Southside Mall rises beside Route 23
In the early 1980s, most of Oneonta's retail life still centered on downtown. Plans for a new shopping mall surfaced on the city's southside along State Highway 23, with an estimated cost of about $8 million.
The early plan named JCPenney and K-Mart as anchor tenants and included a Great American grocery store. JCPenney was not new to Oneonta.
It had operated downtown since the early part of the 20th century, and the planned move marked a shift in where major retail would sit.
The project drew organized opposition before construction. The Citizens Development Corporation attempted to block the development in court.
The challenge was dismissed. After the case, the group shifted its focus to other efforts aimed at keeping downtown competitive.
Groundbreaking took place on December 3, 1981. Tristate Ventures developed the property as a single-story enclosed mall with additional exterior retail space.
Construction produced a compact building and a large parking field set back from the highway.
Eighteen stores, and the June 1983 debut
Southside Mall opened in late June 1983 on Oneonta's southside along State Highway 23. A city timeline lists June 28 as the opening date.
Other reporting places the opening on June 30. The mall opened with a total floor area of about 242,000 square feet.
The mall debuted with 18 stores, with plans to expand to roughly 35 tenants. Three anchors framed the original layout and drew the first steady traffic.
Kmart promised to discount everything. JCPenney opened as the department store anchor after a long downtown presence in Oneonta.
Great American Supermarket filled the grocery anchor role and supplied day-to-day shopping visits alongside the mall's discretionary retail.
Early in-line tenants combined national chains with smaller storefront operators. Walden Books opened as a bookstore. Radio Shack operated as an electronics retailer.
Other early tenants included Kinney Shoes, Bee Gee Records & Tapes, and Shatz Stationery, along with local businesses.
Southside Mall's original-style interior and regional draw
The shared spaces kept a style from the mid-1980s, even as new stores moved in and updates were made.
Wood decorations were part of that original look and are still described as making the space feel "inviting" and "cozy."
The way the building is set up and decorated has been compared to Clarion Mall in Pennsylvania, which means it fits in with a common local style from that time.
The location was intended to pull shopping activity from downtown and scattered sites into a single southside destination.
The mall's business relied a lot on nearby colleges. About 6,600 students from SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College live in the area for about nine months each year, then leave for the summer.
The stores and services were set up to match that pattern, with steady demand for clothes, room decorations, electronics, and easy food options.
It also aimed at regional shoppers traveling through the Route 23 corridor, about 30 minutes from Cooperstown and about an hour west of Albany.
Over time, management also promoted the mall as a place to go indoors, calling it the only indoor shopping center in the area for fifty-five miles and letting people know that dogs are allowed inside.
Great American fades, OfficeMax takes over
Great American Supermarket opened as one of Southside Mall's original anchors and served as the grocery draw in the mall's early tenant mix.
The chain, which had evolved from Victory Markets, operated nearly 80 stores across upstate New York at its peak.
At Southside Mall, the supermarket brought regular weekday traffic and routine shopping visits that differed from the mall's department store and specialty retail.
That role ended in the mid-1990s. Great American entered bankruptcy proceedings in 1995.
From 1995 to 1996, all Great American locations in Oneonta, Binghamton, and New Berlin closed permanently. The mall lost its grocery anchor and the steady trip pattern that came with it.
The anchor space was reused. The former Great American box became OfficeMax, shifting the large footprint from food retail to office supplies and printing-related shopping.
The tenant change occurred as the Route 23 corridor continued to build out around the mall.
In the early to mid-1990s, the Route 23 corridor around the mall was built out with additional big-box and grocery retail, including Walmart, Shop 'N Save (Hannaford), and Aldi.
The mall remained a center point, but it operated within a growing cluster rather than as a standalone destination.
Kmart shuts, a lease fails, the roof objects
Ownership and strategy turned over as often as storefronts. In 1994, the mall, then owned by the Pyramid companies, was sold.
That December, it was purchased by Eugene Bettiol Jr., described in the timeline as a "vacant mall."
The phrase hangs there without explanation, hinting at a period of uncertainty that the building, by sheer continued existence, eventually outlasted.
By the early 2000s, Southside Mall relied on steady, repeatable uses.
Applebee's opened in 2002 and stayed, a chain restaurant that has watched a lot of retail fashion come and go from the same parking lot. Then the original discount anchor fell away.
Kmart closed in 2003 during the company's national bankruptcy crisis, leaving a large empty shell and the familiar mall problem of what to do with a box built for a single tenant.
