Commercial Real Estate
November 2, 2009
Brooklyn Brewery Staying Put Courtesy of Weak Market
Before the real estate market started to weaken back in 2008, Brooklyn Brewery had been desperately (and unsuccessfully) searching for a new place to set up shop in Brooklyn; after two decades on North 11th Street in Williamsburg, commercial rents had crept up to $30 a year, more than three times what the brewery was paying and well beyond the reach for most manufacturing businesses. Now, however, thanks to the weakening market which has reduced the competition from other uses like hotels, bowling alleys and upscale markets, and a $800,000 grant from the state, Brooklyn Brewery has managed to negotiate a new lease that will let the beer maker stay put for another five years. “When the recession hit in, like, August or September last year, all of a sudden the landlords here in Williamsburg were looking much more favorably on us as a long-term tenant,” Brooklyn Brewery's founder Steve Hindy told The New York Times.
Soft Real Estate Market Is a Key Ingredient at Brooklyn Brewery [NY Times]
Photo by wallyg
October 30, 2009
Mattress Company Out, CoHousing Up In the Air
An eagle-eyed reader snapped this photo of some action at the mattress factory at 1901 8th Avenue. Why is this notable? It's the same building that the Brookyn CoHousing group spent much of the last year planning to buy and renovate for their experiment in communal living. Unfortunately, though, the CoHousing deal is not a done one. From what we hear, the owner of the property ran out of patience as the bank kept raising the financing hurdles for the CoHousing group and sold the property to another buyer recently (nothing is filed in public records yet). As we understand it, there is still the possibility that the new owner could work something out with CoHousing, but in the meantime the group is still looking for alternative sites. On the jump, a photo of the interior of the mattress factory from a few months ago.
More Trouble for CoHousing Group [Brownstoner]
Banks Throw Co-Housing Project a Curveball [Brownstoner]
Continue reading "Mattress Company Out, CoHousing Up In the Air"
October 29, 2009
Report: IBZ's Not Entirely Industrial
Five years ago Mayor Bloomberg created 16 Industrial Business Zones in the outer boroughs in an effort to protect the manufacturing businesses there by preventing residential development. A recent report by the New York Industrial Retention Network is critical of some aspects of the program, citing the fact that there are 39 commercial (but not industrial) businesses that have opened within the IBZ's and the stat that industrial rents have doubled to $18 a foot since 2000. Among the non-industrial businesses cited were two bowling alleys, an art gallery and a few bars in Williamsburg.
City's Industrial Zones Undermined, Report Says [Crain's]
Photo by Katie Sokoler for Gothamist
October 15, 2009
Commercial Klutch: October Edition
Our masked correspondent is back with the commercial dish...
The beautiful building that should have won the Chamber’s Building BK Awards Preservation category this year doesn’t great retail make. BellTel’s ground space goes begging - spaces too big for Willoughby Street, too ‘off Fulton’ in a near death national tenant market. Changed brokers…. we’ll see. On the other hand, 345 Adams in great demand, with a top landlord and broker holding out for quality and a complimentary use. They’ll get it. An Apple Store location if there ever was one. If only Mac was attacking….
Is the HRA ever going to sign the 4 MetroTech lease? Is deal dead? Hear it is very very cheap….. After decades of neglect landlord JPDay gut rehabbed 186 Joralemon, sold 16 Court and are repairing and cleaning the attractive 44 Court façade. Take care of those buildings please. We are replaceable, they are not. SLGreen already spent more money tuning up 16 Court than JP did in all the years they owned it. Pays off – 16 was bought over 25% vacant, will go below 8% this year.
Huge lease this year by NYC Housing Authority at The BOX, 470 Vanderbilt. 62,000 rsf in the mid-twenties, built. Gets them out of crap multi-floor space, too. Two Trees holding onto their face rents in mid-twenties, but with some concessions. Have a lease out on a great 5000 in 45 Main….Cool tenants keep coming. Former Boar’s Head space on the market direct. Landlord blowing off callers we hear. That $140 a foot deal (and days) are long gone. Rough. Burgers booming at Checkers so I imagine fast food will replace the elegant but bland Martinellas.
‘Mall’, movies and munchies.
