Company of the Month: HFA - 25 years of experience offering national services on a local scale with Boston office

University Station - Westwood, MA

Boston, MA In 2016, Massachusetts-based Allevato Architects joined Arkansas-based HFA to combine their expertise in architecture and engineering. Since that time, this powerhouse team has continued to provide premium architectural and engineering services with the same level of accuracy, efficiency, and quality that both firms have always prided themselves on, even before coming together. 

The overarching company goal is to design for customer experience. HFA has spent 25 years building long-term, quality relationships and crafting a national presence without sacrificing personalized client experience. We specialize in creating active and vibrant retail shopping center environments, mixed-use developments, customer-focused store and prototype designs and tenant roll-out programs.

Far-reaching spectrum of services

3D rendering of an open-air outlet mall

The heart of HFA is its strong architectural design capabilities integrated with quality, in-house engineering. The company’s portfolio includes more than 15 million s/f of retail development and mixed-use projects. Under the direction of Lou Allevato, based out of the Boston office, the retail development team has built a name for itself within the developer and retail community for designing responsive solutions to position every project successfully in the marketplace, now and in the future. They passionately embrace new technologies integrated into active and vibrant retail shopping center environments to attract the multi-generational population of shoppers. Outdoor spaces filled with activities to bring people together, enticing shoppers to stay longer, and the ability to incorporate new and innovative technological ideas set HFA’s retail projects apart from the rest.

By combining the talent and knowledge of the Boston office with the rest of the company’s expertise in store design and rollout programs, from big-box retail to convenience stores and restaurant renovations, their knowledge within the retail sector is unprecedented.  In addition, they also have teams with parallel expertise and experience in the multifamily residential and distribution center sectors.  Their full-service teams with in-house engineers design  everything from fire protection and fueling stations to refrigeration and energy systems using licensed professionals in mechanical, electrical, structural and civil engineering.

Headquartered out of Bentonville, Arkansas, HFA has additional offices in Fort Worth, Texas, and Mexico City and is licensed in all 50 states and in Mexico. The firm has provided services on more than 8,000 permitted projects and counting. This expertise allows HFA to provide speed-to-market services with a coast-to-coast reach. The company isn’t limited to new structures or services. The Boston team includes expertise with retail, c-store, and restaurant concept rebranding and prototype design, and those professionals can be used throughout the United States and in Mexico with HFA’s expanding footprint. Featuring talented staff drawn from all parts of the country, their offices are conveniently located for a broader reach and to assist on more regional and local levels nationwide. 

Retail from start to finish

Example of an HFA-designed restaurant

Whether reimagining and redeveloping existing centers or planning and creating new large scale shopping venues, the retail design team can help create an active shopping environment that will not only attract the targeted demographics, but will also assist in the effort to obtain the desired tenant mix.

Examples of such projects include University Station in Westwood, Mass., a 2 million s/f, mixed-use project and open-air shopping center that has proven to be highly successful and profitable. The Boston team provided architectural services throughout the three-year project, including entitlements, conceptual design through construction, and tenant coordination.  Similar services were provided for open-air outlet malls in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Des Moines, Iowa.

A culture of collaboration

The entire company promotes a culture of collaboration, which is supported using fully integrated design models. Great spaces happen when architects and engineers are working together to develop creative solutions to optimize the space for the human experience. That’s the goal of any project. Good space is about the way it makes you feel when you experience it, and those at HFA work to create a meaningful place for all to enjoy.

The key to HFA’s collaboration, integration and broad reach is its information technology services. The company’s IT department has created systems with advanced levels of design integration, so services can be offered anywhere in the U.S. HFA’s advanced IT system allows for fully collaborative design and engineering integration between offices, HFA employees and their clients.

Open-air outlet mall - Little Rock, AR

HFA’s higher level of service doesn’t stop with the technology. The company offers design solutions that can go from hand drawn to hands on, thanks to its advanced Design Lab on the Bentonville campus. This 1,800 s/f lab includes state-of-the-art tools and 3D printers than can take prototype design ideas to the next level. These prototypes can be smaller version of unique branding design elements or full-size, in-store mock-ups of displays, storage, signage or checkout.

With the combination of leading edge design and technological capabilities comes the ability to provide dramatic and lively three-dimension visualization products.  From virtual animations to photorealistic renderings, HFA’s designers and graphic visualization team bring any conceptual design to life for presentation to municipalities during the entitlement process or to assist the leasing efforts when communicating with tenants to explain the future potential of a shopping center or site.

Whether retail, restaurant or residential, HFA has the expertise readily available to provide clients in the U.S. and Mexico with the highest quality design and engineering services.

Want to learn more? Visit www.hfa-ae.com or search for their social media sites on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest.