The developers of Dumbo Heights recently signed another batch of office and retail tenants to the sprawling tech hub now under construction.
Mobile marketing agency Prolific Interactive is moving its Brooklyn office to 77 Sands Street, where it will occupy the entire 11th floor spanning 18,800 square feet. The 12-story, 225,000-square-foot Property On Sands Street is part of the five-building office complex being developed by Jared Kushner’s Kushner Cos., Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty and Asher Abehsera’s LIVWRK.
On the retail front, Randolph Beer is opening a 6,000-square-foot beer hall at the base of 77 Sands Street. Domodomo, a Japanese restaurant with a hand roll sushi bar, signed for an unspecified amount of space elsewhere at the complex.
Prolific Interactive has a habit of outgrowing its New York office digs, all of which have been in Dumbo to date. For example, the company took 2,000 square feet at Two Trees Management’s 55 Washington Street in 2011. Then, in 2013, it left for Two Trees’ nearby 45 Main Street – occupying 4,500 square feet and later tacking on an additional 1,500 square feet elsewhere in the building. At both properties, the company exited before its lease expired.
“Looking for space is always a pain,” Prolific Interactive CEO Bobby Emamian told The Real Deal. “We’re in an awkward growth period constantly. But we are a growing company. You can’t afford the space that’s going to be good for you in five years.”
Prolific Interactive, which has 80 people in Brooklyn and 20 in San Francisco, designs and develops mobile products for clients such as Abercrombie & Fitch, SoulCycle and Angie’s List.
At Dumbo Heights, office asking rents are in the high-$50s per square foot, while retail asks are in the $60s per square foot. Asking rent for Prolific Interactive’s space at 45 Main Street was in the low- to-mid-$40s per square foot, sources said.
Abehsera said the office and retail components are about 62 percent and 70 percent leased, respectively. There will be a total of almost 1 million square feet in office space.
Randolph Beer, a gastropub from the owners of popular cocktail-and-coffee spot the Randolph, has a location at 343 Broome Street in Little Italy. Domodomo’s sole location is at 138 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village. A representative for the retailers could not be reached for comment.
Dumbo Heights’ office tenants include WeWork, Etsy, Frog, and Alexis Bittar, which will lease the floor below Prolific Interactive. The Dig Inn, Untamed Sandwiches and Dos Toros are among the retail tenants. WeWork, which is set to occupy space at both 77 Sands Street and 81 Prospect Street, is the first tenant to have moved in so far. Some tenants have technically taken possession of their space, but those offices are still being constructed.
The partners bought the site from the Jehovah’s Witnesses for $375 million in 2013.