FreshDirect leases 20K sf at old Pfizer site in Brooklyn

While FreshDirect is moving its headquarters to the South Bronx, the online grocer is also leasing some space in Brooklyn – taking 20,000 square feet at 630 Flushing Avenue, on the border of Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

The 575,000-square-foot industrial building, owned by Long Island City-based Acumen Capital Partners, takes up an entire eight-acre block between Marcy and Tompkins avenues. The property is currently 50 percent occupied, with creative and light manufacturing tenants including the Pratt Institute, SoulCycle and Roberta’s Pizza.

Acumen bought the building – the original headquarters of New York-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer – for $19 million in 2011, according to the New York Observer. FreshDirect’s lease was a direct deal between the tenant and the landlord.

The growing online grocery service is leaving its Long Island City headquarters for a move to the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx – where it broke ground on a new 500,000-square-foot corporate facility last year.

FreshDirect tapped a Cushman & Wakefield team led by Bob Knakal to market its Long Island City complex, at 23-30 Borden Avenue, earlier this year. [NYO] – Rey Mashayekhi