Glad Armando’s back. Good food. Head to head with BG. Crime if lobster sign not part of BK Heights forever…write your councilmember. After that, walk downhill to Dumbolio and try Rebar at 147 Front. Good food, lots of noise. So you can get hammered among friends – Superfine, Rebar and 68 Jay saloon all within one block. While you are there check out the Guttman’s 147 Front/68 Jay 2nd/3rd floor set up around and above Rebar. Truly fine use of brick & timber commercial.
Prior Commercial Klutch Posts [Brownstoner]
October 2, 2009
New Do-Gooder Org in Former Nonprofit Space
The office space on 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues that used to house the Center for an Urban Environment is now being leased by Family Home Care Services, an affiliate of Catholic Charities that provides in-home care to the elderly, ill and disabled. What's more interesting about the space, however, is how it was abruptly vacated by the Center for an Urban Environment last April: With almost no notice, the nonprofit's board of directors decided to shut down the 30-year-old organization because of financial woes. The nonprofit hadn't been headquartered at the 7th Street location for very long. GMAP
September 30, 2009
123 Community Space Goes Out with a Bang
123 Community Space, whose name requires no explanation, is being evicted from its current location at 123 Tompkins Avenue in Bed-Stuy. So to go out with a bang, they're hosting an all-night party tonight starting at 9:00 p.m., with live music and a DJ face-off. Their website is currently down, but if it goes back up you can see examples of the kind of work they do—the Bed-Stuy blog says 123 has hosted bike repair workshops, afterschool programs, and benefits for political prisoners. Brooklyn the Borough wrote back in June that landlord Mayer Friedman initiated court proceedings in May to evict 123 simply because he didn't want a community organization in his building. The community has rallied around the org, and many are now expressing hopes that it can reopen nearby—does anyone out there know 123's plans? Are they looking for a new location or is this the final curtain?
Last Hurrah at 123 Tompkins [Bed-Stuy Blog]
123 Community Space Facing Eviction [Brooklyn the Borough]
Photo from Brooklyn the Borough
September 22, 2009
BJ's for Bensonhurst?
Joe Sitt, best known as a major landholder on Coney Island, is again making headlines for his plans to build a mall at a bus lot in Bensonhurst. Thor Equities, Mr. Sitt's development company, is hoping to create a 214,000-square-foot shopping center with BJ's Wholesale Club and three other, as yet unsigned, retailers, reports The Observer. Thor has filed for a rezoning of the site and is going through due process with the Department of City planning. Thor has also proposed a BJ's at the former Revere sugar refinery in Red Hook, across from Ikea. GMAP
Sitt Comes Back to Bloomberg for Brooklyn BJ's [Observer]
BJ's on Tap for Red Hookers [Brooklyn Paper]
Revere Sugar Demolition continues [Brownstoner]
City's Coney Plan Approved, Deal with Sitt Near [Brownstoner]
September 16, 2009
Hospital Sells Building and Closes Down
Yesterday the sale of the building that housed Victory Memorial Hospital, on the Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights border, was recorded in public records, and the price tag—$45 million—makes it one of the biggest commercial transactions in Brooklyn this year. The story behind the sale is a sad one: The hospital had been facing bankruptcy for a couple years now, and at the beginning of September it laid off 250 workers. A person who works at the facility said Victory officially closed down on Saturday and that half of the building is now being used as a nursing home and half is being operated by SUNY Downstate Medical Center. The deal for SUNY Downstate to take over the facility was reached last year, and a spokesman for the organization said they began taking over some of Victory's operations last May. The buyers of the building are a firm called Rockaway Parkway Associates, who did not return calls for comment. Victory had been around for more than 100 years. GMAP P*Shark
Photo from Property Shark.
