Animation Studio Leaving Soho for Industry City
By Rebecca Baird-Remba July 27, 2018 12:45 pm
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Production company Buck is departing Soho for Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
The latest film-related addition to Industry City will decamp its 11,000-square-foot offices at 31 Howard Street in Soho for 30,000 square feet in Building 5, according to a press release from Industry City. The animation company will take over 15,000 square feet on each of the fifth and sixth floors of the building at 51 35th Street, according to Crain’s New York Business, which broke the news of the 10-year deal. Asking rents at Industry City range from the $15 to $40 per square foot.
Ken Fishel and Jessica Jaber of Legacy Real Estate represented Buck in the deal. Kathe Chase and Jeff Fein of Industry City’s internal leasing team handled the transaction in-house.
Chase said in a statement that Buck’s culture was “perfectly in sync with the creative class of tenants at Industry City.”
Fishel explained that many Manhattan-based creative and design companies were now considering Brooklyn, because of lower rents, “amenity-rich developments” and an industrial tax incentive reduces rents by $10 to $20 per square foot. “We particularly felt Industry City was an ideal option for Buck to create a showcase space for its New York operations due to the robust creative community, stunning waterfront views and campus-style amenities,” he said.
Buck will move more than 50 employees from Soho to the Brooklyn waterfront this fall. The larger office will offer video suites and a studio to create stop motion sets by hand, as well as the additional space the firm needs to hire more employees in 2019.
“We wanted to be in Brooklyn, in a place that inspires our employees and excites our clients—everyone from Google to Instagram, Apple to Nike,” Orion Tait, an executive creative director and principal at Buck, said in a statement. “Industry City delivers on that front, while also making us accessible to our employee base and giving us the flexibility to continue to grow.”
The animation studio will join several other film industry tenants in the 16-building complex, including audio-visual equipment store AbelCine, drone video company Aerobo, digital film distributor FilmRise, and virtual reality video production outfit 30 Ninjas.
Jamestown, Belvedere Capital, Angelo, Gordon & Co., Cammeby’s International and the Fruchthandler family’s FBE Limited own the 5.3-million-square-foot warehouse complex, which is poised for a significant rezoning and expansion.
The Industry City landlords have been inking plenty of leases recently, including deals with a Japanese art gallery, city records agency and an Australian coffee shop.
