LIVWRK, Kushner, RFR plan public space by Dumbo Heights

Developers to spend $700K to expand sidewalk, install furniture and planters

Rendering of planned public space along Sands Street in Dumbo (credit: Fantastica) (inset: Aby Rosen and Jared Kushner)
Rendering of planned public space along Sands Street in Dumbo (credit: Fantastica) (inset: Aby Rosen and Jared Kushner)

The developers behind the new Dumbo Heights are looking to create a relaxed outdoor space for tenants to cool off. And if it increases the value of the property too, so much the better.

LIVWRK, Jared Kushner’s Kushner Companies and Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding are planning to create a two-block-long public space on the Sand Street side of their Dumbo office complex, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The partners are looking to spend about $700,000 to double the depth of the sidewalk to 30 feet, and install furniture, planters and public art.

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“Our experience has always been the property owners see enormous value in having public space immediately adjacent to their properties,” Alexandria Sica of the Dumbo Improvement District told the Journal. “They help create a sense of calm in hectic traffic areas.”

Dumbo Heights’ developers bought the property in 2014 for $375 million, and are spending about $100 million on renovations. The final complex will encompass 1.4 million square feet of space between the overpasses of the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridge.

Firms such as coworking giant WeWork, online marketplace Etsy, marketing firm Prolific Interactive and others have signed up as tenants. [WSJ]Ariel Stulberg