Downtown Brooklyn is ready for its close-up.
The bottom floor of Brooklyn’s Municipal Building — which the city has for years dreamed would become a bustling retail destination — will be getting a makeover from high-end cosmetic purveyor Sephora.
Yesterday, The New York Post reported that Sephora, the makeup chain famous for free samples, will be the anchor tenant at the new-look 210 Joralemon St., directly across the street from Borough Hall.
The borough’s first Sephora will be joining YogaWorks as part of “a power center for women’s fashion tenants” in the building, according to Al Laboz, a Manhattan-based developer in charge of the space’s redevelopment.
The city sold the bottom two floors of the government building to Laboz for retail space in late 2011.
When the retail space first went on the block in 2010, Borough President Markowitz was hoping it might attract the borough’s first Apple Store.
The Sephora and other shops in the Municipal Building should open in late 2013, according to United American Land, Laboz’s company.
Laboz said in 2011 that he would bring multiple chain stores and a locally owned full-service restaurant to the space, still in the process of redevelopment.
The Municipal Building was built by famous art-deco architecture firm Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker — the designers of the Irving Trust Company Building in Manhattan, among others — in 1924.
Reach reporter Jaime Lutz at jlutz@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-8310. Follow her on Twitter @jaime_lutz.
