 The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed structure was built on the former Postal Service property that had been a vacant urban-renewal site for over a decade prior; the USPS was paid $1.4 million in 1983 to give up the plot and move to a smaller site one block south on East 188th Street, which is now the Fordham Post Office.The structure was complete by 1985, and it opened in August 1986 at the cost of about $65 million.Upon opening, it was predominantly leased by city and state agencies, while much of the retail space was vacant.