Update on the Smith: Retail, Move-Ins Coming
The end (beginning?) is in sight for the much-delayed hotel/condo project the Smith, and the building’s ground-floor retail spaces have just hit the market. For over a year the development’s marketers have said the space will probably be filled by a high-end grocer like Gourmet Garage or Dean & Deluca, and the broker in charge…
The end (beginning?) is in sight for the much-delayed hotel/condo project the Smith, and the building’s ground-floor retail spaces have just hit the market. For over a year the development’s marketers have said the space will probably be filled by a high-end grocer like Gourmet Garage or Dean & Deluca, and the broker in charge of leasing the space says that’s still true. “We’re hoping to get something like a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s,” says Petar Videv of A&I Broadway Realty, apparently unaware of the latter’s plans just up the block. Videv says construction on the project should be finished sometime in January, and that the hotel and condo are expected to open then. While it seems doubtful that Trader Joe’s would take space so close to its planned store at Atlantic and Court, or that Whole Foods would be satisfied with 7,800 square feet, it does seem to be a reasonable fit for a store like Gourmet Garage. What would you like to see here?
The Latest On The Smith [Brownstoner] GMAP
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75 Smith Listing [A&I Broadway Realty]
This place will be worthless once AY is built.
Brownstoner to borough of Brooklyn: Don’t build any new buildings. Mankind has lost the ability and the will to produce buildings of merit. Environment is also under pressure. Solution for environment: no more coal-fired electricity or gasoline consuming cars.
Verdict: Live by candlelight in old buildings (preferably brownstones) and walk to work. In other words, let’s pretend we live in the 19th century. Modern life be damned!
chuck — you must be joking. praising that faux cornice? the cheapest sop to architectural contextuality possible?
Broker talk – how tiresome and ill informed.
food court like in the malls
I’d love to see a mix of video stores, bodegas, and little shoe repair places, punctuated by religious bookstores. Also bail bondsmen have a traditional foothold in this area.
Hooters! As I mentioned yesterday, kids eat free all day.
I gotta say something nice about the “architecture” of The Smith:
There’s a piece of terracotta trim above the fourth story, where the brick color also changes. This trim pretty much matches the building height of most of the rest of Atlantic Avenue, and whether it was intentional or not, is a subtle tip of the hat, methinks.
As for retail space, there’s much open on Atlantic these days. Boerum Heights (toward 4th Ave) has half a ground floor, as does The Atlantic (near Nevins) and there’s all the old-tyme shoppes of Atlantic Gardens with rear courtyard (across from Post Office).
Tell all your food/grocery store-owning friends: There’s much less competition on Atlantic toward 4th, and much more foot traffic from the subway.
It does look less like a godawful wreck of a hulk now that raw cinderblocks and plastic aren’t exposed. As long as it does not fall down, it’s not terrible. If they can lure in a decent gourmet grocer, it would become my favorite building in the area.