Palisades Center in West Nyack begins with a plan
The idea for what would become Palisades Center started in 1985, when The Pyramid Companies mapped out a regional mall for an old landfill off Route 59. The land had been used for waste, but the company agreed to clean it up.
The site covered about 130 acres, bought for roughly $3 million. Local meetings stretched on for years, as residents argued about traffic and pollution.
The developer wanted a huge enclosed shopping complex, four miles from Paramus, where blue laws kept stores closed on Sundays.
Each step faced new problems. Engineers found an animal skeleton once thought to be a mastodon, later identified as a circus elephant.
Wetlands made parts of the ground unstable.
The project had to protect Mount Moor Cemetery, founded in 1849, which stood within the construction zone.
Groundbreaking finally happened in October 1993.
The design called for four levels of retail, with 18,000 parking spaces, and a cost between $250 million and $280 million.
The Pyramid Companies planned the project as a centerpiece for Rockland County, visible from the New York State Thruway.
By 1997, the building's steel frame rose beside the highway, marking the start of a new era for the Hudson Valley's retail corridor.
Construction wraps and doors open to the region
By the winter of 1997, Palisades Center had turned from a plan into a massive structure of concrete, glass, and steel.
The building filled its 130-acre site, rising beside the New York State Thruway.
When the doors opened on March 4, 1998, visitors entered one of the country's largest enclosed shopping malls, spread across four connected levels.
Inside, it felt like a city built upward.
A Ferris wheel turned above the food court, and a full-size ice rink reflected light from the atrium skylights.
More than 200 stores filled 2.2 million square feet, arranged around long concourses that climbed from big-box anchors to the 21-screen AMC Theatres on the top floor.
Nickelodeon Store, Record Town, and WNET Store of Knowledge appeared early in the directory, mixed with department chains and independent shops.
The property stood bordered by major routes and new parking fields that could hold more than 18,000 cars.
Mount Moor Cemetery remained fenced and undisturbed inside the site, a small island of the past in the middle of the new mall.
The mall brought in crowds from across Rockland County, its scale and freshness making it a weekend draw for people unused to such a place nearby.
Rumors, a town vote, and the 2000s reset
People talked about Palisades Center the way they talk about the weather.
By 2000, the story going around Clarkstown was that the mall was sinking, inch by inch, into the old landfill it sat on.
At diners, someone always knew a friend who'd seen cracks in the floor.
The town sent engineers to check. Nothing was wrong. The floors were level.
Still, the rumor settled in like dust, a story everyone knew even if no one could prove it.
Two years later, the mall appeared on the ballot.
The Pyramid Companies wanted to lease another 100,000 square feet for an indoor playground called Kids City.
To do that, voters had to release a space limit written into a 1997 agreement.
On November 5, 2002, they refused. The closed-off upper rooms stayed dark behind drywall, a reminder of what couldn't move forward.
Outside, new lanes fed traffic through the $23 million road project tied to Thruway Exit 12.
Inside, old habits returned.
The 1907 carousel stopped spinning in 2009 and was replaced with a gleaming two-story model, quieter but more controlled, the way the whole place seemed to steady itself by the end of that decade.
Remodels and anchor changes redefine the 2010s
By the middle of the decade, the interior of Palisades Center had begun to feel older than its years.
In May 2013, construction crews arrived with scaffolds and dust curtains, starting a remodel that stretched through December.
The project replaced dark finishes with pale tile and glass.
Mosaics brightened the atrium. New lighting ran along the railings.
On the fourth level, the ThEATery wing took on chandeliers and patterned carpet.
At the same time, the mall's lineup shifted.
JCPenney announced in March 2017 that it would close after nearly two decades in the same corner.
By January 2020, Lord & Taylor followed, ending a long run for one of the mall's oldest anchor stores.
The upper floors gained new draws aimed at entertainment rather than fashion.
The old IMAX theater became 5 Wits, a maze-like attraction.
The atrium gained Palisades Climb Adventure, an 85-foot ropes course that towered through the center of the building.
Between these changes, the property carried a mortgage of $388.5 million, recorded in 2016.
Leasing stayed strong for a time, with almost all retail bays filled by the end of the decade.
The mall's fourth level remained active deep into the night, built for crowds that lingered long after stores closed.
Pandemic shock, appraisal swing, and a key vote in 2020–2023
As the pandemic spread through New York in 2020, Palisades Center shut down completely.
Shuttered storefronts lined the halls. The hum of escalators and background music stopped.
By summer, the mall had reopened, but foot traffic lagged, and the financial strain began to show.
That July, the owners missed a mortgage payment and only avoided foreclosure after striking a short-term deal with their lenders.
That same year, Clarkstown voters faced a familiar question.
The 1997 restriction that capped the mall's leasable space was still in place.
In the November 2020 election, residents approved its removal, clearing the way to lease roughly 200,000 square feet that had been closed since opening.
The decision allowed the mall to file new plans for the long-vacant upper area.
In December 2020, a new appraisal placed the property's value at $425 million, less than half its 2016 figure.
The next two years brought no rebound. By February 10, 2023, Wilmington Trust filed a foreclosure case in state court.
The mall stayed open throughout, its banners and sales continuing beneath a cloud of financial paperwork and uncertainty about what might come next.
2024 brings tax relief, receivership, and new management
In July 2024, the financial side of Palisades Center took a rare turn toward relief.
Clarkstown officials approved a $27.5 million refund for the mall's owner after years of assessment disputes.
Under the deal, the property was frozen at $300 million through 2027. For the company, it meant fewer bills.
For local budgets, it meant a pause in the long back-and-forth over what the massive structure was really worth.
Within weeks, the relief was overshadowed by court filings.
In August, a state judge placed the mall in receivership and named a temporary receiver.
Control of day-to-day operations shifted from the Pyramid network to a court-appointed office.
Vendors, tenants, and maintenance contracts all began routing through the receiver's system.
By mid-September, the next name appeared on the paperwork.
Spinoso Real Estate Group was chosen to manage and lease the mall during the foreclosure case.
Their staff arrived soon after, taking over offices near the loading docks.
The management change gave the property new leadership but no new owner.
Inside the building, shop lights and food-court neon stayed bright, even as control of one of New York's largest shopping centers moved into legal hands.
2025 on-site changes and case progress on the record
The new year at Palisades Center started with movement on both sides of the glass doors.
On January 3, 2025, Carlitos Tequileria opened, adding a full-service restaurant beside the cluster of fast-casual spots on Level 4.
Two weeks later, crews reactivated the mall's long-quiet Ferris wheel.
It began carrying passengers again on January 18, returning to an attraction that had been motionless since 2020.
By March, a smaller change took shape between storefronts.
BRIDGES, a local nonprofit, built a sensory room where children could step away from the noise.
The ribbon cutting came in April, almost the same week the foreclosure case advanced.
On April 9, Justice Francis A. Kahn III issued summary judgment for Wilmington Trust, naming a referee to calculate what the owners still owed.
The spring stretched into a restless summer.
During the NJ Transit strike on May 16, Hudson Link buses filled the commuter lot outside the mall, turning it into a makeshift terminal.
Heavy rain followed in July, flooding parts of Route 59 near the entrances.
Inside, the escalators ran as usual, a routine that continued even while the legal fight and weather worked in parallel outside the walls.