The Hudson Valley Mall in Kingston has changed so much that anyone who has not visited in a while might not recognize it. Inside, the music is still playing over the speakers, but there are no customers to hear it. Empty storefronts line the hallways, and the food court sits with no one in it, leaving a once-bustling shopping centre feeling hollow and still.
The few people who can be found there are not shoppers at all. They are mall walkers, residents who come to stroll the long indoor corridors for exercise rather than to buy anything. As one walker put it, the place is mostly quiet now, with just a couple of options still open, including a Target and a haircutting business that keep some life inside the building.
The scale of the decline becomes clear in the numbers. The mall used to have about 50 stores, but it is now down to just eight businesses, and only a handful of those are places where someone could actually shop. What was once a full retail destination has shrunk to a small cluster of remaining tenants scattered across a building that was designed to hold many more.
To show how different things used to be, Ulster County shared old photographs documenting how busy the mall was and what it looked like when it first opened in the early 1980s. Those images, full of crowds and active storefronts, stand in sharp contrast to the empty corridors of today, underlining just how far the property has fallen from its early years.
The mall's troubles are not unique to Kingston. Shopping centres across the country have been struggling as more people shop online instead of visiting physical stores. With fewer customers walking through the doors, there are simply not enough people to support the businesses that remain, a pressure that has hollowed out malls in many communities, not just this one.
Now there is a debate over what should happen to the site. Some people would like to see the property revitalized for retail and brought back to life as a place to shop. Others want it turned into housing. One resident said they would like to see apartments built there because the view over the mountains is spectacular, while imagining little boutique shops down below to keep some commercial character.
The property also carries a heavier history. Over the years, it has been the scene of several high-profile crimes, including a deadly shooting, a fatal stabbing and a suicide. As residents weigh its future, some point to broader forces behind the decline, with one person noting that the COVID period and everything that came with it did not help an already struggling mall.