The partnership of two major players in the commercial real estate industry will help boost Brooklyn's office market. Rudin Development and Boston Properties Inc. will be teaming up to develop WeWork's planned office building at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Rudin Development and Boston Properties Inc. will be developing 675,000 square feet at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, reports Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The new building is expected to house about 4,000 workers when fully occupied. WeWork collaborated with the firm S9 Architect for the design of the Brooklyn office. Once completed, the building will boast of 14-foot ceilings and open floor plans. It will also feature amenities such as a half-basketball court, a rooftop conference center and bicycle valet parking that will cater to employees. WeWork will be the main tenant, taking up 222,000 square feet of the building.
The 16-storey office building is geared towards the technology, advertising and media sector, including the millennials. John Powers, New York regional manager for Boston Properties, said: "Our target market is the creative market, the millennial knowledge workers...who are in demand by many of the expanding businesses. That's the workforce that WeWork knows well, and that's the workforce that knows WeWork."
Adam Neumann, WeWork's CEO, said that he developed the idea for the building at the Brooklyn Navy Yard after touring the property. According to Bloomberg, the WeWork CEO was impressed with the combination of offices and light manufacturing. "We got to design this from bottom up, which means that everything about it is built to foster collaboration. There is nothing like this building built in the world today. Everything from where the elevators are located to how big is the cafeteria," said Neumann.
Rudin Development and Boston Properties will also require all tenants in the building to pay employees a living wage. This is an agreement that the two companies made with the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp., who manages the property for New York City. They also will work with the Brooklyn Navy Yard Employment Center to match nearby residents with job opportunities and to place 60 interns a year, reports WSJ.
Rents in the building will reportedly be at $60 a square foot. Construction of the Brooklyn Navy Yard office building is expected to begin this year. This $380 million project should be completed by late 2017.
