Brooklyn-centric co-working company Bklyn Commons inked a lease for 30,000 square feet at the border of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick and Williamsburg, the firm told The Real Deal.
The office marks Bklyn Commons’ second to date, after its first opened late last year in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. The company would occupy half of the second and third floors and the full fourth floor of the four-story property, located at 774 Broadway in Bed-Stuy, said CEO Jack Srour.
Brooklyn Lollipop Import Company, an importer of lollipops, has owned the roughly 60,000-square-foot property since 1986, property records show. The building is best known as the home of the discount department store Fat Albert Warehouse, which occupies the ground floor.
The lease is for 10 years, and comes with two five-year options. The space is slated to hold about 250 people when it opens by June 2017, said Srour. Srour’s cousins Juda and Jack run the shared office provider Jay Suites.
Bklyn Commons’ first office, at 495 Flatbush Avenue (home to an affiliate of a Fat Albert), spans 18,000 square feet. The lollipop importer also owns that building. Srour founded the firm last year.
Asking rents in the area are in the $30s per square foot. Developers behind the burgeoning office submarket in the East Williamsburg-Bushwick corridor, however, are hoping to push rents to the $50s and $60s per square foot.
A bit further north on Broadway, co-working competitor Cowork|rs signed a 20-year lease for 30,000 square feet at 839 Broadway in April.
Meanwhile, co-working giant WeWork continues its office-leasing domination with a recent 60,000-square-foot expansion at 135 East 57th Street, one of its many locations in the city. The firm was most recently valued at $16.9 billion.