Modern mall taking shape
NORWALK — On any given day, more than 300 construction workers are busy building The SoNo Collection, excavating soil, erecting steel beams and even installing restroom tiles.
A year into construction of the upscale regional shopping center off West Avenue and Interstate 95, work is flourishing in numerous construction trades throughout the site with completion and opening still on target for October 2019.
“Production-wise, we’re right at 57 percent, overall project complete,” said VCC/KBE General Superintendent John Edminson. “We’re tracking well, in terms of volume, being just a little over 13 months old from the first foundation — we poured our first foundation July of 2017.”
Chicago-based mall developer General Growth Properties hired VCCUSA, a national firm, and Connecticut-based KBE Building Corp. as its general contractors for the project.
Work continued through the winter months with concrete and steel framework going up.
Edminson said 58,000 cubic yards of concrete is in place. Steel erection stands at more than 64 percent complete. On Aug. 10, VCC/KBE will turn over the “podium” of the future Nordstrom store for completion. Nordstrom and fellow anchor Bloomingdale’s hire their own architects and contractors to shape their spaces.
The SoNo Collection will house 750,000 square feet of retail, including anchor tenants Nordstrom and Bloomingdales as well as 80 to 100 smaller retailers.
The approved plan also calls for 180,000 square feet of commons area, 87,000 square feet of public realm space, including a sculpture garden, rooftop garden, exterior plazas and interior courts. Up to 6 percent of square footage will be devoted to restaurant space.
Bob Piacentini, VCC/ KBE superintendent, steps onto the second level of the mall and points to the framework that will delineate the main walkway from smaller retail spaces.
“This will be a concourse and there will be tenant space going west,” Piacentini said. “Tenant bulkhead is what we call it, which will be the storefront and retail space.”
On the northeast end of the mall, near where Nordstrom will be located, is an oval-shaped terrace — one of several already built — where shoppers will be able to look downward at other activities within the shopping center.
The area to the south is more enclosed. Concrete walls and corridors section off the future restrooms where some finishing work has begun.
“You’ll see a lot of the interior wall and finishes are actually already starting,” Edminson said. “We’re already putting ceramic tiles in the restrooms. Most of the bulkheads are complete. The Sheetrock is up.”
Elsewhere, work is proceeding from the ground up with a parking garage under construction on the east side, and steel yet to go up on the west side to create retail space facing West Avenue.
“It will start on Monday,” Piacentini said. “We’ll start on the northwest corner.”
But the pieces soon will come together, including an overpass connecting the main portion of the mall with the Bloomingdale’s store on the south side of North Water Street.
The roadway was closed between West Avenue and the Metro-North Railroad Danbury Line tracks Jan. 24 to build the overpass connecting the two portions of The SoNo Collection. Piacentini expects the roadway to reopen in August.