Cayre Tapped to Revamp BK Waterfront Icon

NEW YORK CITY-A partnership led by Midtown Equities has been selected to redevelop the iconic Empire Stores building at 55 Water St. in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood. The partnership, which also includes Rockwood Capital and HK Organization, was chosen by Brooklyn Bridge Park's board of directors to restore seven historic warehouses along Brooklyn's waterfront, dating back to the post-Civil War era, for about 380,000 square feet of mixed-use space.

Separately, home furnishings retailer West Elm has signed a lease for more than 150,000 square feet at the $150-million redevelopment. It will include its corporate headquarters along with an expanded store, both in relocations from elsewhere in Dumbo.

“Speaking as a Brooklyn native who raised my family in the borough, it is an honor for my firm to be chosen for the redevelopment of the Empire Stores, the most desirable waterfront property in all of Brooklyn,” says Joe Cayre, chairman of Midtown Equities. He cites his company's “extensive experience in adaptive reuse projects and a considerable Brooklyn real estate portfolio,” with nearly one million square feet of development properties in the borough.

The new West Elm store will occupy the ground-floor space at 55 Water and will include waterfront-outdoor seating and a coffee shop in partnership with La Colombe, thus bringing caffeinated beverages back to a property that began life as a complex of coffee and dry goods warehouses built between 1869 and 1885. The West Elm team plans to reuse many of the building's original elements in the design of the new retail space.

Notwithstanding the presence of West Elm's planned two stores at 55 Water, about 80% of the redevelopment will be given over to office space, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Midtown Equities expects the project to draw tech tenants as part of Brooklyn's expanding Tech Triangle. Construction is expected to begin early next year and be completed in 2015.

In related news, the Brooklyn Bridge Park board said Wednesday it had approved a long-term lease with performing arts group St. Ann's Warehouse to develop a theater in the historic Tobacco Warehouse nearby. The development will include performance space, administrative offices, multi-use community space that will be permitted by Brooklyn Bridge Park and outdoor public space that will be managed and maintained by the park.

“All across the waterfront, we are reclaiming and renewing areas that have long been abandoned or neglected, and Empire Stores and the Tobacco Warehouse are the latest examples of that work,” says Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “These redevelopment plans will bring even more new life and excitement to the DUMBO waterfront at Brooklyn Bridge Park, giving residents and visitors more places to work, shop, dine, and experience the arts.”