47.8 F
New York
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Sephora to Makeover Downtown Brooklyn

Related Articles

-Advertisement-

Must read

Beauty powerhouse Sephora is set to open shop at the bottom floor of Brooklyn’s Municipal Building in late 2013.
Beauty powerhouse Sephora is set to open shop at the bottom floor of Brooklyn’s Municipal Building in late 2013.
Sephora’s first Brooklyn location has officially taken flight. The high end cosmetics company has finally signed a deal to open shop at the bottom floor of Brooklyn’s Municipal Building, more fondly known as 210 Joralemon St.— a location the city had hoped would become a busy retail destination for years.

According to the New York Post, who first reported on a possible deal in March of 2012, the store will serve as an “anchor for what is becoming a women’s power center at the base of the borough’s Municipal Building.”

For a quick history lesson, the building is considered part of the Skyscraper Historic District, a collection of 21 architecturally-distinctive office buildings constructed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that are protected as historic districts. These early skyscrapers transformed Downtown Brooklyn into a commercial center with a redefined skyline.

Meanwhile, the 1920’s era building is being redeveloped by United American Land, headed by Albert Laboz. To help close the deal, Ginny Pittarelli of Crown Retail Service represented the beauty chain in its plight for a first Brooklyn location. The Post reports that Peter Ripka and Jason Pennington of Ripco Real Estate represented the Laboz family’s UAL, which had an asking rent of $140 per foot.

Le Buzz on Laboz

About 48,000 square feet of retail spread out on three floors will host Sephora in a 7,000-square-foot ground-floor corner spot, along with another 1,300 square feet of storage— which is a lot of space to cover for UAL’s Al Laboz, the project’s official developer.

Known in the real estate circuit simply as the “Laboz brothers”, Al, Jason and Jody are the principal owners of UAL, which manages almost fifty properties in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. The company has been actively involved in in downtown Brooklyn for years, where Al serves as chairman of the Fulton Mall Association, a big real estate player.

The city sold the bottom two floors of the government building to Laboz for retail space in late 2011.

“We are ecstatic to have Sephora take their first step into Brooklyn at this exceptional location,” UAL announced in a recent statement, adding that Brooklyn’s first Sephora will be joined by YogaWorks. Talks are also underway with additional tenants catering to women’s fashion.

One person who may be taking a back seat to the excitement is Borough President Marty Markowitz, who held out hope the space might attract the borough’s first Apple Store. St

“It’s got the foot traffic. The building is iconic. The building’s gorgeous, and I think it would make for a beautiful location,” Markowitz is quoted as saying back in 2010.

Apple – which has four stores in Manhattan and one on Staten Island – has scoped out sites in downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg, but hasn’t bitten.

“They haven’t made it until they’ve made it in Brooklyn,” Markowitz has said.

According to UAL, Sephora and other shops in the Municipal Building should open in late 2013, according.

 

balance of natureDonate

Latest article

- Advertisement -