public space. Construction began in 1995, paving the plaza with cobblestone and adding the bus shelters and obelisk sculptures. It was officially opened on August 28, 1997. In 2004, the Sears Building was purchased by the Acadia Realty Trust and P/A Associates. A year later, an expansion project was announced. On March 29, 2007, groundbreaking began on the expansion of the complex, renamed Fordham Place, which would build a new 14-story mixed use structure on two parking lots adjacent to the Sears building. It was the first mixed-use development in the borough since the opening of One Fordham Plaza. The Sears store closed that year due to the project. The new Fordham Place, however, brought several new outlets, including the borough's first Best Buy location, a Walgreens pharmacy, and a new smaller Sears store. The enlarged complex opened in February 2009. Mayor Michael Bloomberg published the PlaNYC 2030 plan of public initiatives in 2007. Part of that plan included a restructuring of Fordham Plaza's bus terminal and market area, in order to improve lighting and public safety and increase public space. The project received funding from the United States Department of Transportation, including $7.2 million from the TIGER grant program. Construction began in February 2013. Renovations on the Fordham Metro-North station in conjunction with the project began in March 2014. The current bus loop was completed in 2014, and construction started on the second phase of the project on August 27, 2014. The entire plaza opened to the public on January 20, 2016. Transportation Twelve New York City Bus local routes, as well as three from the Bee-Line Bus System of Westchester County, stop at or near the plaza. These include the Bx12 and Bx41 Select Bus Service routes that run along Fordham Road and Webster Avenue respectively. Only two routes (the Bx15 and Bx17) actually stop within the plaza's bus terminal area, and only the Bx15 uses the loop. The plaza is located directly above the Metro-North's Fordham station, one of the busiest in that system. The main entrance and ticket office is located across Fordham Road, while a secondary entrance (consisting of two stairways to the respective northbound and southbound platforms) is located at the north end of the plaza bus loop. With the closure of the Third Avenue El in 1973, the closest subway stop to the plaza is the Fordham Road station of the IND Concourse