Glimcher Realty Trust later sold the property in 2005, another handoff in the era of REIT ownership.
In 2007, a plaza annex was added, bringing Bed Bath & Beyond and more in-line retail.
That October, Steve & Barry's signed a lease to take the vacant Kmart space. The store did open, but it operated for only about two months.
It closed during the chain's bankruptcy period, and the former Kmart building was also described as having structural roof problems.
Demolition, 97 percent full, and TJ Maxx
After Kmart closed, the former anchor building was repurposed. In 2010, part of the old Kmart structure was demolished to prepare space for a TJ Maxx.
By March 2011, demolition was still active at the west end of the mall.
At the time, mall manager Jessica Dombrowski said TJ Maxx was expected to open sometime that summer.
She also said the mall was 97 percent occupied. Inside the mall, tenant changes continued as part of that occupancy. Fashion Bug was closing.
The Shoe Department planned to expand into the Fashion Bug space and adjoining storefronts, creating an Encore Store concept designed to carry a wider variety of brand-name shoes.
The redevelopment also changed how the property functioned from the parking lot.
The demolition created room for additional parking on the west side. The entrance off Route 23 was redesigned to improve access and circulation.
The TJ Maxx project marked a physical reconfiguration of the former Kmart footprint and a shift toward value-focused retail as a driver of traffic.
From Bed Bath & Beyond to Harbor Freight and craft fairs
By 2012, Southside Mall functioned as a combined indoor mall and exterior retail cluster. Dick's Sporting Goods and Petco opened in adjoining exterior spaces that faced the parking lot.
TJ Maxx, built out of the former Kmart footprint, operated mainly as an exterior store with limited interior access.
JCPenney continued to serve as a mall anchor with both interior and exterior entrances, keeping a direct connection to the enclosed corridors.
The 2007 annex added Bed Bath & Beyond and more retail space. That anchor did not last through the next round of national chain closures.
On December 3, 2018, Bed Bath & Beyond's closure was announced. The store closed in early 2019.
Harbor Freight Tools moved into the space in 2019, replacing housewares with discount tools and equipment.
Inside the enclosed corridor, the tenant list included national chains and local storefronts. National tenants included Bath & Body Works, Claire's, FYE, GameStop, Maurices, and Shoe Dept.
ENCORE. Local businesses operated alongside them, including Cutting Crew, Shades of Distinction, and Black Tree Books.
Management increased programming and non-retail uses as part of the mall's day-to-day operation. The mall hosted craft shows and vendor markets.
It held Creator Showcase flea market events that provided space for student-run and small businesses.
It ran a for-credit internship program for SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College students.
Dining and activity tenants supported longer visits, including Applebee's, Panera Bread, Azul, and Molly, plus Rise Up Studio classes and the Orpheus Theatre's rehearsal and community production space.
Regular calendar events, including Malloween and extended Black Friday hours, kept the building active beyond routine shopping trips.
New 2024 tenants: Michaels, Zen'd, Five Below
After the COVID-era slowdown, the mall lost three stores. However, by December 2023, sales were up nearly 20 percent over the prior year, and foot traffic was steady.
In 2024, larger vacancies were refilled, and new specialty retail opened inside the enclosed corridors.
Michaels opened in February 2024 in a 16,800-square-foot space that had been occupied by OfficeMax.
The opening reused a large box and added an arts-and-crafts anchor to the property's main lineup.
In early September 2024, Zen'd opened as an interior specialty shop stocked with nearly 10,000 crystals.
In November 2024, Five Below opened in an 8,500-square-foot space next to Michaels that had previously been used by Rent-A-Center.
The current tenant mix combines large-format retail, small services, and food that supports longer visits. JCPenney remains the department store anchor.
TJ Maxx and Harbor Freight operate as value-focused large tenants. Dick's Sporting Goods and Petco serve the exterior cluster.
Bath & Body Works and Maurices operate as interior apparel and personal-care stores. The Shoe Department remains a central footwear tenant, and GameStop continues as a specialty electronics and games store.
AT&T and Cricket Wireless operate wireless storefronts. Cutting Crew and Live In Style Threading Salon provide personal services, and Visionworks operates as an eyewear tenant.
Dining and quick-service options include Applebee's, Panera, Five Guys, Mt. Fuji Japanese Restaurant, Azul's Restaurant Oneonta, and Molly's Pizzeria.
Smaller businesses and local operators include Sweet Caroline's Co., Shades of Distinction, and TechTonic, while Southside Cinema continues as the mall's entertainment venue.
