Retail Coming to Brooklyn Municipal Building

A plan to bring retail to the Brooklyn Municipal Building was announced by city officials and Borough President on Monday.

"Real estate is all about location, location, location," said Markowitz at an lunchtime press conference inside the Municipal Building at 210 Joralemon Street, adding that his office overlooks the building. "This store would be the apple of my eye."

A Request for Proposals was issued by the city Monday. Seth Pinsky, President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, said 37,000 square feet of space, or 10 percent of the building, will be available. The retail site is planned for a portion of the first and second floors on the corner of Joralemon and Court Streets.

The proposed retail space is currently home to city offices. It has not been decided yet which offices will be consolidated and which city employees will be moved. There are approximately 150 workers in the building. Offices include the Department of Finance, the Department of Probation and the Brooklyn District Attorney, among others.

Transforming parts of city buildings into commercial space is part of an ongoing project citywide that renovates office space and turns it into "usable space," said Deputy Mayor for Operations Stephen Goldsmith.

Bringing more retail to the area will create jobs and bring revenue to the city and borough, officials said.

Pinsky added that New Yorkers spend $72 billion on retail a year with tourists spending $5.5 billion more.

"That buying power will attract someone first class to this space," he said.

For Markowitz, that first class client is Apple.

"This is a perfect location for Apple, there's no reason it's not in Brooklyn," he said following the conference.

Markowitz is so keen on Apple he'll be reaching out to them personally, and not for the first time.

"I'll be pitching Apple, you can be sure of it," he said.

Responses to the RFP are due by February 7, 2011 and the NYC Economic Development Corporation hopes to have a contract signed by Spring.