6. Rego Center was built on the former Alexander’s department store
Rego Center is a Rego Park shopping mall by the Long Island Expressway and Queens Boulevard. The mall contains properties like Costco, IKEA, and other large retail stores. Many of the stores opened in the early 2010s across the four levels of shops at the mall, and the center was designed by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects.
Rego Center opened on the site of the only Queens location of Alexander’s, a department store that began in the Bronx in 1928. The store catered to the upper-middle class and offered a selection of designer clothing. The franchise expanded during the Great Depression with more discounts and bargains, and the Rego Park store opened in 1959. It later opened its flagship store on 59th Street in Manhattan in 1963. Discount department store Caldor bought the location in 1995, though just a year later, Sears took over the space.