Dutchess Mall

Dutchess Mall was an enclosed shopping mall in Fishkill, New York. The mall was demolished and replaced with a Home Depot except for the Jamesway and Service Merchandise buildings. The former Service Merchandise building was home to a flea market until the mid-2000s but now sits vacant and empty. At some point in the mid-200s, the Dutchess Marketplace Flea Market move to the former Jamesway building, although it closed at the end of 2019. 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

The 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]

Post-mall revitalization

In 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.

Home Depot isn't the only store still open, as there is a McDonald's and a Citizen's Bank branch occupying space in the lot as well. In 2007, Dutchess Mall was the subject of a documentary named Fish Kill Flea; the documentary's emphasis was the mall's flea market.[11] By 2014, the old Jamesway had become the new home of Dutchess Marketplace, a flea market with a variety of vendors. Behind the property is a nine hole golf course.[12] By the end of 2019, the Dutchess Marketplace closed.[13] In August 2019, Dutchess Community College announced plans to open a campus at the site of the former mall, in the former Jamesway building.[14] As of February 2021, this new campus of Dutchess Community College has been finished, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the new campus has not yet opened.

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. "Fish Kill Flea". Austin Film Society. Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  12. http://philipstown.info/2013/12/31/flea-market-opens-route-9-fishkill/
  13. "Dutchess Marketplace to Close". The Highlands Current. 2019-12-21. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
  14. Santistevan, Ryan. "Dutchess Community College to move south campus to Fishkill, Dutchess Mall site". Poughkeepsie Journal. Retrieved 2020-10-06.

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