For the past six years Industry City, in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, has steadily … [+]
Industry City
Over the past half dozen years, Industry City, Brooklyn has steadily gained momentum as a hub of content creation. The 35-acre, 16-building, six-million-square-foot creative complex on the waterfront of Brooklyn’s Sunset Park serves as a base of operations for more than 90 companies from the media, production and related industries.
The climb to prominence began in earnest six years ago, when equipment behemoths AbelCine, Litegear and PRG set up shop in the sprawling complex. Content creators followed close on their heels. Conde Nast and Serious Eats were among trailblazing creators that made the setting their home base early on, and continue to hold leases today. They were later joined by Buck Media, Moda Operandi and Essence magazine, all of which produce a wide array of content across many formats on premise.
The influx continued in late 2020, with lease signings bringing several big name tenants, including The Garage, KMH Integration and the content creation studio of Hello Fresh.
A new 15,000-square-foot space will ably serve The Garage as it handles tabletop cinematography for commercials, and reserves a portion of its space for an educational studio from which online classes will be taught. Full-service systems integrator KMH Integration is bringing the latest systems and technologies to support live streaming. Leading at-home meal kit delivery service Hello Fresh transferred its content creation studio from Manhattan to a new 9,000-square-foot Industry City space.
There it will produce recipe shoots, video content for social media and develop all creative assets for its United States operations.
Many factors
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There are a number of reasons for Industry City’s ascendance.
The most important may be the obvious synergies complementary companies within the same field can leverage by being based in the same bustling industrial community.
The full life cycle of content creation is found here, so tenants serving that cycle are naturally lured to the compound. Similarly-minded creatives mingle and meet at activations, events, classes or at lunch. As well, Industry City provides tenants various types of marketing partnerships. These alliances, ranging from joint marketing salvos to pop-up experiences, introduce tenants to one another and help boost their businesses.
The mission of building connections was afforded an additional boost last fall when Industry City unveiled a dedicated app designed to foster community among tenants. They can now post job openings, gain exclusive benefits and discounts, learn about events and giveaways, or order food from a restaurant within the complex.
Speaking of food and experiences, Industry City tenants are able to avail themselves of more than simply a café and Wi-Fi. The options extend from locally-based purveyors of Brooklyn-brewed craft spirits to the inky virtuosity of Mr. Kaves Pigtown Tattoo.
Enviable flexibility
Whether tenants seek traditional co-working, short-term private space rentals, longer-term and larger formats or the ability to enlarge their space using flexible lease terms, Industry City has shown an ability to accommodate needs.
Expanding footprints are common on the creative campus, where Essence magazine, FilmRise and Brooklyn Candle all were able to not only grow their space but maintain full operations while they expanded.
Over the past half year, dozens of companies have contracted with Industry City for flexible, smaller-format creative workspaces. In so doing, they eschewed the traditional co-working route for the many benefits they could derive by bringing their work to the creative compound. Within the past 12 months alone, the demand has led to half a million square feet of leases overall at the campus, including a mix of office, retail and creative workspaces.
With major networks scouring the complex for private studio space, the patch called Industry City is staking a claim as new hub of media and production in New York City.