Thor planning huge Red Hook waterfront office complex

Norman Foster-designed project will feature 100K sf floorplates, retail and restaurants

Thor Equities Red Hook
Rendering of Thor Equities' planned Red Hook office and retail complex (credit: Thor)

Thor Equities may be marketing a good chunk of its New York City portfolio, but the Joseph Sitt-led firm is still planning a 623,000-square-foot office and retail development on the Red Hook waterfront.

The four-story, Norman Foster-designed complex will feature more than 600,000 square feet of office space and around 23,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, according to Bloomberg.

The project will also come with a waterfront esplanade that will be open to the public, as well as a courtyard and rooftop terraces for tenants, per plans filed with the city’s Department of Buildings.

Like Dock72 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard – the 675,000-square-foot waterfront office development that is being built by Rudin Management, Boston Properties and WeWork – the complex will be surrounded by water on three sides and will target the increased demand for Brooklyn workspace from tech and creative office tenants.

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While Thor’s Red Hook development will face public transportation challenges – the closest subway stop is 12 blocks away – it could benefit from long-term plans for a light rail connection that would run from Sunset Park up to Long Island City in Queens.

Work on the complex, which will feature 100,000-square-foot open floorplates, will start this summer with or without any signed tenants, a Thor spokesperson told Bloomberg.

It may not be the only Red Hook office complex to come online over the next several years. Italian firm Est4te Four has plans for a 1.1 million-square-foot development of its own, named Red Hook Innovation Studios and also located on the neighborhood’s waterfront. Est4te Four is reportedly looking for a partner to take a $100 million stake in that project.

The Real Deal reported exclusively yesterday that Thor is marketing at least 10 Manhattan properties. [Bloomberg]Rey Mashayekhi