Eastern Hills Mall

Eastern Hills Mall is a shopping mall located at the western border of the Town of Clarence in Erie County, New York, United States. It lies on Transit Road (New York State Route 78, a 73.49-mile state highway), which in the vicinity of the mall, divides Clarence, New York from the town of Amherst, New York east of (Buffalo, New York). The mall is north of the junction of NY-78 with NY-5, and Main Street. The name "Eastern Hills" refers to the very low hills that contribute to a slightly higher elevation than the bordering areas along the Onondaga Escarpment. Eastern Hills Mall is part of a long commercial strip on Transit Road. It consists of two long wings running north and south and one short wing running east and west, which connects the north-south wings in a "double L-shaped" formation. A major department store is at the end of each wing. A food court is located adjacent to the end of the long south wing. A three-screen movie theater showing mainly independent films is also located in the mall, as well as a small New York State Department of Motor Vehicles office. Surrounding the mall is a large, but generally unkept, parking lot. The ratio of the mall is so large, it provides the highest parking ratio of any Buffalo area mall. Much of the parking lot space is leased to area car dealerships to store overstock vehicles due to the low volume of shoppers at the mall. Eastern Hills Mall is currently at approximately 70% occupancy, with many vacant stores throughout the mall and popular anchor store Dave & Busters shuttering its doors in 2015 to move to the nearby Walden Galleria. Eastern Hills is considered by many area residents to be a "dead mall" and is listed on the website Deadmalls.com. Most major and nationally recognized retailers have left and been replaced by independently owned "mom-and-pop" type stores, selling crafts and homemade goods. It is common for retailers to open and close within their first few months, unable to turn a profit due to the low volume of shoppers that still visit Eastern Hills Mall.