Head of Terra CRG, with office across from AY/PP site, now Chair of (expanding?) Downtown Brooklyn Partnership
From the Commercial Observer, 6/4/18, TerraCRG Chief Ofer Cohen Tapped to Chair Downtown Brooklyn Partnership:
TerraCRG, which calls itself "the only real estate brokerage and advisory firm focused solely on Brooklyn commercial transactions," is headquartered at 634 Dean Street, between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, opposite the southeast block of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park site. It has opened up its space to neighbors for several community meetings.
It also since 2010 has hosted "the borough’s most engaging and relevant Only Brooklyn.® Real Estate Conference, gathering hundreds of real estate players to discuss the future of one of the most powerful sub-markets in the country. TerraCRG’s Conference features curated panel topics that revolve around current real estate projects, trends and issues happening throughout Brooklyn."
There was once an even more ambitious effort. A Freedom of Information Law request revealed the 7/1/06 contract between the City of New York and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership for "consulting services" and defined the "Downtown Brooklyn Area" as extending south to Dean Street, east to Vanderbilt Avenue, and north to DeKalb Avenue.
That has nothing to do with any definition of Downtown Brooklyn and seemed gerrymandered to encompass the emerging Atlantic Yards project. The DBP has not yet tried to accomplish that.
Ofer Cohen, the founder and CEO of Brooklyn-based commercial brokerage TerraCRG, has replaced MaryAnne Gilmartin as the chairman of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s board of directors. [Note: the board list hasn't yet been updated.]Gilmartin expressed pride in the work accomplished; she in January co-founded L&L MAG, with a broader focus than Brooklyn, so presumably she has less focus on the borough.
...The longtime investment sales broker has served on the board of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership since 2014, in addition to serving on the boards of directors for the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the Brooklyn Hospital Foundation. Under his leadership, the local development corporation will continue to pursue its goals of creating a business-friendly environment, producing new office space and attracting new companies and amenities to Downtown Brooklyn.
From the article:
Cohen co-founded TerraCRG in 2008, and it has since grown to 30 employees and closed $2 billion worth of transactions in Brooklyn. Before starting the brokerage, he worked as a broker in Massey Knakal Realty Services’ Brooklyn office, as a partner at a tech-focused boutique marketing agency, and served in the Israeli Defense Forces.More on TerraCRG
TerraCRG, which calls itself "the only real estate brokerage and advisory firm focused solely on Brooklyn commercial transactions," is headquartered at 634 Dean Street, between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, opposite the southeast block of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park site. It has opened up its space to neighbors for several community meetings.
It also since 2010 has hosted "the borough’s most engaging and relevant Only Brooklyn.® Real Estate Conference, gathering hundreds of real estate players to discuss the future of one of the most powerful sub-markets in the country. TerraCRG’s Conference features curated panel topics that revolve around current real estate projects, trends and issues happening throughout Brooklyn."
Cohen hosts a periodic podcast, HeyBK, interviewing various real estate figures.
Extending Downtown Brooklyn?
As I wrote in April 2014, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the (once city-funded) local development corporation that has promoted Forest City Ratner's interests, once suggested that Downtown Brooklyn stops near the border of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, but later found space on a map for the Atlantic Yards site, albeit with the assistance of an inset.
Then, the DBP prepared a new two-page map that manages to transcend the graphical limits of the earlier maps, positing a sort of Greater Downtown Brooklyn, extending to the eastern boundary of the Atlantic Yards site, to Vanderbilt Avenue.
As I wrote in April 2014, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the (once city-funded) local development corporation that has promoted Forest City Ratner's interests, once suggested that Downtown Brooklyn stops near the border of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, but later found space on a map for the Atlantic Yards site, albeit with the assistance of an inset.
Then, the DBP prepared a new two-page map that manages to transcend the graphical limits of the earlier maps, positing a sort of Greater Downtown Brooklyn, extending to the eastern boundary of the Atlantic Yards site, to Vanderbilt Avenue.
More recently, I checked the DBP website and saw their current map (below), which ends at the malls across Atlantic Avenue from the Barclays Center, and encompasses the expanded (as of 2015) MetroTech Business Improvement District (BID), which is one of the three MetroTech BIDs. (Cohen's office is located outside that map, though his business efforts include Downtown Brooklyn.)
There was once an even more ambitious effort. A Freedom of Information Law request revealed the 7/1/06 contract between the City of New York and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership for "consulting services" and defined the "Downtown Brooklyn Area" as extending south to Dean Street, east to Vanderbilt Avenue, and north to DeKalb Avenue.
That has nothing to do with any definition of Downtown Brooklyn and seemed gerrymandered to encompass the emerging Atlantic Yards project. The DBP has not yet tried to accomplish that.
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