September 14, 2009
Red Hook Protests Concrete Plant
About 40 residents of Red Hook showed up at the near completed site of US Concrete on Saturday to oppose the Texas-based company's presence in their neighborhood. The site, next to Ikea and near Erie Basin Park, the Red Hook ball fields, Red Hook Community Farm, and other spots of local importance, is zoned for heavy industry, but residents are worried that pollution from the factory will harm crops at the organic farm, cause health problems like asthma for children at the ball fields, and generally decrease the quality of life in Red Hook. The Brooklyn Paper notes that "the activists face an uphill battle," but "an aide to State Senator Velmanette Montgomery (D-Red Hook) said his office would keep fighting the plant because the neighborhood has changed since the 'heavy industry' zoning was put in place decades ago." The aide, Jim Vogel, said, “If you’re opening a cement plant in an area with a 40-percent asthma rate, you’d better open your pocket book, because you’re going to be spending a lot of time in court.” GMAP
Red Hookers Don't Want Cement Plant near Farm [Brooklyn Paper]
Come Out and Say No to Cement Plan [A View from the Hook]
US Concrete, Redhook's New Resident [Brownstoner]
September 4, 2009
Update: Dreamland to Reopen
As we mentioned yesterday, there were rumors that Coney Island's Dreamland amusement park, closed on August 21 by owner Joe Sitt due to rent owed by operator Anthony Raffaelle, might reopen for Labor Day weekend. The Brooklyn Paper brings us the verified report that it will, in fact, open, due to the efforts of Councilman Domenic Recchia (D–Coney Island), who had denounced Sitt in the Daily News as “a heartless person who only cares about money." Even though Raffaelle admitted to owing over $500,000 in rent, he and Dreamland employees as well as local sympathizers expressed anger at the park's closing, calling Sitt a bully who didn't consider the children who would be disappointed. Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for Sitt's company Thor Equities, said: “Thor Equities is thrilled that Coney Island residents and visitors—particularly kids who start school next week—will get one final taste of summer fun at Dreamland over Labor Day.”
The Fate of Coney's Dreamland [Brownstoner]
Sweet 'Dreamland'! [Brooklyn Paper]
Coney Island's Dreamland Shut Down [Daily News]
Photo by Amusing the Zillion
September 3, 2009
The Fate of Coney's Dreamland
The message boards at Coney Island U.S.A. suggest that Dreamland, which was closed indefinitely by Thor Equities because of about half a million dollars in overdue rent from operator Anthony Raffaelle, might reopen this weekend. Since there hasn't been an official announcement from Thor or Raffaelle, does anyone know the official scoop? Coincidentally, September 7 marks the anniversary of the closing of Astroland in 2008, the long-time Coney Island amusement park and predecessor to Dreamland.
Dreamland to Reopen Sept. 4-7 [CIUSA message board]
Dreamland Closed for Summer [Brownstoner]
Photo by Tricia Vita
August 31, 2009
Dreamland Closed for Summer
After developer Joe Sitt locked down Dreamland amusement park on Coney Island on August 21 because of over half a million dollars in owed rent, park operator Anthony Raffaelle swore he would find legal recourse to reopen it. (Dreamland, the roller rink, is still very much open!) The Brooklyn Paper reports that Raffaelle went to the state Supreme Court on August 28, asking for a court order forcing Sitt to unlock the gates, yet the judge did not make an immediate decision and instead put off the case until Friday, September 18. This means that, in all likelihood, the park will remain shuttered for the rest of the summer.
Coney's Dreamland Will Be Closed [Brooklyn Paper]
Joe Sitt Is No Dream Operator [Brownstoner]
Will Dreamland Reopen? [Brownstoner]
Photo by
August 27, 2009
New Owner at 105 Metropolitan
The empty lot at 105 Metropolitan in Williamsburg was sold on Monday, according to a man who was locking up a make-shift door in the property's fence. The young man claimed to be the new owner, but the sale won't appear on the books until next week. He plans to build a workshop for his new design and engineering business, which will serve private contracts. The last new building plan for the site was when a previous owner filed to build a five-story, five-unit residential loft building in 2007, according to the DOB. It's indicative of the current market, especially in Williamsburg (80 Met and 268 Wythe are at the same intersection as 105 Metropolitan), that someone has bought a parcel of land and opts not to build a residential building. The new owner at 105 asked Brownstoner not to reveal his identity so that he can introduce himself to his neighbors first. If his business practices are going to be as neighborhood-friendly as the man himself, we're glad he's moving in! GMAP P*Shark DOB
August 12, 2009
Science Moves to Downtown Brooklyn
The Social Science Research Council, an international not-for-profit organization, has abandoned its former Manhattan headquarters for a new home in Brooklyn, in Forest City Ratner Companies’ tower at One Pierrepont Plaza, reports the Brooklyn Eagle. The main reason? Its rent in Manhattan was going to be doubled. Still, the company also liked the idea of moving to a "progressive neighborhood," where it could revamp its new offices (with a $3 million renovation) as well as its image. Go, Downtown Brooklyn.
