A Logistics Center Rises In Brooklyn: How A Design-Build Contractor Overcame Complex Site Challenges

As recently as 2021, two dilapidated warehouses occupied a city block in Canarsie, Brooklyn. Fast-forward to 2024 and the site at 807 Bank St. has been transformed into a 172K SF, LEED Platinum pre-certified, last-mile industrial facility. 

And although built on spec, the project was fully leased two months after delivery.

The Class-A warehouse, which includes 80K SF of parking on the roof, was developed by Turnbridge Equities and Dune Real Estate Partners, in partnership with ARCO Design/Build.

The transformation from off-market assemblage to cutting-edge project required a delicate balance to manage the myriad construction challenges the site presented, said director of Operations for the ARCO Design/Build New York Division Bill Martorana.

“It was like peeling an onion,” Martorana said. 

Building in New York City, including in the city’s outer boroughs, is notoriously difficult, he said. It necessitates coordination with the city’s many agencies and contending with aging infrastructure in a dense, urban environment. 

This site was no different.

“As often happens, not all the challenges were apparent at the beginning of the design process,” Martorana said. 

The most challenging aspect was the site’s proximity to an elevated portion of the L Train line only 30 feet away. This meant the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had extensive oversight and approval rights over the project’s design and construction. 

Power lines surrounded the site on three sides, some as close as two-and-a-half feet from the building envelope, so the input of New York City’s gas and electric utility, Consolidated Edison, or ConEd, had to be considered, including in the sequencing of construction.

Consultation with and permissions from the Department of Transportation was also required for curb cuts and street lighting. The site’s location next to an active parking lot, with busy city streets lining its perimeter, was another challenge, while the decades-old buildings on the site required demolition and environmental remediation of contaminated soil.

But with challenges come opportunities. The site was located in the sought-after Canarsie industrial submarket, with access to JFK Airport and the greater New York City area via the Linden Boulevard transit artery.

To realize their vision, the developers turned to ARCO Design/Build, which has completed 5,000 design-build projects across the country for industrial clients. ARCO has also worked with Turnbridge and Dune Real Estate on other logistics projects in the past.

“ARCO’s selling point is its turnkey approach and being able to work with a developer early in the project cycle, in some cases even before they have purchased the site,” Martorana said. “We can guarantee scope, cost and schedule at the project’s onset, giving our clients the confidence to transact. In this case, we came up with multiple concepts, and Turnbridge and Dune selected the one that worked best for their investment thesis.”

ARCO provided a cost estimate in 2021 and stood by the estimate throughout the project, Martorana said.

“We are able to give the owner the upfront cost and stick to it,” he said. “This is no easy feat, as it involves making assumptions before having full access to a site, or full access to due diligence documentation.”

The project attracted a flurry of interest early in the construction process. As of August 2024, two months after completion, the building was fully leased, with two of its three leases signed prior to completion.

Tenants include Otto Environmental Systems, a Charlotte-based waste container manufacturer, which leased 60K SF and has a 10-year contract to provide the New York City Department of Sanitation with refuse, recycling and organics bins.

The building’s other tenants will include major distribution companies.

Once construction began in mid-2022, an MTA inspector visited the site daily and had final say regarding site activity, including having the power to overrule previously approved drawings. Per his feedback, the project team’s work closest to the subway tracks needed to be amended.

“We quickly revised and resubmitted drawings back to the MTA, then re-sequenced the schedule and our subcontractors,” Martorana said. “This way, we were able to start foundation efforts while the MTA reviewed and approved our plans, mitigating the schedule deficit the issue could have caused.”

As part of ARCO’s collaboration with ConEd, the team installed an “alley arm,” a utility pole shaped like an L rather than a T, which pushed power lines away from the building envelope, but the process was anything but straightforward.

“The existing utility poles were not strong enough to accept alley arms, which led ConEd to replace all the poles all the way around the building,” Martorana said.

This, in turn, impacted the functioning of nearby streetlights, requiring follow-on collaboration with the DOT.

“The streetlights in the area were old, and the DOT didn’t have records for all of them,” Martorana said. “As a result, we designed for the DOT to get the job done.”

ARCO employed a special power transmission engineer with the prerogative to impose limiting factors on crane use. This engineer made determinations based on wind and humidity conditions and the use of rigging that does not conduct electricity. 

ARCO was also required to employ a dedicated human spotter and a live video feed of power lines to ensure the crane operator was aware of their positioning in relation to the power lines at all times. Taking all this into account, the ARCO team worked early in the process to ensure crane sequencing plans were optimal while meeting all requirements, Martorana said.

“For all its challenges, we’re proud of this project,” Martorana said. “We look forward to playing a major part in the transformation of the city’s older building stock into functional, environmentally conscious and sought-after Class-A real estate product.”

This article was produced in collaboration between ARCO Design/Build and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.