[NYguy]

http://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/downtown-brooklyns-second-act/

Downtown Brooklyn’s second act
After a 2004 rezoning spurred residential development, the neighborhood is now vying to become a tech hub

May 01, 2016
By Farah Halime

....MaryAnne Gilmartin
President/CEO, Forest City Ratner

The neighborhood’s rezoning in 2004 has been credited with spurring tremendous development. But it was largely driven by residential development. Why did that happen?

Downtown Brooklyn’s rezoning went in a completely different direction than was planned. I don’t think anybody, including Forest City, ever imagined the residential market would kick in like it did. We thought we’d see a third central business district thrive and an expansion of the office market as a result of the zoning, but that didn’t happen. It started with the food movement and then the artists. They all flocked to Brooklyn. Certainly, government policies, including the allowance for taller buildings to spur the office market, allowed for market forces to respond so that residential development took over.

It’s no secret that new office complexes like Dumbo Heights and Empire Stores are wooing firms from the tech sector. Can Downtown Brooklyn compete with neighborhoods like Dumbo for TAMI-sector tenants? Do you envision a major company moving its headquarters to Downtown Brooklyn in the near future?

When you think about office markets and where people locate, discussing location is much more powerful than it was in the 1980s. The TAMI worker, the TAMI professional and student, all want to be in Brooklyn. The relative cost of a company to relocate to Brooklyn is highly compelling. The fact that there’s an engineering school going up on Jay Street, for example, allows for the creation of the new kind of 21st-century worker in Brooklyn. The traditional finance sector that was located in MetroTech has been replaced by NYU, Tough Mudder and Makerbot. They’re looking for a competitively priced space run by grown-ups.

What kind of development or investment opportunities are you eyeing in the Downtown Brooklyn area right now? Any deals you can share with us?

Obviously we’ve got our work cut out for us over in Pacific Park, but I’m a big believer in the office market. Brooklyn is ready for a sophisticated office tower; the idea that it could be built on Flatbush and look straight across at the Manhattan Bridge would be ideal. It requires a lot of work and a bit of patience. Jay Street has also been a confused street for a while. We haven’t had a kind of entrance to MetroTech there, and you sort of trip into it. There’s some unused air rights that NYU has in that area that could be interesting.