Craft-beer maker Brooklyn Brewery will join iconic Lower East Side eatery Russ & Daughters as the second anchor tenant of the Yard’s in-the-works public food hall in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The borough’s eponymous brewery will open a rooftop beer garden and restaurant, headquarters, office space, and manufacturing in the Navy Yard’s Building 77, the formerly windowless 1-million-square-foot storage facility undergoing an $185 million renovation, the company announced Monday.

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The Brooklyn Brewery at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Rendering via Brooklyn Brewery

The brewery’s Navy Yard menu will feature eats somewhere between pretzels-and-bratwursts bar food and Michelin-star dining, Brooklyn Brewery’s chief executive Eric Ottaway told The Wall Street Journal.

With its incredible views, the planned rooftop beer hall will be the only publicly accessible area in the building above the ground floor, at least so far. Brooklyn Brewery will also have a glass-walled manufacturing area, which will be visible to any patron interested in watching the creation process.

brooklyn brewery navy yard press conference
Brooklyn Brewery, Navy Yard and NYC officials announce the plans at the Navy Yard Monday. Photo by Brownstoner

The Navy Yard location will produce 50,000 barrels of beer annually, the company said in a statement.

The space, which will employ 124 people, is set to open in 2018. Brooklyn Brewery signed a 40-year lease for 75,000 square feet in the building, according to the Journal.

Founded in 1988, Brooklyn Brewery will be moving its longtime Williamsburg headquarters to the Navy Yard, although it intends to keep its retail and manufacturing operations going at its Williamsburg location until its lease there expires in 2025, the company said.

The brewery is also mulling moving its Utica, N.Y., production to Staten Island, according to Brooklyn Brewery co-founder Steve Hindy.

The Brooklyn Brewery’s move to the yard is significant for both parties: a big move toward increased openness and accessibility for the mostly closed-off yard, and a sign of stability for the brewery, which has been looking for a new headquarters for an expansion since 2013.

brooklyn brewery navy yard
Building 77. Rendering via Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation

In addition to the Brooklyn Brewery outpost, Building 77 will include other tenants in its ground-floor food manufacturing and dining facilities with offices on the floors above.

Two other major construction projects are also going on at the yard right now: the Green Manufacturing Center and Dock 72. Combined with the changes at Building 77, these three projects are poised to bring an estimated 8,000 more workers to the Navy Yard over the next several years, solidifying its status as a hub for Brooklyn makers and creatives.

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A rendering shows a cafe and bar area at the Brooklyn Brewery’s in-the-works space at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Rendering by Davis Brody Bond

“The Navy Yard was always one of our favorite locations, but the problem was that there was no public access as an industrial park,” Hindy told the Journal.

The Brooklyn Brewery began crafting its nationally renowned Brooklyn Lager back in 1988. A former Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, Hindy was inspired to brew beer by his experience with Saudi Arabian diplomats who circumvented Islamic law’s ban on alcohol by home brewing.

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