How One Brooklyn Real Estate Developer is Bringing Jobs Back
In the 1960s, the 16 complexes along the waterfront in Sunset Park, Brooklyn were one of the busiest industrial sections in New York City. 25,000 people worked in factories and warehouses, making goods from clothes to Topps Baseball Cards.
As the golden days of urban manufacturing slipped away, tenants and workers gradually moved out from what had been called “Industry City.” The largest privately owned industrial complex in New York City became a ghost town of sorts.
“When we first got here in 2013, it was almost vacant,” said Cristal Rivera, the Director of Community Engagement at Industry City. “A lot of companies were just storage [companies]. Just boxes.”
Until 2013, Belvedere Capital and Jamestown, the developer behind the Chelsea Market, led the redevelopment of Industry City. They made a $100 million investment to renovate the buildings. Last year, another 10-year plan worth $1 million was announced. The company wants to bring prosperity back to the area and believes the success hinges on their ability to create much-needed jobs in this working-class neighborhood.
“Like all the other business in the city, we are relying on the context, which is the community we are in to run a successful business,” Rivera said. To build what she calls the “innovation economy,” the key is to “have people working and doing things here.”
Jamestown is trying to attract business with job opportunities, which would either bring people to the area or allow businesses to hire locally. Last year, Time Inc. moved more than 300 employees in its design and branding department to one of the 16 buildings in Industry City. It occupies two floors with a modern yet gritty-looking style, decorated with metal, wood and polished concrete.
Not only businesses are moving to Sunset Park. People are relocating here, too. Russell Lloyd moved to Sunset Park last year after he began working for Roll & Hill, a lighting design and manufacturing company. It takes him 10 minutes to commute to the office, a far cry from his old job.
“I used to spend two hours a day on trains and that sucks,” the former Manhattan resident said. “Now I just walk to work, and I can afford to live nearby.”
Building amenity-packed “cities within cities” has been a way to attract young talents, according to real estate experts and developers. Such model has also been applied in Williamsburg’s Navy Yard and Jersey City’s Newport community, which are both work-play-shop hubs.
To cater for people like Lloyd, two eating-places just opened last month. Iris Lee, the owner of a ramen shop, says she sells more than 100 bowls of ramen in a day.
“The rent here is much lower than Manhattan,” Lee said,” I enjoy talking to people and learn about the cool stuff they are doing here.”
Lee’s shop closes at 3 p.m. every day since most people only eat lunch in Industry City. A bakery and coffee shop, One Girl Cookies, is open solely on weekdays.
The shorter business hours and workweek dampen a store’s revenues. “This store is less profitable than other twos we have in Brooklyn, where there are larger flows of people,” said Kaitlynn Deck, the store’s manager. “We see business come and go a lot in Industry City.”
By the developer’s own count, employment at Industry City has more than doubled since 2013, and nearly half of the 4,500 people who work at the property also live nearby.
Alexandra Ferguson owns a handmade pillow business under her name in Industry City. She finds hiring people locally is “easier”. “We don’t need to extend search outside the community,” Ferguson said. “People living in the community tend to stay longer.”
Two of her four full-time employees at Ferguson’s company are Hispanic immigrants who speak little English. One Girl Cookies, the bakery factory with a shop front, hired 10 Hispanic workers living in Sunset Park to help out part-time during the holiday season by contract.
Due to its large scale and massive investment, the renovation inside Industry City is closely connected with the Sunset Park Neighborhood, where half of the residents are immigrants. Of the people working in Industry City, half of them are immigrants and 43% don’t have a bachelor’s degree.
“Jobs here are quite accessible,” Jamestown’s Rivera said.
Most entry-level jobs in the Industry City pay from $12 to $15 an hour. To train local residents on office skills and building websites, Industry City has also partnered with local non-profit organizations.
According to a report released by the State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli in September 2016, Sunset Park area has the largest concentration of manufacturing jobs in the city, especially in food and fashion industry.
“If you’re investing in Sunset Park, we really want you to commit to hiring within Sunset Park,” said Carlo Scissura, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.
Developers are working more closely with the local neighborhood and government, driven by both business and social responsibility reason. They need to win approval from the local government and community when they seek to rezone an area for development, according to Steven Pedigo, a professor at the Schack Institute of Real Estate at New York University.
That is what Industry City’s next move requires. To build a hotel with 400 rooms, the developer is pushing zoning change, which will be reviewed by Community Board Seven before it can go into effect.
Jeremy Laufer, the District Manager in the Community Board says they need to weighs the plan further to see if building a hotel fits their blueprint on the waterfront area.
“We believe all the waterfront properties should be used for either creating jobs, or for public recreation,” said Laufer. Some residents, he says, have expressed concern about rising rents, overcrowded facilities, and stretched local resources.
People who lost jobs and workspaces are not happy with the changes either. Gross Printing moved from here to New Jersey last year to take advantage of lower rents, laying off several workers. Meanwhile, some artists are being priced out. Michelle Abramowitz, a painter who rents a studio in the Industry City, has seen friends leave because of rising rents.
“We first brought the coolness that attracts people here. It’s not reasonable to make us leave once it gets nicer,” Abramowitz said in her 86-square-foot studio. She believes the developer will keep some artists to maintain the place’s cool and artistic image to attract young people.
By 2025, Industry City is expected to generate a total of 20,000 jobs, according to the developer.
“The buildings were made to be a job intensive place,” Rivera said. “That’s what it was and the people in the community would love to see it happen again.”
