Syracuse, N.Y. — Mr. Shop, a menswear store that has been a cornerstone of the retail scene in Syracuse’s Armory Square for decades, is opening a new location in October at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona.
The new, 1,600-square-foot store opens Oct. 1.
“I know already that the clientele for the Mr. Shop already exists out there,” Mr. Shop owner Joel Shapiro said. “This is an opportunity I just had to go with.”6
Shapiro isn’t new to Turning Stone. He opened a suite of four stores at the resort in 2018 in an area known as The Commons. Two focus on womenswear, one carries jewelry and accessories and the fourth has sports merchandise and Turning Stone-branded goods.
The partnership with Turning Stone has been a successful one, Shapiro said. It made the resort a perfect spot for a second Mr. Shop.
He said he had been looking for a second location for about year.
“We’ve had such great experience,” Shapiro said. “We have four stores at the resort and each one of them has been doing exceptionally well. The guests at Turning Stone truly love the service and the product that we are putting forth.”
The new Mr. Shop will be located around the corner from Shapiro’s other stores at Turning Stone.
It will be near a new area known as The Parlor, which will cater to the resort’s high rollers. Mr. Shop specializes in high-end merchandise, so it’s good fit, Shapiro said.
The new store will offer a few things the original Armory Square location does not, Shapiro added.
Tuxedo and suit rentals will be available since Turning Stone regularly hosts weddings, charity events and other parties. The new store will also carry watches and sunglasses.
“As we’ve seen from the experience Joel provides at The Commons, he has a unique talent of understanding the latest trends and being responsive to guest demands,” Oneida Nation Enterprises CEO Ray Halbritter said in a statement. “You don’t have the longevity of Mr. Shop and its 50 years of success without these qualities and also providing exceptional guest service.”
Mr. Shop’s history in Central New York dates back to the 1960′s when Shapiro’s father Bernard founded the business. For much of its life, the store was at ShoppingTown Mall, but it moved to Armory Square in 1990 and quickly became a downtown shopping staple.
Turning Stone once had much bigger retail plans. The resort announced a $100 million, 250,000-square-foot shopping center in 2014 that was to include a movie theater, luxury bowling alley, 60 upscale shops and new restaurants.
A year later, the Oneidas announced an even bigger expansion that would have totaled 300,000 square feet, but plans later shifted. Money that had been earmarked for the shopping center eventually went toward building the Point Place Casino in Bridgeport, which opened in 2018.
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