Manufacturing Space in Brooklyn Retools for the Modern Tenant

The following is an excerpt from an article in:


The New York Times
Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Manufacturing Space in Brooklyn Retools for the Modern Tenant

By RONDA KAYSEN

The hulking industrial buildings that line Sunset Park’s waterfront once bustled with manufacturing and military activity. Elvis Presley deployed to Germany from the Brooklyn Army Terminal in 1958, one of three million troops to pass through the Cass Gilbert-designed building. The area was once so busy that it had its own rail line and police and fire departments.

Today, many of these historic buildings, with about 15 million square feet of light manufacturing space in Brooklyn, are antiquated and struggling to stay relevant. Built at the turn of the last century, many of them lack basic amenities like central air-conditioning and automated elevators. As New York City bleeds manufacturing jobs to cheaper markets, persuading companies to stay is, at best, difficult.

But the city, which owns more than one-third of the space, and private developers are revamping these properties to appeal to a more nimble manufacturing tenant. And in doing so, the buildings are entering a new era that may ultimately benefit this working-class neighborhood.

Three of the area’s biggest properties are undergoing makeovers: Industry City, a rambling 6.5-million-square-foot complex off the Gowanus Expressway, which has been reaching out to small food manufacturers to capture some of the energy of the Brooklyn artisanal food scene; Federal Building No. 2, now renamed Liberty View Industrial Plaza, which is in the midst of a $40 million renovation and may soon open a Bed Bath & Beyond; and the city-owned Brooklyn Army Terminal.

“It’s pretty exciting stuff. We’re definitely seeing some improvements,” said David D. Meade, executive director of the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation, a local economic development group.

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