Caerus, Hustvedt Cutler Architects Remake Greenpoint Pencil Factory Into Offices

Photo by Christopher Bride for PropertyShark

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As Brooklyn scrambles to meet demand for office space, another of the landmarked Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory buildings in Greenpoint is getting fixed up and turned into modern offices.

Developer Caerus Group bought the 17,413 square-foot building at 74 Kent Street last year for $7,500,000, public records show. Built in 1908 by an unknown architect in the German Renaissance Revival style, the three-story brick building is topped by a pediment sporting the distinctive Eberhard Faber Pencil Company emblem of a star inside a diamond.

Hustvedt Cutler Architects is remaking the former factory to house retail stores on the ground floor, and offices on the two floors above, building permits reveal.

74 kent street greenpoint

Photo by Christopher Bride for PropertyShark

The space takes advantage of the old building’s “impressive ceiling heights, century old brick walls and timber beams,” Caerus Managing Partner Leo Tsimmer told the Commercial Observer in an email. Each floor will have outdoor space, and the building will have a roof deck and 6,000 square feet of green space.

“Having realized last year the acute office shortage in Greenpoint, we saw 74 Kent Street as a diamond in the rough,” he added. “The purchase was purely based on our belief in the neighborhood and we love the building,” he told the paper last year when the developer got into contract. “The neighborhood is changing. The vibe is way better than Williamsburg, to my taste. Williamsburg is getting so gentrified it disappears a little bit. That’s why I like Greenpoint so much.”

The project is the Manhattan-based firm’s first venture into Brooklyn. It is also working on multiple luxury residential and commercial developments in Midtown as well as Long Island City.

Next door in another Pencil Factory building at 58 Kent Street is crowd-funding startup Kickstarter’s headquarters. The firm bought the building outright in 2011 for $3,600,000 when it was unusual for a company to locate in Brooklyn. Architect Ole Sondresen adapted the space around an interior courtyard and insulated the building with recycled denim, as Brownstoner reported at the time.

greenpoint-58-kent-street-kickstarter

Kickstarter’s redesigned space next door in another Pencil Factory building at 58 Kent Street. Photo by Ole Sondresen Architect

Hustvedt Cutler Architects has previously taken on church and garage conversions in Bushwick.

Caerus Group said it hopes to find a single renter for the converted factory space. It is asking $60 per square foot, which is very high for the area. The building should be ready for a tenant sometime next year, according to the Observer.

Commercial space in Greenpoint is rare and the building is located close to the water. The building is close to the ferry and the G subway line.

[Source: CO]

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