BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

MASSENA -- The St. Lawrence Centre Mall has closed its doors to the public for the final time, with the facility now being rebranded as the St. Lawrence Industrial Complex.

The site is  now an industrial and warehouse space, though JCPenney is the lone retail storefront still operating at the location. Customers will need to enter the store via the outside doors.

The close of the mall marks the end of a significant downturn for the once booming economic anchor of the Massena community.

On the former mall's website, the facility is now being marketed as a 600,000 square foot industrial shipping and storage complex.

Available spaces for lease range between 30,000 to 200,000 square feet with additional loading dock and ample power for manufacturing requirements available for potential tenants, according to the website.

Columbia Frame Distribution Centre utilizes a large portion of the mall, stretching from the former Hills and Ames location through the food court and into center court.

Self-storage options are also available in the former Sears store location.

Built in 1990 at a cost of $50 million by the Heritage Company, the mall was eventually sold to AP Massena Partners in 1995 and featured numerous franchises that included JCPenney, Hills, Bon-Ton and TJ Maxx.

Other stores came and went throughout the 34 year history of the location, including Ames, Record Town, FYE, GameStop, Champs, Waldenbooks, Spencer's Hallmark, Kay Jewelers, Belden Jewelers, KB Toys, Olympia, Radio Shack and numerous other store fronts.

A once bustling food court that included Arby's, A&W, Sbarro, Subway and Wendy's eventually dwindled to a single mom and pop operation that eventually left during the COVID pandemic.

Another staple near the food court was Aladdin's Castle, an arcade that featured dozens of the most popular arcade video games in the 1990's and early 2000's.

With the economic downturn in Massena following the loss of hundreds of manufacturing jobs, many stores began to close or relocate to the Harte Haven Plaza.

TJ Maxx eventually relocated to Harte Haven in 2011, marking one of the first anchor stores to leave as occupancy rates began to sharply decline.

A bankruptcy of the Sears company led to that store closing in 2014, which was eventually replaced by Sears Hometown. That venture was short-lived and closed in 2017.

When occupancy rates dropped to 75%, the location was sold to the Carlyle Development Group, who in turn sold the mall to the Shapiro group out of Montreal.

Due to technical and mechanical problems in the arena, the space that once hosted dozens of hockey tournaments, skills clinics, public skating and birthday parties every year eventually was converted to a turf field sports complex.

Flag football games, lacrosse and soccer games were eventually hosted in the space but attendance was limited and staff was limited to keep the space open often.

A new sports pub that featured a game room with billiards and dart boards was opened just prior to the pandemic in 2020, another significant investment that eventually did not pan out due to state mandated lockdowns that forced the mall to largely close to the public.

The mandated closing led to a handful of the final retail storefronts to close or relocate to other spaces, forcing mall management to pivot to the current business model of the industrial complex.