Rubbermaid and Crock-Pot Parent Company Takes Space in Empire Stores
By Rebecca Baird-Remba November 10, 2017 4:50 pm
reprints
Newell Brands, which owns several household product brands including Elmer’s, Crock-Pot, Rubbermaid, Sunbeam and Sharpie is heading to Empire Stores in Dumbo, Brooklyn.
The Hoboken-based conglomerate plans to open a 47,000-square-foot office with 200 employees in the former tobacco warehouses at 55 Water Street, next to Brooklyn Bridge Park, Crain’s New York Business first reported. It signed a 12-year deal for the newly renovated space, according to JLL (JLL)’s Howard Hersch, who represented landlord Midtown Equities in the transaction. Asking rent for Newell’s space was $70 a square foot, said Hersch, who added that the building is now 100 percent leased.
Landlord Empire State Development Corporation will give Newell $4 million in performance-based tax credits for its promise to bring 200 jobs to Dumbo. A leasing team led by CBRE (CBRE)’s MaryAnn Tighe and David Opper represented Newell in the deal.
United Technologies Corporation also inked a deal for a 67,000-square-foot accelerator at the waterfront commercial complex in the spring, a move that earned the company $10 million in state tax credits. Other tenants include West Elm, which occupies 150,000 square feet of retail and office space in the building, media companies Laundry Service and Cycle and advertising firm 72andSunny.
“Empire [Stores] is now home to two Fortune 500 companies,” Hersh said. “When you put that in the construct of the other tenants, you start to think what does people coming to Brooklyn mean for the market? I think it says that Dumbo is the densest creative market within the borough of Brooklyn. It competes with Midtown South head to head.”
