Residential development along Route 347 has spurred even more retail construction, and more is to come.

And retail construction has also been booming ever since a regional mall was built in 1988.

Since the warehouse club retailer Costco built a 140,000-square-foot store more than a year ago alongside the river, no new retail construction has taken place.

"New York will offer increasingly competitively priced construction, legal, financial, retail and service talent in the coming recovery period," the report said.

In general, however, retail construction in Atlanta has slowed drastically.

"That's the kind of retail construction you're seeing now," he added.

It was the largest retail investment of 2010, a down year in new retail construction.

Today the company includes construction, retail and banking businesses.

And retail construction is at a 10-year low of about $22 billion a year, down from a 1985 high of about $35 billion.

It has been used in hospitality design, military construction, retail, commercial, industrial, and residential design.