When privately held real estate investment firm RXR Realty closed on its $194.5 million purchase of 470 Vanderbilt Avenue in February 2014, it was seen as a harbinger of things to come for the neighborhood around the 650,000-square-foot, 10-story building.

RXR had never bought anything in downtown Brooklyn before, and that area of downtown Brooklynnear Barclays Center and the Atlantic Yards mega-projecthad been changing. To keep up with that change, RXR quickly set about starting a $74 million renovation and upgrade of 470 Vanderbilt. The idea, according to the firm, was to make the building one of the most state-of-the-art assets in this emerging neighborhood.

The endgame, the firm says, is to make 470 Vanderbilt more attractive to technology and creative firms, perhaps luring them from their traditional Brooklyn habitat of Dumbo. Networking system Switchnet leases space in the building, and Aereo, the TV-sharing service that went out of business in 2015, had space there as well.

Other tenants include the City of New York and The League Education & Treatment Center, a 50-year nonprofit serving children and adults with developmental disabilities. ¾-TA