NEWARK, NJ—The General Consulate of Ecuador has received approval from the city of Newark to expand its existing building at 1129 – 1137 Broad Street, which currently contains 3,500 square-feet of office space, to a new larger footprint of more than 11,400 square feet.

The construction, expected to begin before the end of this year, will include a complete renovation of the building, which is conveniently located near the citizenship and immigration offices at the Peter Rodino federal building on Broad Street, as well as Newark's City Hall. Designing the new building is the Hackensack firm, José Carballo Architecture.

“The Ecuadoran consulate has existed in rented space on market Street for a few years now,” Michael Oliveira, an attorney with the law firm of Genova Burns Giantomasi Webster, tells Globe Street.com exclusively. “When it came time for them to make a decision to acquire a piece of property and put some permanent roots down, they decided to purchase a piece of property in the city of Newark on Broad Street and came to our office to get the required land-use approval so they could build the consulate offices. We represented them at the Newark planning board and on August 18, we got the approval for them to build.”