Photo Studio, Financial Planner Take Space in Sunset Park’s Whale Building

Leasing has been going swimmingly at The Whale Building in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, since Capstone Equities acquired the property in May 2023.

Photography studio Whale Square Productions signed a deal for 5,410 square feet while financial planner Express Capital Financing took 4,200 square feet in the waterfront building at 14 53rd Street, according to landlord broker Newmark (NMRK).

The length of the leases and the asking rent were not disclosed, but the average asking rent or office space in Brooklyn was $51.77 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to a report from Colliers.

The Whale Square and Express Capital deals are among 33,000 square feet signed in the building in the past three months, according to Newmark. Other new tenants in the building include experiential agency Ideko, which leased 4,005 square feet; edible gift company Tasty Ribbon with 3,611 square feet; Molly Oliver Flowers with 3,199 square feet; coffee brand Brewklyn Grind with 1,573 square feet; and beverage company Two Robbers with 1,505 square feet.

“This extraordinary activity at The Whale is a testament to new ownership’s approach and ability to implement a plan that allows us to offer a unique product to the marketplace,” Newmark’s Jordan Gosin, who represented Capstone alongside Ryan Gessin, Christopher Ventura and Bernard Weitzman, said in a statement. “We are able to accommodate the tenant’s space requirements from 1,000 to 70,000 square feet.” 

It’s unclear who represented Whale Square and Express in the negotiations.

Joshua Zamir’s Capstone Equities bought a roughly $70 million nonperforming note on the 500,000-square-foot former Whale Oil Company headquarters building over the summer, taking ownership from Nightingale Properties, which purchased the building for $84 million in 2020.

Since then, renovations have been made to the building that include new elevators, new loading docks and indoor parking as well as a rooftop terrace.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.