Remaining 550 Vanderbilt retail space up for rent. Once leased as construction field office, off (awkward, for now) Pacific Street stub someday (?) to be "park."

View south from Vanderbilt Ave.; Beer Street
 South at corner, space for lease at right past car

Retail space at 550 Vanderbilt once used as a construction field office and community liaison office is finally up for rent--though it may not be easy to find a tenant..

That's another sign that former tenant Greenland USA is not expecting to soon work on anything related to the Vanderbilt Yard, including a platform and new construction.

To recap: in January, I reported that Greenland Forest City Partners, which built the 550 Vanderbilt condo tower as a 70/30 joint venture, had finally sold the three retail condos--one subdivided--at the base of the building

The price: $5.8 million, well below the aspirational $10.5 million value signaled in the offering plan.

View west along Pacific St.
(Photos: Norman Oder)

Two of the condos remain occupied by three tenants, with leases until August 2028 at the earliest.

Ending one lease

The sole retail unit accessible not directly from Vanderbilt Avenue but only along demapped Pacific Street was said to be "leased to AY Development until July 2024, but can be terminated by either party with a 90-day notice," according to Marshall Real Estate, as  marketed on crexi.com.

And that, apparently, started happening a while back. The 2,400 square foot space, which extends 125 feet along Pacific Street, starts after a small piece of Pacific Street retail space occupied by Beer Street.

Brochure: view from Vanderbilt & Dean;
available space is around north end of building

It's listed at $65/square foot by owner Edison Equities. That's $156,000/year or $13,000/month. It was first listed on January 24.

Locational challenges

That location does come with some challenges. If the project proceeds, construction nearby--including the platform needed for the Vanderbilt Yard and then adjacent residential towers--could be noisy for that Pacific Street retail space.

Ultimately, it could be a coveted location, because demapped Pacific Street is supposed to serve as the central path of the open space ("Pacific Park") at the east end of the project.

Moreover, as the number 1 indicates in the image below, there's supposed to be a plaza. See arrow below, from the 2015 open space design by Thomas Balsley. But that's years away.

For now, a stub of Pacific Street, despite signage warning against it, accommodates parked cars, and then hits a construction fence.That said, people walking east to west, or vice versa, along the sidewalk path through the open space between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues might pass it.

Looking east along Pacific Street

So it's a little surprising that the marketing brochure (bottom), excerpted above right, focuses on a view of the building's retail spaces at Dean Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, not wrapping around the corner at Pacific Street.

Of the seven images on the space's LoopNet listing, only one--the second--points to the actual location, albeit in a long shot from across Vanderbilt Avenue to the north. That's below right. 

In other words, that doesn't fully convey the challenges--and opportunities--of the site.

The selling points

From the brochure:

• 

  Brochure: long view of Vanderbilt and Pacific

  Located on the Busiest Retail Corridor in Prospect Heights
• White Box Condition
• Previously a Construction Office
• Convenient location one block from Clinton-Washington Avenue subway station serviced by the A & C lines
• Short walk to Brooklyn’s busiest transportation hub, Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center, servicing nearly 14 million passengers annually
• All Uses Considered

Again, it's a bit off the "busiest retail corridor."

"Below-market rents"

Looking west on demapped Pacific Street near
retail space. Path allows "Pacific Park" passage.

The current tenants at 550 Vanderbilt are the ice cream parlor Van Leeuwen, which has a lease until August 2028 and the cafe Ciao, Gloria which has a lease until April 2030.

Both were carved out of a single retail condo near the much-trafficked corner of Dean Street and Vanderbilt Avenue.

The other tenant, Beer Street South, occupies space on Vanderbilt north of the residential entrance, with a small extension along Pacific Street. It has a lease until January 2029 with one 5-year option renewal.

The condo sales promotion cited "below-market rents" at the building, which implies that Van Leeuwen and Ciao, Gloria might face some increases.