The East River Fortress Plaza is taking shape at the east end of 116th St. It is a vertical big box suburban mall from Forest City Ratner that is scheduled to open this summer with a Home Depot, Best Buy, Target and 1248 parking spaces. The most distinguishing architectural feature of the building is the swell swirly parking ramp.
With easy on/off access to the FDR Drive via 116th St the mall is meant for commuters not the community. There's also no street presence to the retail shops. 116th St. is all parking garage, 119th is the back of Home Depot. I guess you could walk in on 117th or 118th but otherwise it looks like it will be much easier to enter the building by driving than walking.
Oh, it'll be nice to have a Target close-by, and the shopping by commuters means tax revenue for the city instead of Westchester or Connecticut but the neighborhood surrounding the mall was barely an afterthought.
I've seen you post about this place before, but it just occurred to me that this must be an urban experiment. If so, I hope it works.
I do like going to Target every so often.
Posted by: Marie | 21 March 2008 at 06:00 PM
Yes, I've groused about this place before. As you can tell I have mixed emotions about it, mainly because it literally and figuratively turns it's back on the neighborhood.
It will be really convenient to be so close to a Target. Home Depot and Best Buy I can do without... until that day comes when I need a new fridge.
Posted by: Joe | 21 March 2008 at 10:34 PM