Create Architecture Planning and Design

CREATE: The Little Firm that Could!

In just five years since its inception, New York City-based CREATE Architecture Planning & Design has become a leader in the retail design industry. With offices atop the world-famous Chrysler Building, CREATE's studio evokes the ingenuity and creative response all developers seek: basic building materials and cost effective, innovative responses.

"Service, quality and attention" is the CREATE mantra, says Principal Frankie J. Campione. Over 85% of the firm's current workload is repeat clientele. "We are fortunate to have a core group of clients that have done referrals for us," he says. "We don't try to be everything to everyone, just the best for a few."

With that in mind, CREATE has drawn the attention of such prominent national developers as Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT), Developers Diversified Realty Corp and General Growth Properties. All three are clients of CREATE.

"Its wonderful," says Campione. "The big developers have discovered they can hire a small firm and get Principal involvement from inception to completion. The boutique approach to our studio allows us to accommodate the rapid changes in the retail business" (He likens his firm to a speedboat rather than a cruise ship attempting to turn on a dime.)

The CREATE team has handled four mall renovations in the 5 years including last year’s 1.2 million sq. ft. renovation of Willow Grove Park in suburban Philadelphia. In the New York metro market, CREATE has completed the 100,000 sf Pathmark Plaza Shopping Center for Queens based Developer, The Mattone Group. CREATE has also completed Dewy Meadow Village in Basking Ridge, New Jersey for Garden Homes Development and are now in conceptual design phase for a 750,000 sf power center called Centerton Square in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey for Developers Diversified. Among CREATE's non-retail projects is its stabilization and adaptive re-use of the New York State Pavilion at the former World's Fair Grounds to an Air & Space Museum for the people of New York.

Shopping Center Business, December 2002