10 Key Buildings in the Brooklyn Innovation Community

Back in 2006, when I started working on putting together some community groups for entrepreneurs and tech people, I looked for a better name to reference this collection of people.  "Tech community" seemed too much about people soldering things together and writing code.  Not only did I want it to include people working on the future of digital media at ABC, but I also had in mind the roll that other types of creative people have in the inspiration of a city.  I wanted someone who was experimenting with computer controlled LEDs as an art form to feel part of the community as well--which is why I started referring to it as the "Innovation Community".  Anyone who was doing something new and cutting edge should feel connected to each other--whether or not they are building a venture backed startup.

It's even more relevant now that I've started the first venture capital fund in Brooklyn--Brooklyn Bridge Ventures--and invested in four Brooklyn based companies.  This outer borough community is fueled by the creativity of an even wider assortment of innovators--and what I find most interesting is where they do what they do.  Commercial space is a problem in Brooklyn--there just isn't enough of it in the areas where people are building interesting companies, and the amount of it is shrinking.  It's a lot more lucrative to convert a warehouse into a condo building--especially if it's anywhere near the city--but it's those areas where innovators are creating economic opportunity as well, and where they need commercial space to thrive.  That's why I thought it fitting to feature some of the key buildings where people are innovating in Brooklyn, or where they soon will be, and helping ensure Brooklyn's future as the preeminent destination for creative entrepreneurship.

33 Flatbush

Picture: Benjamin Norman for The New York Times

The definitive article about 33 Flatbush--the kind of commercial building you would drive by a million times without thinking twice--was written in the NY Times a few years ago.  It depicts the building's owner, Al Attara--a native Brooklynite and a Parsons graduate--as a creative visionary:

"When Al Attara bought a former bank on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn 32 years ago for under $250,000, he envisioned it as a complex in which artists, architects and furniture designers would work side by side and share ownership of the 45,000-square-foot space...A menagerie of creative entrepreneurs occupies the seven-story building, now known as the Metropolitan Exchange, or MEx, including biotechnologists, ecologically minded architects, organic fashion designers and even miniature-cupcake makers. Most came in search of cheap rent — which runs to around $400 per desk per month — and a place to hatch their start-ups. The open floor plans, communal kitchens and Mr. Attara’s philanthropic nature have made for an unusually symbiotic work environment, tenants say."

What makes this building special is that you've got an owner that is sympathetic to the needs of creative entrepreneurs--and one that understands that it doesn't take much more than a roof over your head and to be surrounded by other inspirational people to form a great workspace.  I've been there to visit the DIY biolab Genspace and what struck me was how it seemed like everything in the building just seemed like it was always there--like some very thoughtful people took a roomful of junk and said, "Hey, we could create some cool stuff here, learn science, change the world... anyone using these barstools and this old printing press?"  It's the kind of place you just don't find in Manhattan, and definitely don't find in Silicon Valley.

10 Jay Street

Name the building in New York City that played host to Run-DMC's last show that also gave birth to three companies that got venture funded in the last year.  Give up?  Look no further than 10 Jay Street, a building that once held the kind of raves that sound like a Stefan joke on Saturday Night Life--where you might fund "propane fueled games of Simon".  

According to its Wikipedia entry, by day, the Lunatarium was an electronics refurbishing company; by night it served as a free rehearsal space for the fire spinners who performed at events. Party-goers took the freight elevator to the ninth floor and watched pyrotechnics in the well-loved loading-dock / “shanty-town” area behind the building. Constructions such as inflatable plastic lounges(photos here and here ), giant see-saws, and art projects involving flame throwers provided entertainment for the 800 to 1500 partygoers that showed up each weekend night.

Nowadays, the building functions as Brooklyn's version of Building 20 at MIT.  The seemingly temporary nature of the building has allowed its residents to organically grow--often right through the walls of the building.

via DumboNYC

At the centure of this quirky building that houses an advertising school, a yoga studio, and video production companies is Studiomates--"a collaborative workspace of designers, illustrators, bloggers, writers, and developers" run by Tina Eisenberg--perhaps better known as Swiss Miss.  By curating a community where the filter is ostensibly "creative awesomeness", she has not only built an interesting place to work, but she is powering a significant economic engine that is now being fueled by venture capital dollars.  Three companies from the Studiomates community--Sherpaa, Tinybop, and Editorially--received VC dollars in 2012.  On a per resident, annualized bases, that's tops for any kind of co-working or incubation space in the city--but, unlike in similar setups, that's not even the goal of the space.  Tina simply desires to facilitate a great place for creative people to work--and it's sort of a microcosm of the borough.  Creative people want to work here--and they'll do so given simple, flexible setups, and it doesn't matter if the spaces are shiny or new, so long as they can be made into something for innovators to call their own.

The Batcave

When Joshua Rechnitz purchased the Brooklyn Batcave on the Gowanus for a reported $7 million, you might have thought to yourself, "Perhaps it's cheaper than I thought to be Batman."  Turns out, it's not that kind of lair.  A former MTA power facility, this building has also played host so some of the wildest parties the city has ever seen.  

 
Interior of the Batcave, 2006 (Jake Dobkin / Gothamist)

The new owner isn't going to be putting any tech startups in the building--he's going to make the space more inhabitable for artists and their work.  By supporting the borough's creative class, the building will be an important part of an ecosystem where the line between entrepreneurs and artists will undoubtedly be pretty blurry--and that same front end developer working on the next big web startup is likely to also be freelance coding on some kind of interactive transmedia art piece.  

