Dead Mall: Fingerlakes Mall - I took a THREE HOUR Detour to See This Place | Auburn, NY 

That upstairs area you’re referring to above the food court used to be a place to roller skate. It was called super skate. Spent many weekends there in middle and high school :)

I have great memories of this mall.. roller skaking 1981..Empire Strikes Back 1980. Great memories as a kid 1980.

I grew up in Auburn in the 80s and 90s, and it was the place to be. I remember KB Toys, which was my favorite place to get video games and whatever toys I was into at the time. It was a couple doors down from the JC Penney at the one end (opposite from the Sears), and there was a pet shop that had some fish tanks literally built into the brick walls so you could watch the fish both inside the shop and out in the mall. There were actually TWO Sears stores in the mall: the one at the far end where the post office boxes are, and another at the food court. I believe the first was a general department store, while the second was for hardware, tools, and other “man cave” stuff. I never got along with my classmates so I was often there by myself, often at Waldenbooks or the arcade (which I’m surprised to see is still there). Other stores came and went, but right up until I moved away from Auburn, it really was the one place where practically everyone in town (and many from out of town) would go to shop, eat, hang out…and yes, get their mail. I miss it, sometimes.

This mall has so much character! It reminds me of the 70’s and 80’s. The eating area is really neat. It reminds me of an amusement park eating area or I thought the same thing a casino. It reminds me of Atlantic City, NJ. Most malls now are boring and bland and gray.

As a kid I remember a large water fountain feature in the food court area under the domed skylight before the remodel. Only roller skated a few times.

I had an office there, near the 6:31 mark. That end was at K-Mart, JC Penney and Sears were at the other end. The mall's trouble began with the opening of Walmart a few miles away. K-Mart was dramatically impacted, as were Sears and Penney. The mall was owned by Pyramid, who, knowing exactly when to sell, sold the mall to a new owner, who was too stupid to know that the rents were already as high as they could go. The new owners, which I believe were First Union - were so incredibly stupid in making the purchase, that I would never trust them as an Invesment. I mean they had to be morons to buy it, sine it was milked to death by Pyramid. The game in malls was to rent a space to a tenant, then sell the lease for cash to some Invesment company, and then charge the crap out of tenants for common area fees. A tenant was leased a slab and an empty space and had to build the spot out, so malls were a big moneymaker since the owners of the mall basically made the tenants do much of the building and basically rented the tenant a concrete slab and a tin roof, sweet deal for the landlords. Depending on the landlord, they had all kinds of add-ons including a percentage of sales, extravagant common area fees, and requirements on when you could open or close. Pyramid had some heavy duty rape going on for utility charges, which you could avoid by installing your own meter, but to do that would cost a small tenant tens of thousands not because that was the actual cost, no, because the requirements were deliberately nasty and expensive to make your own meter not a real option. The decline of that mall, and most malls was and is due to the demise of the department store. In its day a department store could draw tens of thousands of shoppers over a weekend. Most malls leases required a giant increase in base rent to tenants if a new anchor store were added. Often an anchor paid little or no rent. Mall owners played a lot of games with the definition of a new "anchor" store, often trying to pawn off a large clothing store and such as a new "anchor". The deals depended on who owned the mall. Some mall owners were good to work with, some not. Pyramid was the worst I ever worked with, First Union and the former Eagan Real Estate were a little easier, but not great. Wilmorite was nice to work with, as were Cafaro. The mall manager can often be a rather inflated personality, as can be any of the leasing agents. Best wishes!

That used to be my mall! The Chinese restaurant in the food court was downright good. Stopped in a few years ago - the JB Toys store (mostly an online retailer) is quite cool.

The background “music” is very distracting…

The middle section or court yard reminds me of Sangertown Mall New Hartford New York.

Always enjoy your vids

I still shake my head when you go past a Sears. I cannot believe that they are gone, after being the place where "AMERICA SHOP(ED)" What was the other (closed) Department store you passed?

That food court indeed looks awesome! I like how they designed it to have lots of vertical visual appeal. It looks like a fairytale village main street complete with a light blue ceiling to mimic the sky.

Great video! This is one I’ve wanted to see for a while! The fountain by JCPenney is awesome! And the Bass Pro is awesome to have as an anchor here! Hoping this mall can still make it as mixed use!

yes,that central theatrical part is OK!. reminds me of casinos in atlantic city or 'animated" bars on long beach island before rich,rich influx.

Can't tell you how many times I went there from Geneva... great Mall... great vibes..... such a shame.

