Brooklyn Flea Founder to Open New Space for Small Biz and Food Vendors

Jonathan Butler, co-founder of the Brooklyn Flea (as well as Brownstoner.com blogger) and his partners have purchased three adjacent industrial properties totaling approximately 155,000 square feet at 1000 Dean Street in Crown Heights, for an ambitious space that plans to house small businesses, artisan food makers and light manufacturers, says the Wall Street Journal.

The buildings were acquired in an $11 million transaction, and construction is set to begin at the space in a few weeks, with a completion date scheduled for next year, says the Journal.

The article says that a section of the property will be used for cultural events, while another will have a 9,000-square-foot food and beer hall that will feature five or six different food vendors from the Brooklyn Flea.

"Hopefully, it will be a way for our food vendors to graduate from the Flea to having their own restaurant," Butler told the Journal.

“As for the rest of the building, we’re just starting to think about tenants,” wrote Butler on Brownstoner. “In our dreams, the main building will be a mix of large and small creative tenants drawn from the immediate and surrounding neighborhoods, including food producers, tech start-ups, artists, writers, furniture makers, jewelry makers, etc.

The Brooklyn Flea is scheduled to open this weekend in Fort Greene and Williamsburg.