Brooklyn’s City Point project is finally taking shape as Phase I, facing Albee Square, is now open, while Phase II is well underway.
When complete, the $1 billion project will anchor Downtown Brooklyn’s renaissance with 1.8 million square feet of residential, retail and restaurants.
Originally conceived as a Target-anchored vertical power center, City Point was later redesigned. When it fully opens in March 2016, the project will have one of Target’s first urban City Target stores, in 100,000 square feet on the second floor.
The third and fourth floors will have Century 21 in 140,000 square feet with the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema from Austin, Texas, topping the retail on the fifth floor.
Now that construction is advancing, the developers are focused on leasing the ground floor of 84,000 square feet and the 64,000-square-foot lower level to smaller tenants and a variety of food operators.
Leasing is being handled by Peter Ripka and Jason Pennington of Ripco Real Estate. While there may be a few stores smaller than 2,000 square feet, most will be larger.
Asking rents will range from $75 to $225 per foot depending on the size, level and location.
Partner Paul Travis, managing director of Washington Square Partners, added, “When we bought the old Albee Square Mall in 2009, there were a few hundred residential units in the downtown core.
When all the projects are finished, there will be over 17,000.”
City Point is expected to become the major commercial center for Downtown Brooklyn.
It will further accelerate the transformation of Fulton Street while serving the surrounding area.
“What we hear time and time again is that the entertainment, retail and food options are very limited,” said Conlon. City Point will fill that void.
While tenants will be mostly food- and fashion-related, there will also be home goods and perhaps a smattering of international retailers who are all now focusing on Brooklyn.
“What seems to resonate is that food will become a fourth anchor,” Travis said. They will try to curate a 35,000-square-foot selection of restaurants and markets.
“We think we have the opportunity to present something that is unique and authentic as opposed to putting in well-known fast food. But we will be selective … and more authentic to Brooklyn.”
Both Conlon and Travis are excited about an outdoor space on the mezzanine level that will become a dining terrace overlooking Willoughby Square Park.
“We think we will get a real signature restaurant for that,” Travis said. The 1-acre park is being developed over a 700-car automated garage.
