The Mall at The Source is an infamous abandoned mall on Long Island on Old Country Road which is the same street as Roosevelt Field. The mall was basically abandoned except for a few sections like all of the lower level but the upper level was closed off The Cheesecake Factory to Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH. So I only could get into the Center Court, Saks OFF 5TH and Fortunoff Courts from downstairs and Fortunoff’s hallway to The Cheesecake Factory.
The Mall at The Source is the former site of the Roosevelt Airport and the airport closed in 1961. In the 1960’s Ohrbach’s constructed a store on the property. In 1964 Fortunoff opened a store on the sode of the mall where Cheesecake Factory is today.
In tge late 1980’s Alan Fortunoff planned to build Long Island Galleria which I actually like that name unlike The Mall at The Source but I didn’t make the decision to name the mall. They were going to make this mall roughly the size of Roosevelt Field which is ridiculous. If you have ever been to Roosevelt Field you know how big it is. The mall was going to be built by Westfield and would include Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom as anchors. The community was very concerned about the size of the mall as they should and forced Fortunoff to downsize the mall. Roughly half of the property was sold to Costco which developed their portion into a Kmart. The mall was actually built by Simon and owned the mall till August, 2012.
The Mall at The Source opened on September 5th, 1997 with Fortunoff and had many stores. The mall was the first on Long Island to house H&M, Old Navy, Nordstrom Rack, Saks OFF 5TH, The Cheesecake Factory, Dave and Busters, PF Chang’s, and Rainforest Cafe which in 2000 turned into H&M.
When the recession hit in 2008 and 2009 was the beginning of the end. Fortunoff, Steve & Barry’s, and Circuit City all closed their stores at the mall which were the main anchors, which saw less people coming to the mall and many stores closed like Forever 21. They did still have their sub anchors like Saks OFF 5th, Old Navy, and Nordstrom Rack, and Forever 21. Plus regular mall stores like Bath & Body Works, Claires, and H&M. On August 9, 2012 that the mall was going up for auction on August 28th but it turned out unsuccessful. Lenders took the mall over and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank was hired for “leasing” which I’d use very lightly. In late 2012 a new shopping plaza opened nearby called The Gallery at Westbury Plaza and took much if not all of the business away. They took Old Navy, Saks Off 5th, Nordstrom Rack, Gap Outlet. In 2013 a shimmer of light hit The Source bringing in Lord & Taylor Outlet Store and Jewelry Emporium in the former Nordstrom Rack and Saks OFF 5TH. These stores made the mall worse in the long term. In 2014 Golf Galaxy closed and David’s Bridal moved to Roosevelt Raceway Shopping Center leaving the Fortunoff Court vacant. H&M and Yankee Candle both closed in 2014 and Gymboree closed in 2017. In Mat 2017 the mall was bought and is currently being turned into a home market which I don’t want to talk about because I would like to make a post about it eventually.
The layout to The Mall at The Source is kind of complex. They have two levels the lower level consisted of three courts; the Fortunoff Court, Center Court, and Saks Off 5th Court. The larger stores would be on the lower level and the mall shops would be on the upper level.
I do think that this mall would have been alive if the actual Fortunoff store was still open but also mall that have such a strange amount of stores like 45 which how many this mall had it can be hard especially near a mall like Roosevelt Field. Although I do understand why they saw a potential for a nice mall here. They never had some mall stores like American Eagle, Hollister, or Victoria’s Secret.
These are from photos from October 2018 just before they shut the whole mall down. I could not get to the section between Saks OFF 5TH to The Cheesecake Factory.
2018:
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