Social Science Research Council Moves to Brooklyn from Midtown [Brooklyn Eagle]
August 4, 2009
Lease Signed, 288 Court Back on the Market
The blog Lost City brings us the latest chapter in the drama known as 288 Court Street. As you may recall, when Blockbuster vacated the space a couple years back, there was some speculation that McDonald's would replace it; that turned out not to be the case. The property then changed hands last summer and proceeded to sit on the market unrented for another year until we reported last month that Union Market would be moving in. Now that it's leased up, the owner has put the property on the market for nearly $5.5 million. As a bonus, we all get to see what the store front will look like when Union Market is all moved in.
Court Street Listing Looks Like Union Market Is Already There [Lost City]
Court St. Blockbuster Changes Hands; Future Unclear [Brownstoner]
Union Market Coming to Court Street! [Brownstoner] GMAP
288 Court Street Listing [Massey Knakal Realty]
Photo from Massey Knakal Realty
July 21, 2009
Commercial Klutch: July Edition
Our masked correspondent gives us this month's skinny on the commercial real estate market in Downtown Brooklyn and environs....Beautiful buildings? See the newly-built Toren or its neighbor the BellTel Lofts, carved out of the historic telephone headquarters. Visit the latter’s lobby and eyeball that grey marble. Superb…Ugly buildings? See 75 Clinton Street, subject to the notice posted in its window above. Our first area foreclosure, the 80,000-square-foot office property is for sale. Not sure the numbers work for office rehab and leasing. Does resi work either? Hope it doesn’t just sit….
In rental land, tenants continue to enter the market, taking down space in the Heights and DUMBO. While rents continue to be soft, the last months have seen steady activity. 16 Court has leases out or deals working on two-thirds of its spaces. Recent area deals are in all in the $20’s, with the exception of 333 Adams.
The City of NY Human Resource Administration is reviewing a lease issued for over 300,000 rsf at MetroTech 4, JPMorgan’s Chase’s largest building. Another large lease may happen in the complex, substantially reducing available footage. 470 Vanderbilt, announced here and elsewhere last week, signed a 62,000-rsf tenant. There’s life in the old borough yet. And on Court Street across from the multiplex, Checkers is minting money with cheeseburgers. Wonder if all Five Guys are sorry they passed on that location.
Prior Commercial Klutch Posts [Brownstoner]
July 14, 2009
470 Vanderbilt Lands Housing Authority as Tenant
Two years after buying the hulking Telecom building at 470 Vanderbilt Avenue in Fort Greene, GFI has landed its first major tenant. Yesterday Crain's reported that the New York City Housing Authority had signed a 20-year lease for 62,400 square feet on the second floor of the building. GFI inherited Level 3 Communications as well as a few smaller telecom-related tenants but even with the Housing Authority deal the building remains less than half-full. Meanwhile, GFI is proceeding with its plans to get approval to build a 366-unit residential building on the existing parking lot; CB2 has approved the project and it is now in front of Marty Markowitz.
Housing Authority Finds New Home [Crain's]
470 Vanderbilt Cleared for ULURP Take-Off [Brownstoner]
Big Plans for 470 Vanderbilt [Brownstoner]
June 26, 2009
Commercial Klutch: June Edition
The vast (for Brooklyn) modern MetroTech seems to be following Manhattan down. While there is a 350,000-sf lease out there, we imagine it is cheap space. A recent proposal to a tenant went out under 22 bucks, we hear. Renaissance Plaza/Marriott building at 333 Adams Street (above) just inked a 4,000-sf law firm deal, a touch under $30 we think. Small space deals rare in Class A here, good catch by tenant. Building nearly 100% leased, too
On the other hand – when will the developers of the lovely BellTel Lofts tune up their 141 Livingston Street office building? The Kings Housing Court there was long slated to take the old Family Court space but high schools beat 'em out of it, leaving 141 with a rough tenant. Low rents may put an upgrade on hold for now. 44 Court needs work, too. Exterior is a start, but doubt much else will be done. Hope we are wrong.
