Thruway Plaza

Thruway Plaza, formerly Thruway Mall was a one-level shopping mall 9.5 miles (15.3 km) southwest of downtown Buffalo, New York, between Walden Avenue and Harlem Road in Cheektowaga, a suburb of Buffalo. The mall had four anchors which housed AM&A's, Kleinhans, Child World and JCPenney. There was also a movie theater located outside of the mall as well as a Super Duper grocery store, a bank and a restaurant.
== Original Thruway Plaza ==
Thruway Plaza began its life as an open-air power center located near the New York State Thruway. The shopping center opened on October 16, 1952 to serve the Buffalo area. Promoted as the largest shopping center in Western New York, the 300,000 square foot strip complex was designed by the Walter Koppel Firm of Miami, Florida. The tenants of the original Thruway Plaza included W.T. Grant, Lerner Shops, A&P, Nu-Way Markets, Woolworth's, Neisner's and a 2-level (86,000 square feet) JCPenney. Thruway Plaza was expanded with a western section in the late 1950's with two new 2-level anchor tenant stores opening, Kleinhans and AM&A's. Other new stores included Thom McAn, Sears Catalog & Appliance and a Firestone Auto Center. In the early 1960's, Acme Markets opened a grocery store on the northeastern outparcel. During the same year, AM&A opened a new bigger location on the same outparcel which was a 2-level store.
== Enclosed Mall ==
In 1974, the Thruway Plaza was enclosed and climate-controlled, the shopping center was then renamed to Thruway Mall. In July 1980, Thruway Mall was expanded and added a south court, which added 15 stores and services, including a new boutique-type store Sattler's. Mall stores at this time included Naturalizer, York Steak House, Thayer McNeil, Richman Brothers, So-Fro Fabrics, Hickory Farms of Ohio, The Fashion Factory and a Child World toy store. In 1977, General Cinema opened a 3 screen cinema outside the mall, in later years it was expanded to 6 screens, then to 8 screens. The cinema closed in 1999 but reopened in 2001 under the ownership of Dipson Circuit, JGM Entertainment then purchased the theater in 2004.
== Decline ==
Thruway Mall was doing extremely well up until the Walden Galleria Mall opened in 1989 which caused both JCPenney and AM&A's to relocate out of the Thruway Mall into the Walden Galleria. In December, 1990 Kleinhans closed down their Thruway Mall location. Later in October 1994, the former AM&A's space was subdivided with a Value City Furniture store opening up in the first floor. A foreclosure on the nearly vacant mall was held in September 1994, Benderson Development Company acquired the whole mall. In November 1995, Thruway Mall shut down for good. In November 1996, Thruway Mall was completely demolished leaving the AM&A's building and freestanding Firestone Auto Center.
== New Thruway Plaza ==
In March 1997, news of a prospective retail complex known as Thruway Consumer Square was being planned to be built on the former land of Thruway Mall, however by April 1997, the Thruway Consumer Square name was changed to Thruway Plaza. The first tenant to open at the new plaza was a Walmart on January 26, 1998. In December 1999, Tops Friendly Markets opened followed by a Home Depot store in 2001. In April 2017, Walmart had closed their location and relocated, the space was then converted into a Citi Trends and Planet Fitness. The Movieland 8 (formerly Thruway Mall Cinemas) closed down in May 2015, the building was sold to a local church in June 2017.
Category:Malls in the United States
Category:Malls in New York
Category:Dead Malls
Category:Malls that opened in 1974
Category:Erie County, New York
Category:Buffalo Area Malls
Category:Former Malls