MAIN PLACE MALL: BUFFALO, NY
Jack Thomas' Commentary:
Posted October 5, 2003 (user submitted)
(includes info provided by Barry Scott and Justin N.)
This mall opened in 1968 as part of a downtown renewal effort and a
means to add more office and retail space to the Downtown. The mall was
located on the site of the former Adam, Meldrum, and Anderson store (AM&A's).
They moved across the street in 1961. The mall really
has no anchors. It was once anchored by Kobacker's, which later changed
to Sattler's, but that space was turned into a food court on the upper level,
and more stores on the lower level. The mall is now basically anchored by office
space. There are some traditional stores left such as Payless Shoes,
and Waldenbooks. Other mall tenants such as The Limited, Thom McChan shoes,
and others, are all gone. Still, the mall continues to struggle forward.
There have been plans to revitalize parts of the
mall but nothing has come to fruition yet.
The only thing I can see revitalizing this property is [more] offices. To me, its
not really worth saving, because of the blight of the city.
I recommend a stop to this piece of
retail history. Its still open, and there are still a number of tenants
left. Good luck trying to take pics of this place, though. On all the
doors it warns you, "No Cameras allowed".
Links:
http://www.mainliberty.com/mpm.htm Main Place Mall's web site
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Nicole Majewski’s Commentary:
User submitted Feb 2007Just when you thought the Main Place Mall couldn't get any more dead; over the past month, the Waldenbooks store (which was basically the big highlight of the mall beside the Russian dollar store) closed up shop, along with the weird purse store (it was called Boutique Intl.) in the corner space on the ground floor next to the GNC. Another longtime holdout, Louie's Texas Red Hots, closed in the upstairs Food Court; now the Food Court has a pizza place, a taco\sub place, a gyro place, and a roast beef place. It's really sad when you can count how many stores are open in the mall on your fingers :( Another thing that I found particularly weird about the mall is that the entire left hand side of the second floor s
eems as if it was drywalled over... There are also officially NO stores on the second floor now beside the food court and the shoe repair and hair salon right next to the food court in the corner. I've been popping into this mall for at least three years off and on (practically every day on the way home from college), and it's just sad to see this place rot; if something would be done with it, it could spearhead a revitalization campaign in Downtown Buffalo that doesn't include parking lots and\or overpriced loft apartments.