Don’t miss the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Building Brooklyn Awards on July 15th. 9th year of presenting best of Brooklyn buildings for past year, sort of an Emmy’s or Tony’s of development here. Fun, much information and great crowd. Supports Chamber, too.
We guess the Two Trees Natural Food deal at 138 Court is over 30% off the peak rent of 138 asked last winter, but no one is talking.
In a sign that B and C building lease prices are plateauing, 325 Gold got almost 24 a foot for the clock-adorned building’s top floor in that unusual office location. Same building Etsy vacating for Dumbolio. Anything commercial you want to read about? Comment and you shall receive…..
Prior Commercial Klutch Posts [Brownstoner]
BAM Buys 321 Ashland for $7 Mil From Two Trees
The news of LPC's sign-off on a new performing arts building for BAM at 321 Ashland Place last week coincided with the property changing hands: Two Trees sold the building to BAM for $7 million in a deal that was recorded last Thursday in public records. According to a spokesperson for BAM, after the addition to the building is complete in 2012, it will be handed over to the city, which owns all the real estate that houses the academy. The city is helping to pay for the new performing arts center's construction.
LPC Signs Off on New BAM Performing Arts Building [Brownstoner] GMAP
Photo from Property Shark.
June 10, 2009
Christie's Makes a Winning Bid for Red Hook
62 Imlay Street, the sibling warehouse to would-be conversion 160 Imlay, is going to have a well-heeled new tenant: Venerable auction house Christie's has inked a deal to lease the waterfront building for storage space. The deal will surely be one of the largest lease signings in Brooklyn this year. The 235,000-square-foot building's owner (who also owns 160 Imlay) has sought a commercial tenant for 62 Imlay for about a year and a half. A spokesperson for Christie's says the auction house expects to occupy the building by early next year and that it will be used "primarily for storage."
The Mystery of 62 Imlay [Brownstoner] GMAP
Photo from Property Shark.
June 1, 2009
Fulton BID Opponents Threaten Not to Pay
Outvoted by their fellow Fulton Street merchants and landowners, a bunch of business owners, mostly on the Clinton Hill stretch of Fulton Street, are now threatening to withhold tax payments in their effort to fight the already-approved Fulton Street BID. On Thursday, reports the Brooklyn Paper, opponents of the Business Improvement District, delivered a letter with 70 signatures to Council Member Letitia James threatening civil disobedience. “We won’t pay,” the letter read. “This BID [business improvement district] has left us out. We want a new, democratic vote. Otherwise it’s a battle on Fulton Street.” Some merchants claim that the monthly fees imposed by the BID—$80 per month for every 20 feet of street frontage—are too onerous. The Brooklyn Paper, however, suggests another reason: "There’s the fear among some entrepreneurs that it will accelerate gentrification and eventually drive them out of business." But why do the Clinton Hill merchants fail to grasp the benefits of organizing to improve the safety and aesthetic levels of where they do business when their peers both to the east in Bed Stuy and the west in Fort Greene are overwhelmingly on board with the program?
Clearing the Air on the Fulton BID [Brownstoner]
Fulton BID Approved! Buses Returning Soon [Brownstoner]
Fulton BID Gaining Momentum [Brownstoner]
May 27, 2009
Commercial Klutch: May Edition
Join us again as our anonymous embedded blogger dishes on the commercial market in Downtown Brooklyn and environs.
The market’s sending mixed messages, monkeying with my mind. Deals are being done for dear dollars, yet availability is awfully up, up and away. One million SF of Class A ready for tenants. Ouch.
Dumbo still has much for a tenant to see: The biggest recent deal in the area happened there. 15,000 square feet of former 55 Washington Street craft space goes to the mighty cool ETSY. Two Trees did an above standard build for 24 bucks, we hear. Good number for both sides. Lots of landlords lusted after the tenant, but TT won again.
