Five Ways the Brooklyn Navy Yard's Dock 72 Will Change the Game

This week, Boston Properties, Rudin Development, WeWork and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp (BNYDC) announced Dock 72, a 675k SF, $380M office development catering to the TAMI sector. Rudin Development CEO Bill Rudin, VP Michael Rudin and Boston Properties New York regional manager John Powers tell us why it's so impactful.

Dock 72 is the first ground-up in Brooklyn focused on the creative marketplace, Bill (above) says. They were able to include everything TAMI tenants demand—high ceilings, large open spaces, eight-foot windows for prime lighting, state-of-the-art wiring and HVAC systems, tenant-controlled A/C, a Di-BOSS building management system, and amenities like outdoor space, terraces, green areas, a basketball court, a cafeteria, specialty foods, a bike valet, a rooftop conference center, and health and wellness facilities. It’s also in discussions with BNYDC about transportation options, such as potentially opening a ferry stop at the property, he adds. Construction on the 16-floor project begins this fall with an anticipated two-year build-out.

Having just celebrated his 30th birthday, Michael himself is a Millennial and has been watching the proliferation of WeWork (it's taking 220k SF as the anchor) and similar companies over the past five years. The shared office space provider was instrumental in the design of Dock 72 to make sure it appealed to its clients and the vibrant, growing companies that will make a positive impact on the NYC business world, he says. It’s the second partnership for Rudin and WeWork, which inked a deal in Rudin’s 110 Wall St for shared office space and apartment units targeted toward the TAMI workforce. WeWork is also in Boston Properties' 535 Mission St building in San Francisco.

There aren’t many new buildings in NYC that'll come close to Dock 72’s price point, given the space and amenities it provides. John (above) says rents will be in the $60/SF range, depending on a tenant’s location. While Manhattan has been popular among the TAMI sector, he adds, a lot of the space available is very old, not as cool and doesn’t have the full functionality companies need. “There’s growing demand for first-class, affordable office space, and this will be filling that need,” Bill notes. The new project comes just weeks after the de Blasio administration announced the $140M redevelopment of Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Admirals Row and follows the conversion of Building 77 into a 1M SF innovation and manufacturing hub, further bolstering Brooklyn’s reputation as place to relocate and build jobs.

Both Boston Properties and Rudin pay all their employees a living wage—so they had no qualms when the city wanted to make it part of the deal, John says. An agreement between the developers and BNYDC makes sure all tenants pay such a wage to their employees, making it the first new development in Brooklyn with that commitment. This was further made possible by the lack of real estate taxes (it’s on a long-term ground lease), incentives like REAP, and no sales tax on construction nor on occupancy taxes. When fully developed, Dock 72 (above) will house 4,000 jobs; the Brooklyn Navy Yard Employment Center will match nearby residents with job opportunities; and BNYDC and the developers will significantly expand BNYDC’s existing internship program and set aggressive goals for MWBE hiring and contracting.

The building is the next major step in BNYDC’s mission to expand Brooklyn’s labor market. With this project, $750M of construction is underway or in the pipeline at the 300-acre Brooklyn Navy Yard, including Building 77, Admirals Row (which a 74k SF Wegmans will soon call home) and the $66M adaptive reuse of a former machine shop building into the 250k SF Green Manufacturing Center. Overall, the site has 3.5M leasable square feet, 40 buildings and houses over 300 businesses; employment there has nearly doubled to 7,000 jobs over the past 14 years. Mayor Bill de Blasio, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen and BNYDC CEO David Ehrenberg "understood how important this is to economic development and worked tirelessly to make sure the Dock 72 deal got done," Bill says.