Plaza, where he gave a campaign speech.[2] The first addition to the shopping center came in the way of the Fox Plaza North and South Cinerama, which was built as a freestanding structure at the north end of the mall. One of America's earliest "shopping mall" twin-plex theaters, it showed its first feature in May 1964.[3] The shopping center was enclosed in 1968, renamed Broadway Mall in 1989, renovated between 1987 and 1991, and completely redeveloped in 1995.[4]

Allied Stores planned the center and Gertz, a department store based in Jamaica, Queens,[1] built a five-level store to anchor the facility.[5] The Gertz store was reported to be the tallest suburban department store ever built. In the early 1980s, Gertz closed their Jamaica store, making this location its new flagship store, and the Gertz corporate staff was relocated to the fifth floor of the Broadway Mall location. In mid 1982, Allied merged its Gertz division into its Paramus, New Jersey-based Stern's division. All former Gertz locations were re-branded as Stern's in early 1983, and a regional corporate staff remained at the Broadway Mall store. The store was then rebranded as Macy's in 2001 when Federated Department Stores folded their Stern's Division.[6]

In 1991, IKEA opened their second store in the New York Metropolitan Area at the mall (The Elizabeth, NJ store opened 1990). Until 2003, the store was not connected to the mall (although only about 20 feet separated the mall from the store). IKEA did, however, maintain a display in the center court where its mall entrance would eventually be. It is currently one of the only IKEA stores that is connected to a mall and has a mall entrance.

In 2005, Vornado Realty Trust purchased Broadway Mall, adding it to their portfolio of shopping centers across the country. [7] Vornado later sold the mall to a partnership led by KKR in 2014 as part of a plan to shelve its regional mall holdings.

On May 5, 2015, renderings surfaced on the homepage of the mall's website that appear to depict a planned renovation. The renovation of the main mall was completed, while the renovation of the food court is ongoing.[8] In 2017, the mall's named was changed from Broadway Mall to Broadway Commons.

On January 8, 2020, it was announced that Macy's would be closing as part of a plan to close 125 stores nationwide. The store closed on March 17, 2020.[9]

Anchor Stores

Current

Former
  • Gertz (opened in 1956; converted to Stern's in 1982; converted to Macy's in 2001; closed Tuesday, March 17th, 2020)
  • JCPenney (opened October 1999; closed January 5, 2003; demolished in 2004)

Food court

References
  1. "GERTZ SIGNS FIRST IN BIG L. I. CENTER; Queens Department Store to Occupy Six-Story Building in New Hicksville Project". The New York Times. March 17, 1955. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  2. JFK Link. "Remarks of Vice President Nixon, Mid-Island Plaza Shopping Center, Hicksville, NY, September 28, 1960". Archived from the original on March 5, 2014. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  3. Mall Hall Of Fame. "Mid Island Plaza/Broadway Mall".
  4. Newsday. "It Happened on Long Island - 1956: Mid-Island Shopping Plaza Opens in Hicksville". Archived from the original on 2013-09-05.
  5. "Shop Center Boom to Aid Ride, Rink Men". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.: 55 May 14, 1955. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  6. Parrish, Tory N. (January 8, 2020). "Hicksville Macy's to close; Commack store is next, company says". Newsday. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  7. "Vornado Realty Trust buys two malls". United Press International Inc. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  8. broadwaymall.com
  9. https://patch.com/new-york/hicksville/macys-close-2-long-island-locations-2020

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