BellTel, a gorgeous historic reno which shoulda won the Building Brooklyn Awards preservation category, is dreaming when it comes to the retail space. Seeking big tenants for large dramatic spaces in an off location for nationals. Further, the garage is vacant. Lease and operate the garage, then sell it. Cut up retail space or give it away cheap to someone interesting. Current strategy now history, given dearth of national retail.
The new H&M store soldiers along, and is being designed now. The site is wrapped for demo. H&M is so, so 2009 - a bikini cheaper than a fancy cocktail on Smith Street!
Downtown Brooklyn Partnership proposed converting the valuable ground floor of the City Municipal Building at 210 Joralemon, pictured above, to retail. No brainer. So what, says City as they plan to move city agency offices from nearby addresses into the Muni Building, maybe making retail moot.
Why, pray tell? Readers, enlighten us….
Prior Commercial Klutch Posts [Brownstoner]
May 6, 2009
Etsy.com Crafts Deal for 55 Washington Office Space
In a nice boost for the Dumbo commercial market, Etsy.com, the fast-growing online marketplace for hand-made goods, has signed a lease for 15,000 square feet of office space at the Two Trees-owned 55 Washington Street; the company was repped by Cushman & Wakefield and Caroline Pardo represented the landlord. For the past three years, the venture-backed company has worked out of a raw loft space at 325 Gold Street. "Etsy is thrilled to be joining the community of artists in the historic Dumbo neighborhood," said Etsy spokesman Charles Smith. GMAP
April 28, 2009
The Love Chapel Now For Sale
The Slave isn't the only theater in Brooklyn looking for a buyer: The Rainbow Theater, one of the few depression-era theaters in the borough, is now up for sale. Currently the Love Chapel, the theater sits on a 17,500-square-foot lot at 167 Graham Avenue in W'burg. (More history here.) The asking price is a cool $10 million. Anyone know a successful indie rock promoter with some cash to spare? GMAP
April 24, 2009
Commercial Klutch: April Edition
Join us again as our anonymous embedded blogger gives us the straight dope on the commercial market in Downtown Brooklyn and environs.
Mirroring the more active stock and residential markets, the northern BK commercial environment is increasingly vibrant. In a typical sign, bottom fishing is getting more aggressive just as market rate tenants are more numerous. As reported last month, deals in the mid to high twenties and some thirties predominate downtown, with Dumbo a bit less.
Two Trees Management had just sixteen spaces on their availability sheet last December. Now they have thirty-six. Those include spaces offered for sublet, a first for TT. A combination of added inventory, business failures and expanding tenants growing explains this change. Luckily, a mixed story as BK tenants seem to want to be in Dumbo more than elsewhere. The Guttman flagship 68 Jay has little available now, though many vulnerable tenants; TT has a big deal underway; and we have three good tenants seeking space in Dumbo at this writing.
Marketing issue – no one has heard of REAP, the most powerful NYCity/State tenant relocation program ever. REAP grants a 12-year, $3,000-per-employee benefit to established companies coming from Manhattan or out of state to renovated commercial properties in the boros. Two Trees, the City’s largest REAP consumer measured by number of leases, has been promoting it for years and SLGreen of 16 Court fame has done so since last fall. The City of New York combined with the larger BK landlords need a concerted and massive push under the direction of the DB Partnership, we strongly believe. Most Manhattan brokers and their tenants have never heard of it, though the program has been around for over 10 years.
Relief to future retailers on our local party street. Both a barber shop at 178 and Heights Books at 120 Smith are just now settling in. Did they pay over 80 bucks a foot like the clothing tenant at Pacific Street? We hear Heights Books paid under 60. That’s a big change. You hear the sound of Montague cracking as well.
Prior Commercial Klutch Posts [Brownstoner]
Photo by lj lindhurst
Latest Restaurant Additions
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Chickadee Chick
added November 6, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Vutera
added November 5, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Park Cafe
added November 4, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Bahia
added November 3, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Aqualis Grill
added November 2, 2009 12:00 PM in Fort Greene -
Wombat
added October 30, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Organic Heights
added October 29, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Giardini Pizza
added October 28, 2009 12:00 PM in Carroll Gardens -
Rye
added October 27, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Bati
added October 26, 2009 12:00 PM in Fort Greene