Brooklyn smoked fish company plans to build 500K sf in office space above factory

How much would you pay to rent office space above a smoked fish factory?

That potentially pungent option will be an option for businesses looking for commercial space on the border of Williamsburg and Greenpoint now that major smoked fish maker Acme Smoked Fish is expanding its footprint.

30 Gem Street in Brooklyn (Credit: Google Maps)

The company plans to develop a 583,000-square-foot, multistory project with Philadelphia-based developer Rubenstein Partners, according to the Wall Street Journal. The site would include a 80,000-square-foot manufacturing facility where company will roll out their signature lox, whitefish and herring. The rest of the building would incorporate office space.

The development would be built on land the company already owns at 30 Gem Street, which currently houses a 65,000-square-foot production facility, and on surrounding parcels Acme plans to buys with Rubenstein. The Real Deal in January first reported on the assemblage and potential development plan.

Sources told the Journal it could cost up to $300 million in acquisition and development costs.

Rubenstein is also developing an office project at 25 Kent Avenue with Toby Moskovits’s Heritage Equity, though the Brooklyn office market hasn’t taken off as many expected.

The project between Acme and Rubenstein is subject to review from the city’s planning department and comment from the community. Acme and Rubenstein may run into some trouble as they are requesting to a rezoning from manufacturing to commercial use at the site, which is not currently allowed in the area.

Officials with Acme and Rubenstein told the Journal that the project will include ventilation equipment to stop any fishy odors wafting into the proposed offices. [WSJ] – Decca Muldowney