Work gets underway on 400,000 s/f retail center.

A groundbreaking ceremony was recently held for The Shops at Atlas Park, the 400,000-s/f retail and office project in Queens.

The Shops at Atlas Park is one of the first sites to participate in New York State's new brownfield clean-up program.

Executives from A&Co., LLC, the development manager and design architect on behalf of the owner, were in attendance at the event. Plaza Construction Corporation, which served as construction manager for The Shops at Atlas Park during the project's pre-construction phases, joined in the groundbreaking ceremony.

The Shops at Atlas Park, located at 8000 Cooper Ave., will sit on a 12-acre tract of land and feature a 2.5-acre landscaped park. Upon its opening in Spring 2006, The Shops at Atlas Park will feature 60 stores and restaurants comprising 300,000 s/f of space, and 1,600 covered parking spaces.

Thanhauser Esterson Kapell Architects, PC is the project architect. Desman Associates serves as garage engineer and parking consultant. Leni Schwendinger Light Projects is the project's lighting consultant and is designing many of its fixtures. DLB Associates is the mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer, and Rodney D. Gibble Consulting Engineers is the structural engineer for the project. Plainville, Connecticut-based Manafort Brothers International serves as demolition contractor, and Earthtek Inc. is the excavation and remediation contractor.