The Pyramid Companies, a Syracuse-based regional shopping-center developer, opened Aviation Mall in October 1975 in Queensbury, New York, adjacent to Glens Falls Airport, choosing the site specifically to capture traveler traffic along the Interstate 87 corridor. JCPenney and regional department-store chain Denby’s anchored the mall at opening, with a three-screen Hoyt’s cinema; Sears joined by 1978 and Caldor a year later.
At roughly 610,000-630,000 sqft, the property currently carries JCPenney, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target and Ollie’s Bargain Outlet as anchors, alongside a nine-screen Regal Cinema (upgraded from the original Hoyt’s in 2004) and a Planet Fitness. Target was added to the mall’s front in 2004, and JCPenney itself relocated into a newly built adjacent store in 1994; JCPenney’s original space was occupied by Service Merchandise until 2002, before Dick’s Sporting Goods took over that location in 2005.
Caldor closed in 1998-1999 as the chain liquidated nationally, with its space taken over by The Bon-Ton; both The Bon-Ton and Sears closed in 2018, and Ollie’s Bargain Outlet took over the former Bon-Ton space in August 2019, though its entrance is accessible only from outside the enclosed mall rather than through the interior corridors.
That transit-corridor-driven site selection, choosing an airport-adjacent parcel specifically to capture Interstate 87 traveler traffic rather than a purely residential catchment, reflects Pyramid’s broader development strategy across upstate New York, positioning regional malls at highway junctions to draw shoppers well beyond their immediate host towns.
