Commercial Klutch: October Edition

Here’s the latest missive from our mysterious commercial real estate correspondent. Best news for local office inventory and tenants – NYCTransit Authority finally letting go of 370 Jay Street. Imagine it will take 48-60 months to see inhabitable office space there, yet big addition to local scene, coming on heels of five buildings leaving office use, as noted in prior column. Not a practical large tenant building: great for small offices (80′ wide in many areas); creative tenants (cool modernist building, interiors could be great once gutted and open to ceilings); and good for school use. A number of developers, especially FCRC, have been pushing to get this building. RFP and ULURP next stages.

HRA lease at 470 Vanderbilt, the biggest BK office lease since 2002, means HRA vacates 210 Joralemon/45 Hoyt sometime next year. Perfect resi conversion, though offered for office too and NFS. Which way will it go?

Best Buy making strong push to be in Fulton Mall area, let’s see if they can do it. TJ Maxx coming to Fulton looking more and more solid, CityPoint or not. CityPoint will get better rents from a mix of tenants, rather than one large.

Restaurant tenants, loath to build new stores due to huge cost and time drag, are leaning towards dealing with raw space, given lack of options. Big change.

Finally condo shortage being noticed in media. Duh. About time. Need another building or two go to up around DTB. Our borough leads in price increases… tells the tale.

Who is doing that new cafe at the Avalon on Myrtle? We can’t say but know it is the folks with one of chillest spots in Boerum Hill. With Mile End from BH taking space in Red Hook for commissary, and opening a small retail food outlet, BH exports rock.

New resto coming to dumbo to Main Street. Many months away, but happening.