Downtown Brooklyn's Retail Corridor Set to Expand

Big changes are coming to the Municipal Building in Downtown Brooklyn.

Currently home to the city Department of Finance, the first floor of the building at 210 Joralemon St. will be sold to a developer for $10 million to make room for a new restaurant and multiple retail outlets, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Monday. 

Joined by Borough President Marty Markowitz, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, D-Brooklyn, and Councilman Stephen Levin, D-Brooklyn, Bloomberg framed the deal as part of the neighborhood's resurgence as a retail and dining destination.

“Downtown Brooklyn is now more alive with people than ever,” Bloomberg said. 

The developer for the 49,000-square-feet space will be Al Laboz, chairman of the Fulton Mall Association and one of Downtown Brooklyn's biggest real estate players. 

“The goal is a cool, hip restaurant with a mid-level price range,” Laboz said of the Municipal Building deal.

The deal is part of Bloomberg's larger cost-cutting effort to reduce the amount of city-owned property. 

And with Brooklyn filled with thousands of square feet currently occupied by shrinking city agencies, Markowitz said he hoped Monday's deal would not be the last.

"Let this be a message to all developers and businesses that there are underutilized city-owned buildings that would be perfect sites for economic development," Markowitz said. 

Within the past couple of years, retailers have expressed serious interest in Downtown Brooklyn's growing business district.

Aeropostale recently opened a branch at the Fulton Street Mall. H&M broke ground on a new store in January—also developed by Laboz. Panera Bread just opened only a couple blocks from the Municipal Building.   

This new project will add more businesses to one of the city’s largest business districts. And according to Bloomberg, the project will help continue the city’s record of keeping and creating jobs, even in a continued weak economy nationally.

”New York City has lost fewer jobs and is bouncing back from the downturn faster than the rest of the country," he said.

The project will create 64 construction jobs and 114 permanent jobs for people all across the five boroughs, according to Bloomberg.

There is currently no word on what retail stores (though a deal to open what would be the borough's first Apple Store seemed unlikely) will set up in the new space, or when it will be completed.