Rabsky buying large Williamsburg site at 500 Kent from Con Ed

Developer to pay $50M for waterfront plot, where it plans commercial building

500 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg
500 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg

Rabsky Group [TRDataCustom] is in contract to buy a 2.65-acre development site along the Williamsburg waterfront from Consolidated Edison for $50 million, or $217 per buildable square foot, representatives for the developer and the utility giant confirmed to The Real Deal.

The prolific Brooklyn developer is planning a commercial building on the vacant site at 500 Kent Avenue, which offers 230,000 buildable square feet as-of-right, a spokesperson for Rabsky said. The current zoning allows for manufacturing, offices and some retail uses, given its inclusion in the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Industrial Business Zone (IBZ).

In October, Con Edison hired Cushman & Wakefield to market the 115,000-square-foot lot and implied to potential buyers that a rezoning to residential was in the works. The city, however, responded by saying it would not allow for a rezoning.

Mike Clendenin, a spokesperson for Con Ed, said the deal remains subject to approval by the New York State Public Service Commission, prior to closing.

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The site sits just south of Eliot Spitzer’s 857-unit rental project at 420 Kent Avenue and the Williamsburg Bridge. There is about 648 feet of frontage on Kent and Division avenues.

A Cushman team led by Stephen Palmese and Brendan Maddigan marketed the land for sale.

Rabsky, which made its name developing luxury rentals and condominiums in North Brooklyn, has increasingly branched out into commercial development. The firm filed plans last month for its first hotel, along Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, and paid $68 million for a site that allows its Downtown Brooklyn project to amass as much as 770,000 buildable square feet.  Rabsky is considering office or residential for the latter site.

(To view more of Rabsky Group’s projects in development, click here)