Nonprofit HOPE Program Renews 7.5K-SF Lease at 1 Smith Street

The HOPE Program, a nonprofit skills-training organization that helps New Yorkers find jobs within the city, has renewed its lease at 1 Smith Street in Downtown Brooklyn for another 10 years.

Commercial real estate advisory firm Cresa helped negotiate the lease renewal for The HOPE Program. Cresa’s Waite Buckley and Michael Herz represented the organization and managed to reduce the rent by 30 percent of the original rate. Cresa declined to provide the exact figures, however the firm did note that asking rent for the building is $45 per square foot. 

The HOPE Program will continue to occupy 7,500 square feet on the fourth floor of the office building, which it has called home since 2001. 

“This is an exceptional organization that has helped New Yorkers from underserved communities for more than four decades,” Buckley said in a statement announcing the lease renewal. “The new rent rate will help the group with other escalating costs and enable it to continue offering training programs and job placement.”

An acronym for Home Of Prosperity and Empowerment, The HOPE Program was started in 1984, when then-doctoral candidate Deborah MacFarlane-Antoine was volunteering at a soup kitchen and wanted to do more to end the cycle of poverty in the city, according to the HOPE website. Forty years later, the organization still works to provide New Yorkers with tools to secure jobs across the city, many with an environmental focus. 

“The Cresa team has been an incredible partner to The HOPE Program, understanding our needs and supporting our goal of having a long-term affordable lease while maintaining our longstanding Brooklyn presence,” Tracey Capers, executive director of The HOPE Program, said in the release. “Because of Cresa, we can continue providing crucial career services to underserved communities in the heart of downtown Brooklyn.”

The landlord for 1 Smith Street is Sutton Management, which was represented in-house by Elie Sutton.

“The negotiations were guided by a shared commitment to ensure The HOPE Program can continue delivering its vital services to the community,” Sutton told Commercial Observer via email. “Recognizing the essential nature of their work, we worked closely with Cresa to find terms that supported Hope’s mission while aligning with the needs of the property. This commitment to supporting local nonprofits was a key factor in achieving mutually beneficial terms.”   

Other tenants at 1 Smith Street include in-home health and social services provider Heart to Heart and retailer Duane Reade. 

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.