Caffé Bene Targets Starbucks Crowd With Opening Near Brooklyn College
By Terence Cullen August 28, 2015 11:00 am
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Caffe Bené is college-bound in Brooklyn.
Commercial Observer has learned that the South Korean coffee shop is opening a new location in the first week of September at 150 Campus Road—across the street from Brooklyn College. Caffé Bene will be in 4,200 square feet, split evenly between the ground floor and the basement, according to Kassin Sabbagh Realty, which represented both sides in the deal. The lease is for 10 years with a five-year option, brokers in the deal told CO, and the asking rent was $120 per square foot. Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers was the former tenant in the space, according to review website Yelp.
Jack Lee of Kassin Sabbagh represented the tenant, while Richard Bailey represented the landlord.
The cafe will compete with Starbucks, which is around the corner at 33 Hillel Place between Campus Road and Kenilworth, to energize college students once the semester kicks off.
“This is strategically located in a superior location to the high-grossing Starbucks on Hillel Place,” Messrs. Lee and Bailey said in a joint statement to CO. “Every student will have to pass by Caffé Bene in order to get to Starbucks.”
Caffé Bene currently has 20 locations in New York City. This will be the second in Brooklyn to open after its Bay Ridge location, the company’s website shows, with at least three more on the way in the borough.
While its location next to Starbucks on East 23rd Street in Manhattan might have shuttered, Caffé Bene has been making moves to tap into the on-the-go college market. Last month, Caffé Bene announced it had signed an 800-square-foot lease for 24 St. Marks Place in the East Village. Eastern Consolidated brokers in that deal told CO at the time that the purveyor of coffee and baked goods was hoping to attract foot traffic from New York University and the Manhattan campus of St. John’s University.
