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Brooklyn’s Industry City Now 80 Percent Leased, Despite Pandemic

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By: Benyamin Davidsons

The owners of Industry City in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park are making good progress leasing off units at the 6-million-square-foot waterfront complex, despite the pandemic.

As reported by the NY Post, the privately owned 35-acre site sealed leases for 800,000 square feet of space since March 2020 when the pandemic first hit. “It’s truly astonishing. Of 4 million square feet we’ve leased since 2013, the 800,000 in the past 18 months are the most we did in any 18-month period. And this was during the global pandemic,” said Industry City Chief Executive Andrew Kimball.

The 16-building complex, opened in 2013, added leases for office, light manufacturing, studio and retail space. Owned by Belvedere Capital, Jamestown and Angelo Gordon Co.,

Industry City’s success can be likened to Brooklyn’s other great industrial park, the city owned Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The number of tenants at Industry City now has jumped to 575, up from 150 in 2013. “Of those, 400 have less than 2,500 square feet. We’re an extraordinary incubator for small businesses,” said Kimball, who was previously CEO of the Navy Yard Development Corp. About 9,000 people are currently employed there, up from 2,100 in 2013.

Last year, the Industry City owners had sought a rezoning to allow for the addition of a few more buildings. The request was scoffed at by the City Council, and so the developers withdrew the application, seeing it would not pass. “We’re looking forward, not backward,” said Kimball.

The complex, formerly a shipping and heavy-manufacturing center, is now over 80 percent leased, thanks to deals with new tenants. Notable recent leases include: 60,000 square feet for Porsche and Volvo showrooms and service centers; an extra 10,000 square feet of retail space taken on by longtime tenant West Elm; and added space for production company, The Garage, which makes commercials for well-known brands.

As per the Post, Kimball attributed much of the complex’s success to the $450 million which the partners invested in new infrastructure for historic, century-old buildings at site. Improvements include a new five-acre open-air public space. He also added, “we’re finding that people want their office next to their industrial and manufacturing spaces,” Kimball said.

Kimball also added optimism about the future with Eric Adams as the incoming mayor. “He cares deeply about economic development,” Kimball said. “I’m hopeful that Eric really sees the value of this kind of jobs creation.”

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