Monday, October 10, 2005

Former Macy's site adds to office boom

The expanding office market in downtown Brooklyn is getting yet another building. A vacant warehouse at 29 Gallatin Place, adjacent to the Macy's store on Fulton Street, is being converted into 100,000 square feet of Class A office space.

Federated Department Stores Inc., the owner of Macy's, has leased the nine-story building to The Treeline Cos. for an undisclosed price one month ago.

The developer, which will spend $20 million on infrastructure upgrades, plans to begin construction in April 2006 and open the building in January 2007. Asking rents in the neighborhood are about $25 per square foot.

"We are buying one of the original buildings from the 1890s that had been one of several structures that Macy's amalgamated into one large store," says Glenn Schorr, a vice president at Treeline.

This is the second deal between Treeline and Federated for a building in the area. Four years ago, the firm converted a Macy's warehouse on Livingston Street. Tenants in the building include the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

--Julie Satow