GUILDERLAND — A 34-year-old Albany man was charged today with second-degree unlawful imprisonment and two counts of fourth-degree stalking at Crossgates Mall in Guilderland.

Pyramid Management will pay the Guilderland Police Department the cost of hiring two new officers in exchange for the department’s increasing to full-time two officers’ patrols at Crossgates Mall, paid for by the force itself. The officers who patrol the mall are detectives and paid more than new hires. 

Pyramid has agreed to convey to the Rapp Road Historical District five properties that it has bought within the district; the properties could be used, it says, to build a cultural center. The district denotes a rare intact neighborhood of homes built by African-Americans who came north from Mississippi during the Great Migration. 

Three minors in a separate U-Haul vehicle — stopped near Exit 24 of the Thruway — have now been arrested. Six minors in a U-Haul that crashed near St. Peter’s Hospital had already been arrested, and one more minor, who Troopers say fled from the crashed U-Haul, was also added to the list of arrests in the case. 

The mall is no less safe than anywhere else, said Curtis Cox, deputy chief of the Guilderland Police, “with our presence and with the security presence, and with all the different initiatives we’re doing.” He added that he hopes people will not stay away from the mall because of a few incidents. “We’d hate to see people discouraged,” he said. 

The grassroots organizations Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth, Save the Pine Bush, and the Rapp Road Historical Association have launched a GoFundMe drive to fund hiring their own, independent scientists to evaluate any studies provided by Pyramid in its DEIS. But as of Jan. 10, the group had raised just $2,925 of its $100,000 goal. 

GUILDERLAND — Police here worked with their counterparts in Baton Rouge to arrest a man in Louisiana who left a disturbing — but, as it turned out, hollow — message last weekend with the Albany Times Union.

A video of a Crossgates Mall brawl posted to Twitter has been viewed three million times. 

GUILDERLAND — Stephen Cadalso was one of the residents of the ghost neighborhood in front of Crossgates Mall; he sold his home to Pyramid in December 2015. He believes Pyramid’s current plan to build a Costco in his old neighborhood is “too intense” of a use.

Next steps are for the project to go to the Albany County Planning Board, possibly  in December, then to Guilderland’s planning board for a recommendation to the zoning board, and then to the zoning board for a public hearing no earlier than Jan. 15.