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Developer Chosen For Giant DUMBO Yuppie Condo-Mall
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 25, 2013
Modified Aug 25, 2013
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 25, 2013
Modified Aug 25, 2013
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A real estate development company with interests in the World Trade Center, prominent properties on Fifth Avenue, and that scaffolding-riddled building across from La Esquina on Lafayette has won the right to develop the Empire Stores building in DUMBO. Matt Chaban reports that Midtown Equities beat out nine other developers, including the DUMBO-based Two Trees, for exclusive rights to make DUMBO even more sterile and expensive than it already is.
The City's lease will last 99 years, and in theory, will raise money to maintain Brooklyn Bridge Park with commercial and residential developments, all at a fantastically exorbitant rate. Chaban reports:
Demand is so high for tech tenants, many of whom got their start in the neighborhood, that they are willing to pay twice as much to get into the Empire Stores. Office rents are said to be asking $60 per square foot, compared with a neighborhood average of $34 a square foot.
Midtown Equities supposedly has commitments to fill 80% of the three-story, 327,000 square-foot Civil War-era warehouse. Whatta town.
What is still unknown is which of the proposed renderings for the parcel match Midtown Equities' vision. We've asked a representative from Brooklyn Bridge Park to show us the way, but for now let's pretend it's this developer's screenshot of a Sims character doing Saturday Night Fever moves on top of the rooftop terrace while a labradoodle balances on a WWI relic aircraft, tossing $1,000 Lexus coupons printed on edible, plant-derived glucose.
(via Brooklyn Bridge Park)
Tagged
bloomberg's new york
brooklyn bridge park
dumbo
real estate developers
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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