Dutchess Mall

Dutchess Mall was an enclosed shopping mall in the United States in Fishkill, New York. The mall was demolished except for the Jamesway and Service Merchandise buildings. Currently, the former mall property is the site of a Home Depot store, as well as the former Service Merchandise building that has been gutted and now awaiting future use, with the Dutchess Marketplace Flea Market in the former Jamesway, and the rest of the property awaiting further redevelopment. Dagar Group manages the shopping area.[1] R.C. Chera Realty Group is the exclusive leasing broker for the existing vacant structure.[2]

Dutchess Mall
Entrance to the mall in 2004
LocationFishkill, New York, United States
Opening date1974
Closing date2001
(demolished 2006)
ManagementDagar Group
No. of stores and services50+ (1974-2004)
1 (2006)
No. of anchor tenants2 (1974-1995)
1 (2014)
No. of floors1 (2 in J.W. Mays until Jamesway opened and sealed off 2nd floor.)

History

Dutchess Mall opened during 1974 as the first mall in Dutchess County.[3] The mall occupied a portion of a site used during the American Revolutionary War by the Fishkill Encampment and Supply Depot, which has been listed on the National Register of Historical Places since Dutchess Mall's opening.[4] The Fishkill Encampment was previously scheduled for conversion to a national park, but the plan was rejected.[5] Original anchors of the mall included Mays and Luckey Platt, two local department stores;[6] other major tenants included Flah's (another local department store)[6] and Drug World (a pharmacy), as well as Radio Shack (an electronics store) and Waldenbooks (a bookstore).

Former Jamesway/Mays store in 2004

Mays, which closed following their 1982 bankruptcy, was replaced with Gaynes.[7] Gaynes, in turn, was converted to a Jamesway discount shop during 1988, which closed following their liquidation in 1995. Luckey Platt closed in the 1980s and was replaced with Service Merchandise, which closed on December 24, 1996, and relocated to the South Hills Mall nearby.[3] The former Service Merchandise was soon replaced with the Dutchess Flea Market. With both anchor stores gone, the other shops began ending operations as well, and by 2001 only the flea market remained.

For several years, Dutchess Mall was the only mall serving its area; however, it was often unable to attract many well-known tenants, due to rumors of a larger mall being built nearby. The rumored mall, which would have been anchored by Macy's, was never built.[6] Because it could not attract stores easily, and because the anchor stores had changed, the Dutchess Mall was quick to lose tenants, eventually replacing a large portion of its retail space with a satellite campus of Marist College. Other problems of the mall included an outdated mall design; competition from the nearby Poughkeepsie Galleria and South Hills Mall; and the beginning of big box type retail.[3]

Proposed revitalization

During 1999, plans were announced to convert the mall into a business community named Hudson Valley Metro Centre. The project would have included office tenants, a recreational facility, child care, and restaurants.[8] Due to high startup costs, the plan was abandoned,[9] and by 2001, the mall was sealed off entirely except for the flea market, which remained open. Two years later, a group of designers from New York devised a plan to convert Dutchess Mall into a women's prison. This plan was one of the finalists in "Dead Malls", a competition created by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design.[10] This plan, however, was not realized.

Interior of Dutchess Flea Market, 2004.

Finally, after several years of vacancy, the mall was demolished for a Home Depot, which opened on July 5, 2006.[1] Only the mall building itself was demolished. The former Jamesway and Service Merchandise buildings were left intact. Due to the demolition of the mall, the flea market was soon closed.

Home Depot is no longer the only store still open, as there is a McDonald's and a Citizen's Bank branch occupying space in the lot as well. As of 2014 the old Jamesway has since become the Dutchess Marketplace Flea Market with a great variety of vendors. Behind the small part of the strip mall is a golf shop.[11]

Fish Kill Flea

During 2007, Dutchess Mall was the subject of a documentary named Fish Kill Flea; the documentary's emphasis was the mall's flea market.[12]

References
  1. "Dutchess Mall". The Dagar Group Properties Ltd. Archived from the original on 2007-03-15. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  2. "R.C. Chera Realty Group - The Dutchess Mall Site Profile". Archived from the original on 2007-05-18. Retrieved 2007-05-15.
  3. "Ancient mall reveals how humans used to shop". The Dagar Group Properties Ltd. Archived from the original on November 4, 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  4. "Fishkill Historical focus". Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  5. "Fading into history: Fishkill depot defenseless against mall". Times Herald-Record. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  6. "Route 9 offers promise of busy commerce". Poughkeepsie Journal. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  7. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1982&dat=19851110&id=E5FGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=njMNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3136,947795
  8. "Plan To Revitalize The Former Dutchess Mall Announced". Putnam County News. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  9. "Endogenous healing methods in the treatment of mall decay: A case study of Dutchess Mall, Fishkill, New York" (PDF). LA Forum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  10. "What To Do with Dead Malls". National Trust. Archived from the original on 2007-03-25. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  11. http://philipstown.info/2013/12/31/flea-market-opens-route-9-fishkill/
  12. "Fish Kill Flea". Austin Film Society. Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2007-05-03.

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