Domino Sugar Development Nabs First Office Tenant With Hair Care Maker Prose

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The office portion of the redevelopment of the former Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, scored its first tenant: Custom shampoo maker Prose has signed on for 12,000 square feet, developer Two Trees Management announced last week.

Prose signed a five-year lease for the entire eighth and ninth floors of Ten Grand Street between Kent Avenue and River Street, Crain’s New York Business first reported. Asking rent was $70 per square foot, a spokeswoman for the landlord said.

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The 2-year-old shampoo company — which creates personalized hair care products — currently has its offices at 134 Spring Street in Soho. It plans to move its 47 employees from Manhattan to its new Brooklyn digs in February 2020, according to Two Trees.

“Prose is exactly the type of tenant we had in mind for this special building and this lease is another clear signal that Brooklyn is thriving as a live-work borough,” Jed Walentas, the CEO of Two Trees, said in a statement. “We expect more companies — especially those migrating from Manhattan — that value top-line space, jaw-dropping views and a mixed-use community for its employees, to continue to take space along the Williamsburg waterfront.”

Two Trees’ handled the deal in-house via Dan Conlon, Morghan Pangraze and Elizabeth Bueno. Marcus Rayner and Sam Einhorn of Colliers (CIGI) International represented Prose. A spokesman for Colliers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The CookFox-designed, 24-story Ten Grand Street completed construction in the fall and is the first commercial portion of the Domino Sugar Factory redevelopment. It interlocks with the 45-story residential building One South First, which opened in September.

The ground-floor retail space of the buildings has already leased space to famed pizzeria Roberta’s, a second taproom for Other Half Brewing Co., and space for Oddfellows Ice Cream.

Ten Grand Street has 150,000 square feet of commercial space and is part of the millions of square feet of new office development that came online in Brooklyn this year. These include the 220,000-square-foot Dock 72 project that opened at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in October and the 500,000-square-foot 25 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg.

Earlier this month, 25 Kent nabbed its first major tenant when streetwear brand Kith took 57,679 square feet of industrial space to move its headquarters from 337 Lafayette Street in Noho, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Despite the surge of new construction in the borough, office leasing in Brooklyn slowed down slightly in the past quarter, a CBRE (CBRE) report found. Leasing activity during the third quarter totaled 195,000 square feet, a 67 percent drop from the second quarter of 2019 and 42 percent below the four-year quarterly average, according to the report. 

Despite the slowdown, year-to-date leasing activity hit 1.47 million square feet, which is the highest total since CBRE started tracking the borough.