Rego Center is a shopping mall bordered by the

Long Island Expressway Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

Junction Boulevard Junction Boulevard, originally Junction Avenue, is a two-mile north-south route that runs through the neighborhoods of Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst, and Rego Park in Queens, New York City, United States. It continues as 94th Street in Ea ...

Queens Boulevard Queens Boulevard is a major thoroughfare connecting Midtown Manhattan, via the Queensboro Bridge, to Jamaica in Queens, New York City, United States. It is long and forms part of New York State Route 25. Queens Boulevard runs northwest to ...

, 63rd Road, and 97th Street in the

Rego Park Rego Park is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. Rego Park is bordered to the north by Elmhurst and Corona, to the east and south by Forest Hills, and to the west by Middle Village. Rego Park's boundaries include Queen ...

neighborhood of

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

History

The property was originally the only Queens location of

Alexander's Alexander's, Inc. is a real estate investment trust that owns 7 properties in New York metropolitan area, including 731 Lexington Avenue, the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P. It is controlled by Vornado Realty Trust. It was founded by George Farka ...

, a New York City department store. Caldor had bought up the location and was in the processes of opening their store in the fall of 1995 but those plans were stalled when the chain filed for bankruptcy that year.

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

later opened in 1996. Phase II of the mall, which is an annex to the already open Phase I, opened on March 3, 2010 with of retail space.

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box warehouse club retail stores. As of 2021, Costco is the third-largest retailer in the world, and as of August 2024, Cos ...

with , At Home with , and T.J. Maxx have opened. Retailers also include Bed Bath and Beyond,

Marshalls Marshalls, Inc. is an American chain of discount store, off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store (stores operating with HomeGoods combined), ...

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay, San Francisco, Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of t ...

and

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,100 stores in 47 states and Puerto Rico, with it ...

in Phase I. An

Aldi Aldi (German pronunciation: ), stylised as ALDI, is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and ...

supermarket also opened on level 1 in February 2011. The nearest competitor malls are

Queens Center Queens Center Mall is an urban shopping mall in Elmhurst, Queens, Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, on Queens Boulevard between 57th Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard, one block away from Queens Place Mall. Queens Center Mall is the largest mall in ...

and Queens Place Mall. ,

Vornado Realty Trust Vornado Realty Trust is an American real estate investment trust formed in Maryland in 1982, with its primary office in New York City. The company invests in office buildings and street retail in Manhattan. History Two Guys The origins of the ...

, the mall's owner, is developing a 24-story, 314-unit residential tower named The Alexander on top of the mall's phase II, due to a surge in young professionals moving into the area. About 20% of the units are studio apartments, with the rest being one- and two-bedroom apartments. On January 4, 2017, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 150 stores nationwide. The store closed in April 2017. A year later, in March 2018,

Toys "R" Us Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1948 in Washington, D.C.; its first store was built in April 1948, with i ...

announced that it would close all of its US stores, including the location at Rego Center. The site was then occupied by a toy store called Toy City, operated by

Party City New AmScan PC LLC formerly, Party City Holdco Inc. is an American chain of party supply stores founded in 1986 by Steve Mandell in East Hanover, New Jersey. Party City's headquarters are in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Party City was the largest ...

. On January 13, 2019, Kohl's announced that its store at Rego Center would be closing along with 3 other stores nationwide. The store closed on April 13, 2019. In September 2019,

IKEA IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services. IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...

announced plans to convert the former Sears into its third New York City location. It opened on January 11, 2021. The IKEA store was severely damaged during

Hurricane Ida Hurricane Ida was a deadly and extremely destructive tropical cyclone in 2021 that became the second-most damaging and intense hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana on record, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In terms of m ...

in September 2021. On October 26, 2022, it was announced that IKEA would be closing this location on December 3. IKEA bought out its lease at Rego Center in February 2024. On April 24, 2020, it was announced that At Home would be opening in the former Kohl's space in 2021. At Home opened in April 2021. On September 10, 2020, it was announced that Century 21 would be closing its location as part of a plan to close all 38 stores nationwide. One month later, Century 21 permanently closed its Rego Park store. On April 23, 2023, Bed Bath & Beyond announced that they filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and announced that they would close all remaining stores in the United States, including the location at Rego Center. The store closed in July 2023. Recently, as of April 27, 2025,

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

has moved inside of the former

space, which has been vacant since 2018. Best Buy relocated from the nearby Queens Place Mall.

Withdrawals

The Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., often referred to as Home Depot, is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportat ...

withdrew from the rental deal with Vornado in late 2008 due to drop in profit. The space vacated by Home Depot was replaced by

. This is Costco's fifth location in

and second in Queens. In 2005,

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

had been dropped as a potential tenant, as an early part of its bid to open a store within New York City. Opposition by various groups killed the plan.

Layout

The following layout of retail space is taken from Vornado's Property website. * Level 3: T.J. Maxx,

* Level 2: At Home,

* Street Level:

, Dallas BBQ,

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...

, Mandee, The Vitamin Shoppe,

Petco Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. is an American Pet store, pet retailer with corporate offices in San Diego and San Antonio. Petco sells pet food, products, and services, as well as certain types of live small animals. Founded in 1965 as ...

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

Panera Bread Panera Bread is an American multinational chain of bakery-café fast casual restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which are in the United States and Canada. Its headquarters are in Fenton, Missouri. The chain operates as Saint Louis ...

, Teriyaki One,

Chipotle Mexican Grill Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. ( ), often known simply as Chipotle, is an American multinational chain of fast casual restaurants specializing in bowls, tacos, and Mission burritos made to order in front of the customer. As of March 31, 2025, C ...

Five Below Five Below, Inc. is an American chain of specialty discount stores that prices most of its products at $5 or less, plus a smaller assortment of products priced up to $30. Founded in 2002 by Tom Vellios and David Schlessinger and headquartered in ...

, Red Mango * Lower Level:

References

External links

* *
Rego Park Center

Department of City Planning Resolution 27 July 2005

PlanNYC-Rego Park II

PlanNYC-Archival Search for Rego Park Mall II

Rego Center details at Vornado Realty Trust website

Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects project profile page
{{New York City Malls Shopping malls in New York City Shopping malls established in 2010 Tourist attractions in Queens, New York Commercial buildings in Queens, New York 2010 establishments in New York City Rego Park, Queens