A producer at CNBC’s Squawk Box recalls the heyday of the Nanuet Mall. “I remember when one of its anchor stores used to be a Bamberger’s, when the parking lots were packed on weekends, and my first day of selling clothes at the Express,” says CNBC’s Stephanie Landsman. “Now, it’s a crumbling shell of its former self. Parking lots have only a handful of cars, water stains dot the ceilings, buckets catch water in empty stores, an entire wing is filled with stores that left years ago and the old Express is vacant.”

Landsman, who is also the retail correspondent for CNBC’s NetNet blog, writes about the Nanuet Mall and the contrasting fortunes of owner Simon Properties and Palisades Mall proprietor Pyramid Companies.

The Nanuet Mall, whose 1969 opening forever altered the fate of downtown Nyack and other Rockland County business districts, began its own downward slide when the Palisades Mall opened in 1998 just a few miles West on Route 59. Simon Properties recently announced plans to tear down the Nanuet Mall leaving only the Sears and Macy’s anchor stores. The property manager plans to create “an open air regional center” with a theater and a grocery store to replace the existing mall at the intersection of Route 59 and Middletown Road.

Source: Dead Mall Hunting, NetNet at CNBC.com, 5/12/2011