“It’s a real shame what’s happening over there, because I grew up in that mall,” one Wantagh native recalled.
A heap of others with proud South Shore roots would most definitely agree, as the sight of a vacant Sunrise Mall in Massapequa—save for the still open for business “Dick’s Sporting Goods”—makes any hour “Dour Hour” for all those driving by.
The shopping plaza had one of the last remaining Orange Julius locations on Long Island, and also sported a Macy’s as an anchor tenant since the very day the mall first opened back in 1973.
Prior to the mall’s closure, patrons were not allowed inside, and only able to access stores that were facing the parking lots.
This Nassau County mall gutting comes after Suffolk County saw similar “Dawn of the Dead”–evoking mall erasure, namely at the SunVet Mall of Holbrook. SunVet’s lone remaining tenants included a Citibank and a Liquor Store before construction began on a transformative outdoor plaza rebrand, which is still in the works.
No plans have been announced for what tenant neighbors Massepequa’s Dick’s Sporting Goods location may soon come to welcome.
At the start of 2025, Newsday reported that the Sunrise Mall Holdings LLC stopped extending leases for Sunrise Mall in 2022. “The partnership group did not provide details but hopes to make an announcement this year,” a managing member told the outlet.
With two standard-issue stories of athletic equipment and apparel, Dick’s continues to thrive in the Massapequa area—a hotbed for outdoor kids.
Still, a lone Dick’s defeats the purpose of the mall experience it was initially erected to serve.
As Jason Lee’s Brodie Bruce uttered in Kevin Smith’s criminally slept-upon “Clerks” follow-up “Mallrats” in 1995, “Oh, how I love the smell of commerce in the morning.”
Generations of patrons at Sunrise sure did too, before Amazon killed the mall-going star.