Williamsburg's $40 Million Retail Sites to Add 21,000 Square Feet of Shopping

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It looks like RedSky Capital wants to turn a profit on its Williamsburg investment as quickly as possible. The real estate firm that spent $40 million on two Bedford Avenue addresses late last year will convert both properties to all-retail spaces, The Wall Street Journal reports, and have set rents at $400 per square foot for the ground floor and $125 per square foot on the second level.

"Five years ago, you would decide to do retail on the ground floors and apartments upstairs," Peter Levitan, of the firm that represented RedSky in the transaction for 184-186 Bedford Avenue and 204-206 Bedford Avenue, told the newspaper. "I think there is a lot of pent-up demand from before the recession for retailers to open stores in Williamsburg."

These conversions will bring a total of 21,000 square feet of refurbished retail space to Bedford Avenue, which has higher commercial rents than anywhere else in the borough—elsewhere, the average is $125 per square foot. Driving that price up here are businesses like Whole Foods, J. Crew, and Redsky's other Bedford Avenue project: the Apple store.