Changing Lifestyles

Atlas Park will be first lifestyle center in New York area

by Lynne Viccaro O'Leary

New York's first-ever lifestyle center is under way.

The Shops at Atlas Park, located in Glendale, Queens, on the site of the former Atlas bus terminals, will soon be a 10-acre mixed-use site with upscale retail establishments surrounding 2.3 acres of park-like grounds. Residents won't have to travel an hour east to shop at their favorite upscale retailers.

Excavation on the project, which is slated for completion in March 2006, took place in September, said Damon Hemmerdinger, development director of Atco Properties & Management in New York. The site once thrived with various industrial businesses in addition to the bus terminals.

Construction costs are estimated at $120 million. When completed, Atlas Park will feature 400,000 sq. ft. of retail and 50,000 sq. ft. of office space. In addition, a 12,000-sq-ft. day-care center is planned.

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The project is still in the design stage, said Mark Powers, owner's representative for the Shops at Atlas Park.

"Construction has not started," he added. "Demolition has been going on for the past 15 months."

Except for some modification of function and usage of space, few changes have been made since the project's inception.

Of the 20 buildings that were on the site, 16 of them were to be demolished and the remaining four are to be renovated. Since the original plans, it was decided that an additional structure, building one, would be demolished and rebuilt instead of renovated to achieve the quality and finish the developers want.

Rod Gibble of Rodney D. Gibble Consulting Engineers of New York said the buildings will be constructed using steel framing for durability. "There will also be a six-story independent garage structure that will accommodate approximately 800 cars," he added. It will be attached to one of the buildings on the site."

Originally, the plans were to use cement plaster stucco in construction of the buildings, but that was changed to glass fiber reinforced concrete panels.

"GFRC panels provide a durable, high-quality finish," Gibble said. "The buildings will be less impacted by bad weather. In addition, cost studies show that it is close in price to cement stucco."

GFRC panels are seen as more versatile to work with architecturally and are lighter than precast concrete, which gives the builder more design flexibility and reduces labor costs. The system, which consists of GFRC skin supported by light-gauge, cold-formed steel studs, neutralizes wind and seismic loads by resisting skin-bending stresses.

GFRC is also designed to accommodate heat-related expansion to avoid buckling or other stresses in panel components. GFRC offsets initial drying and shrinkage loads and moisture.

Talks are ongoing with a number of upscale retailers. So far, Coldwater Creek, Elizabeth Arden Red Door Salon, Jos. A Bank and Mitchell's Fish Market have signed letters of intent in the first phase of preleasing.