Crains New York - May 21, 2012 - (Page 7)

NEIGHBORHOOD JOURNAL industry city associates A new dawn for Sunset Park Collection of old factory spaces lures artists, other users T BY SHANE DIXON KAVANAUGH he possibility of adding new life to a slice of Brooklyn’s aging industrial waterfront sure sounds sweet to Jon Brooks. Among a sprawling complex of historic warehouses near the Gowanus Expressway in Sunset Park, he hopes to create a thriving music district teeming with rehearsal spaces, recording studios and even concert venues. “Look, I know it sounds crazy,” said Mr. Brooks, a commercial broker who’s pitching 60,000 square feet of industrial space on 36th Street to music-related businesses, offering them free build-outs and rents of $20 a square foot. “But sometimes you gotta think big and dream big.” He’s got company. As the city’s economy slowly picks up speed, Sunset Park’s vast collection of underutilized factory buildings is drawing more interest from a wide variety of potential users with visions of bringing everything from manufacturing and music-making to acres of vegetables to the area. In an early step in that direction, city officials cheered the sale of a 1.1 million-square-foot warehouse at 850 Third Ave. last year formerly owned by the federal government. Vacant since 2000, the hulking edifice could ultimately attract lightmanufacturing businesses that would generate up to 1,300 jobs, according to estimates from the city’s Economic Development Corp. Plans by a private developer to build the nation’s largest rooftop garden atop the site—whose 100,000 square feet could yield as much as a million pounds of produce a year— has locavores drooling. Great Recession, when a handful of artists, craftsmen and creative businesses began trickling into Sunset Park’s Industry City—the 16building, 6.5 million-square-foot complex formerly known as Bush Terminal. At the time, the pioneers loudly predicted many others would follow in their wake and that the area would blossom as Brooklyn’s next creative colony—rivaling Williamsburg and Dumbo. Aided by that momentum, Industry City Associates, the buildings’ owners, began lining up $300 million in loans to begin rehabbing their property. When the recession hit, however, the complex’s occupancy rate plunged to 60%—from a high of 87% in 2007—and with revenues down, renovations slowed. Just last year, Industry City Associates defaulted on its loans. Last month, hopes rose again when the landlord announced that it had restructured its loans and was “We’ve placed a significant bet on Brooklyn,” said Bruce Federman, the company’s director of real estate. Last year things looked grim, but Mr. FedFECUND GROUND: Plans include a huge rooftop greenhouse. erman is hoping to turn that around. going to press ahead with its plans. As a part of its effort, Industry It has already redoubled its efforts to City allowed Mr.Brooks to use space draw more tech and creative ten- in one of its buildings to realize his ants. The company has also put 60 fantasy.He said he’s working on leasfreshly renovated office spaces on es with several potential tenants, inthe market. cluding a recording studio. The burden of security has ﬁnally been lifted. Less than 6 Seconds to Download and Install Under 2 Minutes to Scan Uses 95% Less Memory During Scans No Signatures, No Updates, No Patches No Management Server Needed Webroot is taking the misery out of security. Webroot SecureAnywhere provides the fastest, least-disruptive, easiest-to-manage endpoint protection. With no updates and the fastest scan times, security no longer has to disrupt employee productivity. Which is why we’ve already replaced slow, bloated security software in more than 1,000 businesses – including replacing Symantec at a 28,000-endpoint organization. If you’re still skeptical, and with so many security companies overpromising and under delivering we can’t blame you, go to Webroot.com today for a free demo or trial. “Webroot scanned 30 times faster than Symantec. And it found an infection they missed for months.” Ty Smith, I.T. Administration, Doris, Inc. “Frees up resources on client PCs and completely removes the need for deﬁnition updates.” Kelvyn Taylor, ZDNet UK Rooms for rappers Meanwhile, a mere three blocks away on 33rd Street, DJ turned entrepreneur Bijal Panwala has opened Hotel BPM, a 76-room hip-hopthemed boutique that’s gunning to become a gathering spot for performers and rap aficionados—who someday could be flocking to Mr. Brooks’ hoped-for music district. “Sunset Park is bound to become one of the top creative locations in the city,” said Chris Havens, a longtime broker and chief executive of Brooklyn-based Creative Real Estate Group. He insists that rising rents in more well-worn industrial neighborhoods like Dumbo, Bushwick and Gowanus, and an increased scarcity of space fed by residential conversions there, have made the far-flung area south of Park Slope more attractive to manufacturers and artsy types. Unfortunately, similar sentiments were voiced back before the GET THREE MONTHS FREE when you buy or start your free trial of Webroot SecureAnywhere. Call 1-800-870-8102 and mention SPRING2012, or visit webroot.com. ©2012 Webroot Inc. All rights reserved. Webroot, SecureAnywhere, Webroot SecureAnywhere, and the globe design are trademarks or registered trademarks of Webroot Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. For offer terms, visit www.webroot.com May 21, 2012 | Crain’s New York Business | 7 http://www.Webroot.com http://www.Webroot.com http://www.webroot.com http://www.webroot.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - May 21, 2012

Crain's New York - May 21, 2012
Contents
Council Defies Mayor, Scares Business Leaders
Renegade Ceo Bucks Albany to Save His Hospital
Back to JPMorgan Chase’s Woes Have Some Local Bank Rivals Circling. in the Markets.
New York, New York
Hopes Rising Along B’klyn Waterfront in Sunset Park
Why Charlie Rangel Could Lose His Seat
Small Business
Viewpoint
Ibm Inside Big Blue’s Brain Trust, Which Pulled in More Than 6,180 Patents Last Year, the Most Ever by a Single Company. No Wonder the Stock Price Has More Than Doubled in the Past Five Years.
The List Our Annual Review of the New York Area’s Largest Publicly Held Companies, Ranked by Their 2011 Revenues.
What’s Up (And Down) at News Corp., Cbs, Bed Bath & Beyond, Vornado Realty, Mastercard, Jones Group, Revlon and Others.
For the Record
Classifieds
Real Estate Deals
The Week on the Web
Matchmakers Find Their Own Chemistry
Anne Fisher Tapping Into Human Emotions Pays Dividends
Hot Jobs
Executive Moves
Movers & Shakers Real Estate Veteran’s Surprising Switch
Gael Greene Dragonfly Lands on UES

Crains New York - May 21, 2012