Developers to Expand Acme Smoked Fish Facility With Office Space

Pennsylvania-based developers Rubenstein Partners are seeking to build a 583,000 square-foot commercial development with office space at the site of Acme Smoked Fish at 30 Gem St., the Wall St. Journal reports.

Acme would not have to relocate as the development would include an 80,000 square-foot manufacturing facility for the production of their popular smoked fish. Acme’s current facility measures approx. 65,000 square feet.

 

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The new dual eight-story mixed-use office buildings known as 25 Kent Ave. are nearing completion. The development has approx. 70,000 square feet of retail space, 350,000 square feet of office space and 80,000 square feet will be for light manufacturing use. The developers, Rubenstein Partners and Heritage Equities, worked with the Dept. of City Planning to create a special land use framework to allow them to build eight stories of commercial space where the zoning would only allow them to build one or two stories, according to the Commercial Observer.

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Rubenstein Partners previously negotiated with the Dept. of City Planning to build dual eight-story commercial/light manufacturing office buildings known as 25 Kent Ave., where the original zoning allowed two stories, according to the Commercial Observer.

A special land use framework would once-again have to be negotiated for 30 Gem St. to rezone the area from manufacturing to commercial use.

The developers have a greater vision for the industrial block between Wythe and Meserole avenues and Gem and Banker streets, the Real Deal reports:

The Philadelphia-based company has four separate “option” contracts with property owners who collectively control the entire block bounded by Meserole and Wythe avenues and Banker and Gem streets near the Williamsburg and Greenpoint border, property records filed with the city show.

The “option” part of the deal, sources told TRD, is most likely an agreement to purchase the properties based on the buildable square footage Rubenstein can negotiate for the site through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Process.

Rubenstein’s assemblage currently has about 233,500 buildable square feet as of right. But when the developer joined Toby Moskovtiz’ Heritage Equity Partners in 2015 to work on 25 Kent, they were able to secure a rezoning that tripled the size of its project to 500,000 square feet.

That could put Rubenstein’s newest project somewhere in the area of 730,000 square feet, based on rough math. Sources said development sites in the area have been trading for between $200 and $300 per square foot, which could put the purchase north of $200 million.

The developer’s option on the site expires in September 2023.