Queens Center and Queens Place Malls will stay open, with some restrictions

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Queens Place Mall (pictured) is located in the yellow “precautionary” zone, while Queens Center Mall down the street is in the orange “warning” zone. Eagle file photo by Katie Finkowski

Queens Place Mall (pictured) is located in the yellow “precautionary” zone, while Queens Center Mall down the street is in the orange “warning” zone. Eagle file photo by Katie Finkowski

By David Brand

A pair of adjacent Elmhurst malls say they will remain open for business, despite new COVID-19 restrictions that affect each shopping center differently.

Queens Center Mall and Queens Place Mall are separated by a few hundred feet but fall within different COVID zones implemented by the state and city today. The two zones come with different restrictions on gathering, dining and business operations.

Queens Center is located in the orange “warning” zone, which forms a ring around a COVID cluster where virus positivity rates have spiked. The shopping center will remain open with precautions already in place, according to the management office.

In the orange zone, “high-risk” non-essential businesses, like gyms and salons, must close, gatherings are limited to 10 people and indoor dining is prohibited. Queens Center management said they have already removed indoor seating to prevent people from congregating in the common spaces between stores. Restaurants are takeout only, and individual stores have limited capacity and mandated social distancing on lines.

Tanbir Chowdhury, an employee at Piercing Pagoda, said he plans to head to work today, though restrictions on piercings will limit business to jewelry sales. 

Chowdhury said he fears more closures if COVID rates don’t decrease in Central Queens.  

“I think the orange zone is on thin ice and a lot of what’s happening now is resembling what was happening before we closed down,” he said. “Businesses were inching away from key services.”

The state shut down malls in New York City from mid-March until Sept. 9, when they could reopen at 50 percent capacity.

If the mall closes again, Chowdhury said he will have to find a new job to pay for his education at John Jay College. He was furloughed for more than six months before returning to work in September. 

Once a federal unemployment stimulus ended, the $200 a week he received just didn’t cut it, he said.

“Better safe than sorry, but I need to work,” he said.

Queens Place Mall, located about a tenth of a mile to the west of Queens Center, falls under the yellow “precautionary” zone, which covers a large swath of the borough

In the yellow zone, gatherings are capped at 25 people and restaurants are limited to four people per table. 

Queens Place Mall is home to a handful of large big box retailers, and will remain open, said Evan Walke, a portfolio manager for Madison International Realty which owns the mall. 

“Queens Place is located in the yellow zone.  The only new guideline for this zone is indoor dining, limited to four people per table, which our tenants are strictly following,” Walke said.

The mall has continued to follow health guidelines, including frequent cleanings and mandatory mask-wearing, he added. The mall also provides masks to customers who need one.

The different restrictions applying to two neighboring malls reflects one example of how awkward boundaries have separated COVID zones in parts of Queens.

Along Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, for example, stores on the north side fall under the red “cluster” zone rules, which shut down all non-essential businesses and close restaurants for all but take-out.

Businesses on the south side are at the edge of the orange warning zone, which means most can stay open. 

“It’s pretty bad. They could be more surgical,” said Queens Chamber of Commerce President Tom Grech. “We have the technology out there, if there are certain blocks, in certain areas that are having these problems, can’t we be more surgical and fix that?”

The Mayor’s Office and Governor’s Office have not provided a response to questions about the boundaries or how new COVID restrictions will affect malls in Queens and Brooklyn.