The Shops at West Seneca was a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

south of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

, United States. Built in 1969 as an enclosed shopping mall called Seneca Mall, it is in the Town of West Seneca at the intersection of Ridge Road (Erie CR 137) and Slade Avenue ( Erie CR 91) immediately east of the

New York State Thruway {{Infobox road , state = NY , type = NYST , alternate_name = Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway , maint = NYSTA , map = {{maplink, frame=yes, plain=yes, frame-align=center, frame-width=290, type=line, stroke-width=2, type2=line, from2=New Yor ...

(

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, a ...

History

The William Hengerer Company originally sought to develop a location on this site in the early 1960s. This eventually led to the development and opening of Seneca Mall in 1969 in direct competition to The Thruway Plaza. The mall at that time housed a large

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Girl ...

store as well as local chain

Sattler's Sattler's was a regional department store chain headquartered at 998 Broadway, Buffalo, New York, two miles (3 km) from the downtown core. They pioneered "bargain basement" retailing in the Buffalo area. Sattler's was founded in 1889 by 17-y ...

. Seneca Mall was the major mall in the southtowns of Buffalo from its opening in 1969 through the 1980s. In 1985, the

McKinley Mall McKinley Mall, which opened on October 7, 1985, is a shopping mall in Buffalo, New York, United States. The mall is located in Buffalo, New York at the intersection of McKinley Parkway and Milestrip Road ( New York State Route 179) immediately ea ...

opened in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

less than away. Seneca hung on until 1989 when the

Walden Galleria Walden Galleria is a regional shopping mall located in Cheektowaga, a suburb of Buffalo, New York located east of Interstate 90 and New York State Thruway Exit 52 off Walden Avenue. The Walden Galleria comprises more than of retail space, with 170 ...

opened in

Cheektowaga Cheektowaga () is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town has grown to a population of 89,877. The town is in the north-central part of the county, and is an inner ring suburb of Buffalo. The town is the ...

. At that time, all of the mall anchors vacated as well as most of the specialty stores and restaurants. The mall remained open until 1994, finally becoming a haven for

mall walkers Mall walking is a form of exercise in which people walk or jog through the usually long corridors of shopping malls as a substitute for a running track or other walking venue. Many malls open early so that people may mall walk; stores and other su ...

with no retailers. In 1994, the mall's owners,

The Pyramid Company Pyramid Management Group (also known as The Pyramid Companies) is a development firm formed in 1968 in Upstate New York, by Robert J. Congel. It is the largest privately held shopping mall development firm in the Northeastern United States, wit ...

, elected to demolish the mall. The company, which also owns the Walden Galleria, elected to build a

power center Power center may refer to: *Power center (geometry), the intersection point of the three radical axes of the pairs of circles *Power center (retail) A power center or big-box center (known in Canadian and Commonwealth English as power centre o ...

on the site once the mall and outlying buildings were demolished. The center was branded as a plaza called The Shops at West Seneca and its first tenant (

Tops Markets Tops Friendly Markets is an American supermarket chain based in Amherst, New York, that operates stores in Upstate New York, Vermont, and Northern Pennsylvania. The chain operates full-scale supermarkets. Tops is a subsidiary of Northeast Groce ...

) opened in May 1997 followed by

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inco ...

in 2000. Although many elaborate plans were put forth by Pyramid, no other stores were built. The lack of development on the former mall site has been a topic of debate for Town of West Seneca officials, many of whom have cited the former mall lot as

blight Blight refers to a specific symptom affecting plants in response to infection by a pathogenic organism. Description Blight is a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral organ ...

. In 2019,

would close their location at The Shops at West Seneca leaving

Tops Friendly Markets Tops Friendly Markets is an American supermarket chain based in Amherst, New York, that operates stores in Upstate New York, Vermont, and Northern Pennsylvania. The chain operates full-scale supermarkets. Tops is a subsidiary of Northeast Groc ...

as the only tenant.

References

{{City of Buffalo, New York Shopping malls in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Erie County, New York Shopping malls established in 1969 Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area

History

See also

References