55 Washington Street 

If you're going to have a real startup community, the pundits say you need a billion dollar exit.  Right now, the odds-on favorite to do that first in Brooklyn is Etsy, the global marketplace of individual craftspeople and makers.  Etsy is headquartered in 55 Washington Street, which is owned by Two Trees--the real estate concern that pretty much created the DUMBO we know today.  

via Brownstoner

I have a special relationship with Etsy, because I was at Union Square Ventures, the VC firm that backed the company, back in 2006.  I got to be part of the first meeting between Fred Wilson and founder Rob Kalin--we took the subway out to Brooklyn to meet with the team of four as they were working out of a Fort Greene apartment.  It was the first time I got to visit a Brooklyn startup--and so it's that much more meaningful for me now that I'm getting to invest out of the first Brooklyn-based fund seven years later.  

Perhaps Etsy will be known as the Paypal of Brooklyn--as it has already started to throw off startups created by former employees, like Clockwork--the HR software brainchild of Isaac Oates, who built Etsy's payments system.

The Pencil Factory

via GreenpointersKickstarter has been one of the most transformational companies in the creative landscape.  Last year, the company crowdfunded more money to artists than the National Endowment for the Arts.  

After starting out in Vinegar Hill, the company will be returning to Brooklyn to their new "permanent" location in Greenpoint--an old abandoned pencil factory that they're currently renovating.  (Check out how fantastic the vision for this building is...)  

Kickstarter's duel role as an interesting startup and a source of capital for the creative community makes it's headquarters in Brooklyn an epicenter of innovation--one that will impact generations to come.  

Barclays Center

Locally, the coolness of Brooklyn is nothing new--but things seemed to go national when Jay-Z put his stamp on it through his creative involvement with the Brooklyn Nets.  Part owner, part creative director, part spokesceleb, the music mogul was instrumental in not only the team's move to the borough, but its unique Brooklyn style.  The arena itself has been a revolving door of world class performers, while retaining a local flaire.  

Alex Trautwig

The concessions in the building are an eclectic collection of some of the best food establishments in Brooklyn--and while the real estate project isn't without controversy, it put a huge positive spotlight on the borough, which can only benefit the innovation community.  If nothing else, creative Brooklyn startups might want to troll courtside for investors, given that on any given night, you can run into Bruce Ratner, owner Mikhail Prokhorov, or even actor Patrick Stewart.  

Empire Stores

Speaking of controversy, if there's any single building here sure to bring out the local neighborhood comment trolls, it's the Empire Stores.  Recently the subject of a lawsuit and settlement, the former coffee warehouse is finally out for RFP and will get renovated into some kind of commercial use.  Over on the little island, Chelsea Market, which is often seen as a similar project, plays home to the digital arm of MLB--one of the most technically sophisticated multimedia organizations in the world.  

 [Photo by Julienne Schaer via Crain's.]

It is expected that the Empire Stores will play host to a wide variety of startups in the tech sector and will provide flexible, small company friendly space.  Not only is this a massive addition to the commercial footprint of DUMBO, but it potentially creates a social epicenter for the kinds of "sidewalk" interaction--especially after hours--that the neighborhood has lacked.  It will certainly be a boon to the already bustling tech startup community in the area.

Watchtower Headquarters

More buildings, more controversy.  I guess that's going to happen when you've got nearly a billion dollars in real estate being held by religious organization--and held off the tax rolls.  As the group prepares a move to upstate NY, they've started the profess of shedding their Brooklyn Heights holdings.  

Local developers and constituency groups have been foaming at the mouth to weigh in on what should happen with all of these properties.  While the most visible and largest of these properties is zoned for commercial usage--it hasn't escaped anyone with a fifth grade math education that they would be much more lucrative as residential properties.  That, of course, would miss the whole reason why the creative class has helped put Brooklyn on the map--because it isn't just a series of glass boxes to live in.  It's an innovative live/work community that could use more flexible commercial space way more than it could use more luxury condos.  In fact, companies like Adobe and Amazon have recently been out looking for large offices--and it would seem natural given Brooklyn's talent pool to have them in Brooklyn, but there simply isn't enough large floorplate space to attract them.  If Brooklyn is going to be a place where the world's most innovative companies will grow and create jobs, they're going to need spaces like this to call home.  

Domino Sugar Factory

This isn't the Domino site that you're used to seeing on the Brooklyn Waterfront--it's the vision of things to come from Two Trees developer Jed Walentas.  Most importantly to Brooklyn innovators, the new plans will come with half a million square feet of startup friendly commercial space--including the entire historic refinery building.  Just as the DUMBO playbook reads, Two Trees believes that a vibrant live/work community with interesting, creative companies makes for a better place to live.   

The MTA Headquarters at 370 Jay Street

It seems fitting that the building that formally housed the headquarters for the city's lifeblood--it's transportation system--will soon be dispensing what will undoubtedly be regarded as the lifeblood of the city in the next century: knowledge and creativity.  The NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress will be a new institution aimed at using technology and innovation to solve the types of sustainability, transportation and overall life quality issues that the cities of the future will face.  It is sure to create technologies that will become businesses with a global impact--and, if nothing else, deposit class after class of engineering talent into the borough's growing startup community.  

So, want to know where to find me over the next thirty plus years?  Probably frequenting many of these buildings, helping companies, taking pitches, and being blown away by the creativity and inguinity of the folks that inhabit them.  Want to get involved in this community in some way--working for these companies, moving here to start one, angel investing, bringing more creative space online?  Drop me a line at charlie@brooklynbridgeventures.com.