Industry City, Brooklyn: leasing and space guide

From Bush Terminal to Industry City: how the buildings got here

The buildings now marketed as Industry City were built as the loft and warehouse section of Bush Terminal. Irving T. Bush put the idea together around the start of the twentieth century: piers on the harbor, rail connections, warehouses and multi-story manufacturing lofts, all on one property. A company could make something on an upper floor, store it in a warehouse, and ship it by rail or by water without trucking it across the city first.

That idea of a shared industrial campus, where many tenants rent space in buildings designed for production and moving goods, explains almost everything about the space you see today. The floors were built heavy. The buildings are wide, with long runs of windows to bring daylight onto factory floors. Courtyards and rail spurs between buildings handled freight. The buildings sit in a grid of blocks between the waterfront and Third Avenue.

Through the second half of the twentieth century, as shipping moved to container ports and manufacturing left New York, much of the complex emptied out or was used for low-cost storage and small industrial tenants. The repositioning that produced the Industry City name came much later, when new ownership began investing in the buildings in the 2010s and leasing them to a broader mix of users. If you are evaluating a space there, it helps to remember that you are leasing inside a building designed for factory work around a century ago, now refitted for modern tenants. That shapes your build-out, your mechanical systems and your freight access.

What the campus holds now

Today Industry City is a mixed campus. On a walk through the courtyards you will see creative and tech offices, design studios, makers and small-batch manufacturers, light industrial users, food producers, a food hall, shops and event space. Some floors are finished as polished open office with new glass and mechanical systems. Others are closer to raw loft, with exposed concrete, original columns and freight-oriented corridors.

That range is the main reason tenants look here. A single campus can hold a 20-person architecture studio, a coffee roaster with production equipment, and a retailer that wants foot traffic from the courtyards. The tradeoff is that spaces vary a lot from building to building and floor to floor, even when the marketing materials make them sound alike.

We do not publish current rents, availability or tenant lists for Industry City on this page because they change and we are not the landlord’s agent. When we work with a tenant, we get current availability and terms directly and compare them with other buildings on the waterfront. Confirm current availability and terms for any specific suite before you plan around it.

Office and studio space

Most office demand at Industry City comes from creative, media, design and technology firms that want large open floors, high ceilings and daylight, and are comfortable being outside the Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn office cores. Studio users (photography, production, art, fitness, music) also look here because the floors can take equipment and the ceilings give room for lighting and rigging. Sound transmission between floors and suites is a real question in concrete loft buildings, so studio users should ask about it early.

Makers and light manufacturing

Production tenants get floors that were designed to carry load and freight elevators sized for goods. What you need to confirm is that your specific process works in your specific suite: power, ventilation, gas, water and drains, and whether the use is allowed under the zoning and the building’s certificate of occupancy. Food producers in particular should plan for exhaust, grease handling and health department requirements well before signing.

Food and retail

Ground-floor and courtyard-facing space trades on foot traffic from people who work on the campus, events and weekend visitors. That traffic is real but uneven. Weekday lunch and weekend crowds can look very different from a Tuesday evening, so retail and food tenants should visit at several times of day and ask how the landlord programs the courtyards.

The 2020 rezoning proposal and why it still matters

Industry City’s owners proposed a rezoning of the complex that would have allowed a wider range of uses, including more retail and academic space and hotel use. The proposal drew strong opposition from many Sunset Park residents and community groups, who raised concerns about rents and displacement in the surrounding neighborhood and about losing industrial space. The local City Council member opposed it, and in 2020 the owners withdrew the application before a Council vote.

For a tenant, the practical takeaway is simple. The campus operates under its existing zoning, which is a manufacturing district. That generally favors industrial, office and certain commercial uses, and limits others. If your use is unusual (large assembly, education, certain retail formats, or anything with sleeping accommodation), do not assume it is allowed because a similar business seems to be operating somewhere on the campus. Have the use reviewed against the zoning and the specific building’s certificate of occupancy, and confirm with your attorney and architect. Rules change, so confirm current requirements.

Getting there: subway, highway and the street grid

The closest subway station for most of the campus is 36th Street on the Fourth Avenue line, served by the R as well as the D and N, which run express along Fourth Avenue. From the station you walk west downhill toward the water, under the Gowanus Expressway on Third Avenue, and into the campus. Depending on which building you are in, that walk ranges from short to a solid ten minutes or more, which matters when you are hiring staff who commute by train. The R also stops at 25th Street and 45th Street, which can be closer for some employees depending on where on the waterfront they work.

By car and truck, the Gowanus Expressway (I-278) runs overhead along Third Avenue and connects to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and the Hugh L. Carey (Brooklyn-Battery) Tunnel. That highway access is a real advantage for distribution and service businesses. The street-level reality under the expressway, with truck traffic, double-parked deliveries and limited curb space, is the cost of that access. Parking for employees and visitors is limited, so ask what parking, if any, comes with your lease and what it costs.

NYC Ferry also serves the Sunset Park waterfront at the Brooklyn Army Terminal to the south. Check current routes and schedules before you count on it for a commute.

