While most commercial real estate watchers are focused on hot Manhattan markets like Hudson Yards, Midtown East and the Meatpacking District, there’s another tier of office buildings going up in the outer reaches of the outer boroughs, in places better known for single-family homes than class A office space.
New outer borough office space is most pronounced in Flushing, but at least one developer has exported the model to Sheepshead Bay, a multiethnic neighborhood in southern Brooklyn. There, Flushing-based Atria Builders has erected an eight-story office building at 902 Quentin Road.
902 Quentin Road
Karl Fischer was the architect per the new building permit, first filed in 2006. The tower has a gross floor area of 73,245 square feet, and reaches 113 feet into the sky, towering over the predominantly single-family surrounds.
Just off of Kings Highway, commercial space is the only thing allowed at 902 Quentin Road. Its restrictive C8-2 zoning spills off from Coney Island Avenue, a mixed-use district that planners zoned purely for commercial use in 1961. In fact, developers normally wouldn’t be allowed to exceed a floor area ratio of two, but by taking advantage of the community facilities bonus – most often used in for-profit private projects as medical space – Atria was allowed to build much more densely than what’s typically allowed.
Because of the lack of residential zoning, the builder was able to pick up the development site in 2007 for just a bit over $2 million, according to property records – a discount on the $2.7 million the land traded for two years before that.
902 Quentin Road
The building’s been for the most part finished for years, and some tenants have moved in – including Touro College’s Nursing Department, on the third floor, along with some doctors’ offices – but there appears to still be some work going on inside. In 2011, asking rents were $35 per square foot per year, putting it on par with some older buildings in the less trendy parts of Manhattan.
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