Developers started a new effort this week to attract retail tenants at the massive condo building at One Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Developer Ian Levine said he hopes to see a high-end supermarket and restaurants boasting waterfront dining fill the 75,000 square feet of retail space in the former Jehovah’s Witness publishing plant — ideally “a high-end market [to] service the building, the neighborhood and park-goers once the park is complete,” Levine told The Brooklyn Paper.
Developers of the 449-unit residential building have long sought to bring a grocery store to the building, which is at the corner of Furman and Joralemon streets and an anchor of the proposed 85-acre Brooklyn Bridge Park development.
But the location is tricky: the waterfront vistas are ideal for a restaurant, but may prove difficult for a successful neighborhood grocery store.
“With the way the space functions, it mostly likely will not be any type of big-box user, but more neighborhood-type of tenants,” Levine said.
The space is now finally built out, and Levine said prospective retailers are intrigued with the location because of recent news reports that the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park development is moving forward.
But those reports may be premature. As The Brooklyn Paper reported last week, park builders are already two months behind on a new construction schedule that was announced in July. Work on Pier 6 — which is closest to One Brooklyn Bridge Park — is now set to begin in January.
Levine said that One Brooklyn Bridge Park — which until it changed its name to give it a better ring was known as “360 Furman St.” — would consider adding a gallery or special-events venue and small shops to the building.
Should a restaurant and grocery come to the space, at least there will be some place for tenants to eat and shop there. Despite the shaky economy, sales in the building continue to forge ahead and, last week, a new tenant purchased two units to combine for $5.2 million total, according to public records.
