Commercial Klutch: May Edition

What follows is our latest dispatch from a person who works in Brooklyn commercial real estate:
Tech tenants are the torrid topic today. Our BK Tech Triangle includes two areas almost fully leased, the Navy Yard and Dumbo, leaving downtown Brooklyn to take the heat. Recent DTB successes include NYU’s buyout of 370 Jay Street and the Makerbot lease at One MetroTech. Forest City Ratner making a strong effort to recruit more of these tenants, on the heels of the huge NYU-Poly deal on campus, and the City’s Department of Information and Technology lease last year.

Court and Montague Streets are not yet favored by most tech and creative tenants, and many of the buildings and landlords are unprepared for and ill-adapted to these tenants. Only now are some buildings, which sport the small offices favored by the tech and creative sector, getting wired up with FiOS and Time Warner cable. Copper is for pennies. Or used to be. Certainly some owners are trying, such as 32 Court, which has eleven creative tenants, the highest percentage in the sub-market. 16 Court has attracted a few, but costs and lease strictures make that address challenging. More owners need to step up.

DUMBO flourished due to short term leases, flexible credit requirements and speedy leases. None of these factors are active on Court and Montague.

Owners are often inflexible and/or old fashioned, out of touch with the business sector under discussion – the fastest growing sector in Brooklyn, predicted to double in the next few years. Where will these tenants go? Will tenants just bypass DTB and and go to Sunset Park and Crown Heights? If it is not working, change what you are doing.
Photo above: 32 Court Street