Coworking Space Coming to Brooklyn’s Industry City
By Liam La Guerre July 31, 2015 2:17 pm
reprints
Founders of a Chelsea-based media company are hoping to milk the coworking space industry in Brooklyn.
Two of the co-founders of Milk Studios, which handles everything from photography to film production to online editorial and Web design, have signed a new lease for 60,000 square feet of space in Industry City in the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn.
The founders, Mazdack Rassi and Eric Shternlicht, are venturing into the co-working sector with the lease at the former 6-million-square-foot industrial complex owned by Belvedere Capital, Jamestown and Angelo Gordon. The deal is likely to include an option to expand the space up to 200,000 square feet, Crain’s New York Business first reported.
A spokeswoman for Industry City declined to comment on the deal. Jamestown and Milk Studios representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The owners of Industry City are undergoing a $1 billion revitalization plan of the 16-building complex near the waterfront to entice more tenants. That seems to already be working as recently, Time Inc. announced it signed a 15-year lease to move 300 employees into a 55,000-square-foot space in Industry City, as Commercial Observer reported. And last week, 3D printing company MakerBot expanded to 250,000 square feet in Industry City, from an original 80,000-square-foot space.
News of the lease that Messrs. Rassi and Shternlicht signed comes as the co-working space explosion continues around the city. In Kings County, Boston Properties and Rudin Management announced earlier in the month that WeWork, which has more than 1 million square of space in the city, will anchor 222,000 square feet of space at the developers’ new 675,000-square-foot project in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Also in Queens, WeWork took 60,000 square feet at Studio Square in Astoria, as CO reported on July 21.
Jamestown also owns the eight-story office and retail property at 450 West 15th Street in Chelsea, known as The Milk Building, where Milk Studios has its New York City headquarters.
