New Roc City has become a symbol of a downtown revival that never arrived.
When the 1.2 million-square-foot shopping and entertainment complex opened with major fanfare in 1999, it was billed as the centerpiece of New Rochelle’s effort to revive its long-neglected downtown.
Almost three decades later, the complex is showing its age. Many storefronts are vacant, customer traffic is thin and groups of unruly youths sometimes make shoppers and families uncomfortable.
“It just sucks,” one New Roc retailer told The Post. “It was a really bad idea and it didn’t work. They were trying to make it cool, but it just sucks. It’s a pain in the ass.”
“New Roc City just sucks,” the retailer added. “It’s obviously been a big flop.”
The complex at 33 LeCount Place cost nearly $200 million to develop. At its height, it featured the county’s first IMAX theater, fitness and educational businesses, restaurants and recreational attractions, including the Space Shot thrill ride, which helped draw families and younger visitors.
But over time, the property’s isolated layout and location became significant obstacles.
“New Roc City was supposed to be the ultimate hangout spot for friends, couples and single people,” said DC Andino, a county resident who once attended classes at a nearby Monroe College campus. “But now it’s dead. I grew up coming here and it used to be so lively. Now, it’s all dim and dead.”
Community leaders point to several reasons for the decline, including the center’s enclosed design, changing habits in shopping and entertainment, and a new approach to redeveloping New Rochelle. That strategy has emphasized attracting New York City commuters, many of whom do not regularly patronize local businesses.
“It’s like Oz, and Oz isn’t real,” said Jim Killoran, a longtime New Rochelle activist and executive director of the Fuller Center for Housing of Greater New York City. “And who’s the wizard?”
“It’s a mall next to a main street, and they call themselves separate,” Killoran said. “There’s New Roc City and then there’s the rest of us. You don’t have people saying, ‘Hey, let’s go to New Roc tonight.’ You don’t create a successful project that way. It feels like a completely different world from downtown.”
Safety and security have also weighed on the complex’s reputation, despite a New Rochelle police outpost located inside the shopping center.
Last year, a 47-year-old man faced federal charges after a drug-lab fire broke out in a room at the Residence Inn hotel at New Roc City.
In July 2024, police arrested two armed men in the New Roc parking garage following a nearby shooting. Four months earlier, gunfire erupted during a fight outside a Burger King located inside the complex.
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Residents and visitors say groups of young people still occasionally roam the mall, making some patrons and families feel threatened. Throughout the property, visible signs of neglect have added to the concerns.
“The smell of urine, elevators not working, rats and plenty of homeless in areas of the garage,” said local activist and former political candidate James O’Toole. “The fire system does not work after the city just installed a new one, most of the doors to the stairwells don’t work and most exit signs are not lit.”
“There are plenty of abandoned cars on all levels of the garage,” O’Toole said. “The garage entrance near the hotel has been closed off for over three months. The bottom level is littered with construction debris.”
New Rochelle, a city of roughly 80,000 people, has seen a wave of high-rise residential construction in recent years. Its Democratic-led City Council has embraced a walkable, transit-oriented redevelopment plan centered on the Metro-North station.
Cappelli Enterprises originally developed New Roc City, which was sold nearly a decade ago to EPR Properties, a Kansas City-based real estate investment company that remains the property’s owner.
A spokesperson for EPR Properties said the complex “remains an active entertainment and mixed-use destination,” with tenants in entertainment, recreation, fitness, dining and hospitality.
“It has evolved over the years as consumer preferences and surrounding downtown have changed,” the rep said. “We continue to operate and invest in the property while evaluating opportunities to enhance its long-term role in New Rochelle.”
The spokesperson said EPR does not consider the mall unsafe or in disrepair, noting that the COVID epidemic impacted retailers and entertainment centers, but that New Roc “rebounded,” with new tenants that include an Audi dealership and Soccer Roof.
“Our focus is not on what might have been done differently, but on how New Roc City can evolved with the downtown,” he added.
Likewise, a rep for New Rochelle City Hall said the mall “has long been an important part of New Rochelle’s downtown and continues to evolve” alongside “significant growth investment” in the area.
They said New Roc remains an important part of the city’s downtown plans.
Despite the rosy outlook, shopping center retailers and city residents don’t share the optimism.
“It’s abandoned,” New Rochelle resident Keith Collins said. “We talk about this all the time.
“They need a medium level store like an Old Navy, maybe a Uniqlo or H&M,” Collins said. “For a mall, you need foot traffic.”
Additional reporting by Mark Lungariello