That food court, with the faux-downtown looking facades, actually looks strikingly similar to the food court at Sangertown Square in New Hartford NY (next to Utica). Wonder if the same company built both of those malls?

In the 80s, you couldn't get a mall job unless you knew someone. Theyd get 30 applications for a stock room job. Now, theyd have a hard time filling these jobs.

The Track cinema in the mall just recently signed a new lease with the mall management. The main reason the mall is dead is because of poor management since Bass Pro Shops came to the mall in 2004. It has become very hard to keep retailers from staying at the mall and coming into the mall due to the high rent the owners charge. Destiny USA opened up in the mall back in 2014, with the original Carousel mall opening in 1989. Fingerlakes mall originally opened in 1979 with 70 stores, a BK and a full food court and a Regal first run theater.

I was here at a similar time as you were. Very bizarre to see it. I have a vague memory of stopping in at some point in the very early 2000s as well. I recall going through the brown entrance at 1:03. I am surprised that it has lasted as long as it has with it's proximity to both Syracuse AND Rochester. Both the Eastview Mall and Destiny happen to be on the sides of their cities closest to Auburn, and are easily the best two malls left in the region... so there really was no hope IMO. I AM pleased to see how much life there still is in FLM considering what is left.

Sangertown Square Mall in New Hartford, NY food court is very similar.

And interestingly enough, both Fingerlakes Mall and Destiny mall were opened by the same man, Bob Congel

That mall was owned by someone in New York City who only used this mall as a tax write off before it was recently bought. When retailers would come in to Rent the store they would only stay for a year or two, and then leave because the owner would raise the rent so high it wasn’t worth The money for rent somebody recently tried to re-open the skating rink and bass pro told them no unless they were willing to pay them a couple hundred thousand dollars for them to move their storage somewhere else most the time there are not many people there unless there’s some kind of event going on at the mall or the mall walkers it’s so sad before the last ppl who live in nyc bought it every single store was open there were multiple shoe stores friendly s restaurant a game room with people who actually waited on you multiple food places to choose from a record store beautiful water fountains where the food court is you could go down a few steps and sit by them to eat debs hallmark Sears JCPenney Payless gnc hair salons toys toys coffee shops then the ppl from nyc bought it and that was the end to our mall

I deeply miss the days when malls had weird cool architectural details like this. The Fox Run Mall, my childhood mall, was a lot more interesting when it had a bunch of dark tile, brick and cool fountains. Wood paneling is dope, too!

I used to go to the roller skating facility upstairs. It was epic!!!!

How can we have a housing shortage? When all that needed is to convert these strip malls into community living areas??

I used to take my kids here that upper level was a skating rink… and just of late it’s been announced… someone is going to re-open under new management a skating rink

I think it’s funny there running the fountain and my malls wouldn’t turn it in when it was packed!

No, it's really cool alright. Nice they could at least keep it alive. It reminds me very much of a small local mall we used to have. Especially at Christmas. Walmart bought the entire thing and leveled it; for their supercenter.

Really cool. I don't get all the Christmas stuff already. 🤨

I've been there a bunch of times and would love to return again.

I worked in the roller skating rink on the top floor before I went into the Air Force. Loved it!

They are putting the skating rink back in

That food court area was beautiful! Lot of work went into it It's got soul. It's so sad to see these places go. Awesome video as always!

The upstairs was a roller skating rink in thr 80's grew up at that rink

Lots of memories at that mall growing up ! Use to be roller skating upstairs

Looks a lot like the Hampshire Mall.

Upstairs was the Roller rink

This mall is supposed to be haunted

Great coverage of this beautiful mall! We love heading down there just to hang out every so often and buy something to show a little support. That glossy finish on the bricks in the food court is the icing on the cake. Sangertown Square in New Hartford has a town themed center court also, but hardy compares to this gem. 👍

My mom would never let me go upstairs for roller skating. But, the Rollerdrome is right around the corner, so I guess I wasn't missing out

This mall was one of my two favorites growing up! The other was Shoppingtown Mall in East Syracuse. I thought Carousel (now Destiny USA) was okay as a kid, but now I HATE it. I will only go to Macy’s there because I don’t like shopping online. I wish Fingerlakes Mall would get big again! ❤️

The food court looks like it was designed to mimic Main Street … much nicer than bland beige and white walls .. the Christmas decorations are upside down ?.. and just look sad 😢

Purple Lancers Bingo is held every Thursday night !

Good memories- used to go there often. Still visit Bass Pro every now and then.

It's so loud in their not so bad now but why is it still open theirs nothing muchto look at

I live 25 minutes away from this mall and didn’t know it was still open. That says it all.

did white people used to shop there?