GreenbergFarrow designs newly opened 276,475 s/f Fordham Place

GreenbergFarrow, an architectural, planning, engineering and development consulting firm, has designed and delivered the newly opened Fordham Place, a 276,475 s/f, mixed-use retail and office complex on East Fordham Rd. Situated along New York City's third-largest retail corridor, Fordham Place is the latest addition to GreenbergFarrow's rapidly growing portfolio of mixed-use, retail and luxury residential developments within the city. The first, new mixed-use development in the Bronx in more than fifteen years, Fordham Place was developed by Acadia Realty Trust and its partner PA Associates. The prime retail destination - situated on a prominent, wedge-shaped property at the intersection of Webster Avenue - provides three full stories of retail space featuring Sears, Best Buy, 24 Hour Fitness and Walgreens.  Located directly opposite Fordham University, the project's 14-story office component has floor plates ranging from 27,659 rentable s/f in the base to tower-floor opportunities consisting of 8,165 rentable s/f. "Fordham Place has transformed a conventional department store venue into a prominent landmark in one of New York's hottest retail districts," said Navid Maqami, AIA, NCARB, LEED, principal and vice president of architecture at GreenbergFarrow.  "Fulfilling Acadia and PA's vision for the site, we overcame an array of design challenges by taking every opportunity to smoothly integrate new construction into the original building." Because of its numerous environmentally friendly design features, Fordham Place was awarded precertification under the LEED for Core & Shell rating system by the U.S. Green Building Council, and is seeking LEED certification. "This property is the first class A office building to be built in the Bronx in over 20 years.  It provides tenants with new facilities, flexible footprint opportunities, Manhattan views, and accessibility to transportation that rival any borough-based mixed-use project," said Aaron Malinsky, principal of PA Associates.  "We are offering a product that until now has not really existed in this area, and this is clearly one of the reasons for our enormous success at Fordham Place."   Some of GreenbergFarrow's other outsized mixed-use and retail projects in New York City include the one million s/f Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market, the 1.9 million-s/f City Point in downtown Brooklyn, the 527,000 s/f East River Plaza in upper Manhattan, the 600,000 s/f retail portion of the Rego Park II project in Queens, the 235,000 s/f River Plaza retail center in the Bronx, the 346,000 s/f IKEA Brooklyn, renovation of the 400,000 s/f Manhattan Mall, and the two Manhattan Home Depots on West 23rd Street and East 59th St. At Fordham Place, GreenbergFarrow converted the building from single-tenant use to multiple retail and office use by expanding the second through sixth floors. Maintaining and reusing as much of the existing structure as possible, the architecture firm added a total of approximately 90,000 s/f to the property's first six floors.  A 37,000 s/f cellar was also expanded.    As part of its design strategy, GreenbergFarrow upgraded elements of the existing façade, including the addition of a glass curtain wall.  The loading dock was relocated and replaced with a two-to-five story glass appendage that helps draw pedestrians to the area and serves as an entrance to upper-level retailers.