Apr 12, 2007

Downtown look, upscale tastes; Owner of Clifton Park Center is luring innovative stores to remake shopping complexBy Alan WechslerTimesUnion.com

Clifton Park — The two owners of Mochalisa’s, a new coffee shop at Clifton Park Center, were pretty happy about their first full day of operation on Tuesday. Only a few hours into their day, they already had a meeting room full of salespeople who were fueling their sales techniques with cups of Mochalisa coffee.

When moving to their new location, Mochalisa owners Jeff Lescinsky and Michael Serianni decided to include the meeting room — which can be rented by the hour — a wine bar and other attributes not often seen at similar bistros.

For the past two years, Mochalisa’s was located on Route 9 in Halfmoon. But after talking to coffee customers and spending a day at Clifton Park Center’s new outdoor shopping center a few months ago, they decided the mall was for them.

“We’ve got a lot of positive feedback about being over here,” Lescinsky said.

In the year since DCG Development Co. of Clifton Park bought the mall, it’s begun delivering on the promise of turning it into an outdoor shopping center with a downtown feel. A selection of unique stores is beginning to fill the colorful facades that replaced the old mall.

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