Brooklyn Is Taking Aim At Amazon's HQ2
Brooklyn is throwing its hat in the ring for Amazon's HQ2 in a major way.
Borough President Eric Adams and Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Andrew Hoan have announced a "Brooklyn Prime" campaign to lure the e-commerce titan to the borough, highlighting the area's transit, educated workforce, cultural diversity and vibrancy as key advantages over other potential landing spots.
To aid in the effort, a group of real estate leaders from Jamestown Properties, Rudin Management, Rubenstein Partners and Forest City have come together to assist the Brooklyn Prime campaign, Crain's New York Business reports. Choosing collaboration over competition, they reason, is more likely to produce a compelling proposal to woo Amazon.
"We're working together to highlight the extraordinary opportunity that we can offer," Industry City CEO Andrew Kimball said. "Brooklyn's innovation coast from Williamsburg to Sunset Park has numerous opportunities for a campus-like environment with an ecosystem of academic institutions, a skilled labor force, bedroom communities and culture."
Jamestown and a group of partners own Industry City, a massive complex of former industrial properties being gradually converted into creative office and manufacturing spaces in Sunset Park. It is one of a few areas large enough to potentially host Amazon's HQ2, but the collaboration between real estate companies could mean a combination of smaller sites. Rubenstein Partners pitched its 25 Kent Ave. office development in Williamsburg as the site for Amazon's 500K SF Phase 1 requirement.
