GREENBERGFARROW DELIVERS 650,000-SQUARE-FOOT EAST RIVER PLAZA IN MANHATTAN

January 3, 2011

HIGH-EFFICIENCY PROJECT DELIVERS ELEVEN TIMES MORE DENSITY
THAN A TYPICAL RETAIL SITE OF ITS SIZE

GreenbergFarrow, a nationally recognized architectural, planning, development and consulting firm, served as design architect and the architect of record for East River Plaza, the 650,000-square-foot retail center on the FDR Drive in East Harlem.

Manhattan’s first retail power center, East River Plaza was a joint venture between Blumenfeld Development Group and Forest City Ratner. It offers shoppers many of America’s most prominent retailers, including Costco, Target, Best Buy, Marshalls, Old Navy, PetSmart, Bob’s Discount Furniture, and many others.

Situated on portions of three city blocks on a former industrial site, the 6.3-acre project represents an unusually efficient use of urban land. A typical retail complex of its acreage would only deliver some 60,000 square feet of retail space. Thoughtfully designed as a vertical urban mall, East River Plaza thus delivers approximately 10.8 times more leasable area than average retail venues.

“East River Plaza achieved tremendous efficiencies as it transformed an underutilized industrial site into a unique retail center,” said John Clifford, principal for planning at GreenbergFarrow. “This revolutionary development has transcended standard models of retail development by taming common ‘big boxes’ for convenient patronage by urban consumers.”

Once the site of the Washburn Wire factory, East River Plaza consists of four floors and a cellar of retail. The complex is connected by galleries and pedestrian bridges extending across an open-air atrium to a six-level, 1,248-car parking garage. East River Plaza’s large floor area allows big-box retailers to offer “single floor,” suburban-style shopping venues in a Manhattan setting. Two upper levels house several smaller users.

GreenbergFarrow has New York City’s largest retail design portfolio by a substantial margin, having designed the one-million-square foot Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market, the 600,000-square-foot Rego Park II in Queens, the 400,000-square-foot Manhattan Mall redevelopment, the 346,000-square-foot IKEA in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the 276,000-square redevelopment of Fordham Place in the Bronx, the 235,000-square-foot River Plaza in the Bronx, and dozens of other area projects.

By aianj | Posted in NJ Architect Newsletter | Tagged: arch in nj | Comments (0)