Freight elevators, loading and moving goods in loft buildings

Freight access is where Industry City spaces differ most from conventional office buildings, and where tenants most often get surprised after move-in. The loft buildings were designed for freight, but your suite’s access depends on which elevator serves it, how it is scheduled, and where the nearest loading area is.

Before you sign, walk the actual path your deliveries will take. Start at the street or courtyard where a truck would stop, go through the loading area, into the freight elevator, up to your floor and down the corridor to your door. Measure the elevator cab and door opening, the corridor width and your entry door. A piece of equipment that fits on paper may not make the turn.

• Elevator hours and booking. Ask whether freight is available on demand or by reservation, what hours it runs, and whether after-hours or weekend use costs extra. Production tenants that receive goods daily need more than a move-in booking.
• Operator requirements. Some freight elevators run with a building operator. Find out whether that is included or billed.
• Loading docks versus curb. Ask if the building has dock-height loading, grade-level loading, or both, and how many tenants share it. A shared dock at peak hours behaves like a much smaller dock.
• Truck size. Confirm the largest vehicle that can practically reach your loading point. Courtyards and side streets can limit trailer length.
• Floor load. Get the rated live load for your floor in writing, especially for heavy machinery, rolling racks, kilns, safes or dense storage. If the number is not known, budget for an engineer to evaluate it.

For office tenants, freight matters mostly at move-in and during build-out. For makers, food producers and anyone shipping product, it is a daily operating cost. We treat freight terms as a lease item to negotiate, not a building rule to accept.

Lease terms to read closely at Industry City

Leases on a large managed campus tend to be built on the landlord’s standard form. That form is a starting point. Below are the items we focus on for Industry City tenants, with what to ask about each.

One more point specific to Brooklyn: New York City’s Commercial Rent Tax applies to certain tenants in Manhattan south of 96th Street, not in Brooklyn. That is one of the cost differences tenants weigh when comparing a Sunset Park lease to a Manhattan one. Confirm how any tax applies to your situation with your CPA.

None of this is legal advice. Every lease should be reviewed by a New York real estate attorney before you sign. Our job is to get the business terms right first so the legal review is about drafting, not about whether the deal makes sense.

Who Industry City suits, and who should look elsewhere

Industry City works well for a specific set of tenants. It is a poor fit for others, and the sooner you know which group you are in, the less time you spend touring.

For example, a hypothetical 30-person design studio that wants daylight and a showroom corner would likely find several suites worth touring. A hypothetical regional distributor that runs box trucks in and out all day would probably do better looking at ground-floor industrial space with its own loading elsewhere on the waterfront or in other Brooklyn industrial areas.

How Industry City compares with nearby options

Tenants considering Industry City usually have one or two other Brooklyn options on the list. Here is how we describe the differences, in general terms. Each building and suite is different, so treat this as a starting point for touring.

The comparison usually comes down to four questions. How much do your people depend on the subway? How much freight do you move? How much character and amenity are you paying for? And does your use need the flexibility of private zoning and leasing, or would it qualify for city-owned industrial space? We help clients answer those questions with real quotes rather than general impressions. Our Sunset Park guide covers the wider neighborhood.

Tenant checklist before you sign at Industry City

1. Write down your actual requirements: headcount now and in three years, special rooms, power, ventilation, freight frequency, parking and hours of operation.
2. Confirm that your use is permitted under the zoning and the building’s certificate of occupancy. Have your architect or expediter check it; a listing description is not enough.
3. Tour at least three suites in different buildings, plus at least one comparable option outside the campus.
4. Walk the freight path from truck to suite and measure it.
5. Get the available electrical capacity for the suite in writing, plus who pays for any upgrade.
6. Ask for base building HVAC hours and the after-hours rate.
7. Get a contractor or project manager to price the build-out from a test fit before you agree to any allowance.
8. Review operating expense and tax escalation language, and ask for historical numbers.
9. Negotiate sublease, assignment and renewal rights that fit your growth plan.
10. Confirm signage rights at the building, courtyard and directory level.
11. Ask about the landlord’s rules for events, noise, odors and deliveries if your business produces any of them.
12. Have a New York real estate attorney review the full lease and any guaranty before signing.

How we represent tenants at Industry City

DiBe Real Estate represents tenants. We are not the leasing agent for Industry City or any building on the Sunset Park waterfront, so our advice is about what is right for your business. That includes telling you when a suite is wrong for you or when another neighborhood fits better.

What makes our approach different is the construction background. Sal DiBenedetto is a Brooklyn native, a licensed real estate broker in New York and Florida, and a Florida Certified General Contractor with hands-on construction and development experience, including in Gowanus. When we tour a loft floor, we are looking at the electrical service, the HVAC, the slab, the sprinklers and the freight path as well as the finishes. That helps us estimate build-out cost before you commit, and it helps us negotiate the work letter and allowance with real numbers.

A typical engagement runs like this: we define your requirements, survey the market including options off the campus, tour, request proposals, compare them side by side on total occupancy cost, negotiate business terms, coordinate with your attorney, and stay involved through build-out if you want help there. Our Brooklyn tenant representation page explains the process in more detail, and our project management service covers the construction side.

To start, send us your size, use and timing through the contact page, call or text 239-256-5005, or email info@diberealestate.com.